Podcast

Ep 9 – Microsoft's big move

December 8, 2020

This week’s guest

Yousef Khalidi

Corporate Vice President, Azure for Operators Microsoft

Microsoft really wants to be the hyperscaler for telco. We got the amazing opportunity to talk to Yousef Khalidi, is one of the original founders of Microsoft Azure and corporate vice president for Azure for Operators. In this episode he explains exactly what Azure is up to, what they are trying to do with Affirmed and Metaswitch, and why it’s a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad idea to try to build your own public cloud. See, I’m not the only one saying it!

Listen to learn more about:

The birth of Azure and why Microsoft decided to make it available to the world [2:18];
Why building your own public cloud is super hard [4:18];
How telcom compares to other industries when it comes to public cloud adoption [7:52];
How Azure for Operators plans to empower telcos [8:25];
What’s up with the Affirmed and Metaswitch acquisitions and how they fit with Azure for Operators [10:22];
What separates Azure from the other hyperscalers [13:52]; and
Yousef’s take on the key to unlocking the power of the cloud [24:20].

Listen to the end to hear my Telco in 20 takeaway [27:12] about why I’m not worried about the BFCs coming into telco. Check it out.

When you’re done, tune in to our Azure episode featuring Rick Lievano, Worldwide Director of Technology Strategy at Microsoft.

Links and Resources

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Learn more about why Microsoft plans to partner, not compete, with telcos in this keynote from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Read Microsoft Azure Executive VP Jason Zander’s take on plans to partner with the telecom industry
Find out the details behind Microsoft’s acquisition of Affirmed and Metaswitch
Learn more about TelecomTV’s Great Telco Debate.
Read up on Google Fi
Check out my blog on why you should think twice before trying to build your own public cloud
Read tech-pundit Benedict Evans blog post, “Are you a Seal?”
Follow Yousef Khalidi on Twitter @YousefkAzure
Just for fun:
- After you listen to my monologue, check out Saturday Night Live fan-favorite, “What’s Up with That?”
- As an Azure cofounder, Yousef Khalidi definitely had a front seat to history. Watch Leslie Odom Jr. and Lin-Manuel Miranda perform “The Room Where It Happened” from the musical Hamilton.

Author’s bio

Yousef Khalidi is Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Azure. He is responsible for product and program management for Azure Networking and drives engineering investments and strategic business planning including world-wide partnerships and deep integration with Microsoft services. He was a member of the team that conceived and built the initial version of Microsoft Azure and has served in several engineering, product management, operational, and architectural roles in Azure.

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The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Gold Hermes Award and was recognized on Forrester’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Channel Podcasts and Feedspot’s Top 10 Telecom Podcasts list.

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