With Day 1 and Day 2 under wraps, Wednesday’s keynotes are the software heavy hitters: Microsoft and Google. Thanks to these two rivals one-upping each other, we get to enjoy the best productivity tools they have to offer.
Microsoft hits it out of the park
When it comes to enterprise communications, Microsoft is now all about Skype. The acquisition of Skype is probably one of the most pivotal events in modern Microsoft history. Zig Serafin, Corporate VP of Skype Business Services, hit a home run with his live demo utilizing the Surface Hub which has Skype for Business integration for group collaboration.
@SkypeBusiness the Microsoft keynote demo at #ec15 was impressive. Wish you were all here to see it.
— Henry Creagh (@MCMHenry) March 18, 2015
Well the Microsoft Keynote was just generally mind blowing. End of life just around the corner for a lot current non MS products. #EC15
— Kelly McCarthy (@kellygenesis) March 18, 2015
@Zserafin#Microsoft nails great, even best, #EC15 keynote: Skype for Business spans cloud, premises & hybrid; exciting Surface Hub demo. — Marty Parker (@MartyParkerUC) March 18, 2015
Skype for Business will have the Lync features IT’s known to love and Skype’s interface we’re all too familiar. When this becomes part of Office 365 it will surely make Microsoft’s cloud productivity suite even more appealing. Integrated communications (VoIP or traditional voice) is the missing piece of the whole Microsoft collaboration puzzle, and rests in new partnerships with major telecom carriers.
Meh, Google fails to impress
Compared to Serafin’s keynote, Adam Swidler from Google fired a dud. It’s a shame because this was Google’s very first EC keynote, a chance to make a great first impression and to demonstrate the company’s commitment to the enterprise. We’ve all read news about Google’s famous projects/products: Glass, drones, balloons, self-driving cars, and who knows what else is brewing in its Google[x] lab. Maybe attendees had high hopes? The twittersphere was not kind…
Rather boring “future of work” keynote from @google at #EC15 . Yeah, big data, teams, crowdsourcing etc. We know. — Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) March 18, 2015
Is it just me or is this @google keynote at #EC15 is a prediction of the past? Mobile has been a trend for a while. — Manav Khurana (@manavkhurana) March 18, 2015
Keynote from Google a little sleepy compared to @rowantrollope and @Zserafin #EC15. — Kevin Kieller (@kkieller) March 18, 2015
Overheard as people walk out of the #EC15 @google keynote “At least last year’s lousy keynote had Cupcakes…” — David Danto (@NJDavidD) March 18, 2015
Interesting, seems like a lot of angry/frustrated faces leaving the Google Keynote at #EC15. — Ragu Kantamaneni (@RaguK_) March 18, 2015
There’s a bit of audience angst at the Google keynote #EC15 — Stephen Newton (@SNewton47) March 18, 2015
Is it me or the #google keynote at #EC15 was really lame with nothing new. I expected much more. #Skype4B was the real winner here.
— Mor Hezi (@morhezi) March 19, 2015
Looks like Google could learn a few things from Microsoft when it comes to prepping for EC… Hopefully this doesn’t discourage Google from showing up again, and we’ll see the company in EC 2016.
