this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Microsoft is preparing to bring on Amazon as a customer of its 365 cloud tools in a $1 billion megadeal, according to an internal document::Preparations for this huge cloud software deal mark a significant shift in the relationship between the two technology giants.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

RIP productivity for all those Amazon employees. My company recently made the switch and it has been rough as this trash doesn't even work half the time. We've been using all the same standalone products for decades without issue but now after the switch to 365, I regularly can't check email or opening a fucking PowerPoint. Also the wonderful OneDrive loves to duplicate every fucking shortcut on my desktop until it's filled with 17 copies of each one along with filling the C:\ drive on every shared PC to 99% capacity.

I swear to god the people in charge of making these decisions have no concept of how any of this stuff works or what benefit (if any) it'll bring to their employees. They seem to believe every sales pitch about some off-the-shelf solution revolutionizing their workflows and can't wait to fork over money that would be much better spent elsewhere like on the materials/equipment we actually use every single day to perform our jobs but is in short supply or in a terrible state of disrepair because "there's no money in the budget for that."

[–] mrtzlbm 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sounds like your IT has not configured things correctly and they are most likely understaffed. The move to cloud to save on IT expense is the biggest lie providers tell. If you want the products to work well and fit into workflows they need to be configured.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nearly our entire IT division was laid off in favor of outsourcing. Yet another example of some executive being wooed by some snazzy sales pitch promising the world while delivering a steaming pile of poo.

[–] TheDarkKnight 0 points 1 year ago

Think I found the problem and I'm not certain it is entirely Microsoft fault haha...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was an independent IT Management Consultant for decades and nearly all the projects I was brought in to lead were moving from one software / cloud offering to another as they were unhappy with said current offering. Yet in every single case it was that they never took to the time to actually integrate the offering into their business processes and hence they did not see a return on their investment. They would pay me to lead a team to rip it out and replace with another service, only to repeat the mistake despite all my efforts to steer them in the right direction. Executives are so bought into the sales hype and are utterly detached from the reality of implementing that it is laughable. Your government is likely doing this right now across hundreds of millions of dollars of projects. At least the Execs get their egos stroked by MS and similar so someone is winning.

[–] joel_feila 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah all my it friend have all kinds of stories about out if touch bosses. They know to business but nit much else

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

I haven't had any issues with 365. Sounds like your shit is fucked.

[–] NatakuNox 5 points 1 year ago

It's because Microsoft has never fully rebuilt its coding. Everything is still patched on top of software from the early 80s. The amount of layers stacked on top is honestly crazy. It's like a Jenga tower.

[–] TORFdot0 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes OneDrive is such a cluster. A lot of resellers will try to sell SharePoint as a drop in replacement to AD/SMB shares and it’s not and it causes all sorts of issues if you try to use it that way. We get all the same problems with OneDrive creating endless shortcuts if you use more than 1 PC, problems with the sync client creating new folders for automatically synced libraries every time it has a major update and so on.

If you (not talking about you specifically) half-ass the migration to 365 instead of completely retraining your employees on how to work with files and how to use SharePoint correctly. The problems is that the marketing and documentation make it seem easier than it is, and so most orgs don’t realize it until it’s already become a shitshow. That’s how it was for us too.

365 increase your risk profile as it increases the dependency on an outside vendor and increase the attack surface, but it gives you so much more tools for mitigating the inherent risk in running exchange, SharePoint, RDP on premise that it’s absolutely worth the investment. If not 365, then workspace. In my opinion you will spend more trying to maintain and properly protect AD+Exchange than you would properly configuring M365, Entra (Azure AD), and Intune.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker 5 points 1 year ago

I can't wait to make the switch for our employees. Having to deal with WFH people's VPN issues to reach our server is such a PITA. I have been using 365/OneDrive myself for over a year without any problems. The transition for everyone else is moving turtle slow.

[–] HC4L 2 points 1 year ago

If you have duplicate shortcuts you probably have the same OneDrive account on multiple computers. Put them on your public desktop in stead of your own OneDrive backed up desktop.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (7 children)

My company recently started using MS Authenticator for 2FA in our emails. At first I was pleased about the extra security. But the way they implemented it is so fucking bonkers I can’t even handle it.

When you log in, it tells you to check your phone. On your phone you have to enter your password, then wait about 10 seconds, use biometrics, then they show you a number, and then ask you to type that number - on your phone, the same fucking device they showed it to you. And if you miss the number flashing, the text box where you enter the number covers the number so you have to tap “I can’t see the number, hide this box”. Then, if you’re trying to check your email on mobile, you have to force quit Outlook because it won’t load new emails until it launches.

The worst part is that you lose your token two times a day. So you have to log in twice a day on every device you use. It’s such a hindrance to productivity it’s insane.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

That's pretty shitty implementation... By your IT department

[–] MeekerThanBeaker 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Something is definitely wrong... or set up differently. I haven't had the need to use 2FA for Microsoft products on anything after the first time I sign in to a new device. Contact your IT department. They may be able to help you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is company wide and countless complaints have been made.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That does not sound right. They should be promoting you to enter the number on the device where you initiated the authentication, not on your phone; at least that is how it works for me when I connect my company laptop to VPN - I have to use MS Authenticator on my phone, which shows a number (protected by two biometrics), which I then have to enter on my laptop.

[–] banditoitaliano 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, OP is completely correct. It’s all down to how the company configures their MFA, but MS MFA will definitely show you a two-digit number on the system you initiated the auth on, and force you to type that on your Authenticator app.

I work with a vendor that has this setup and do this every day when accessing their systems.

Thankfully my own company doesn’t have the type a number stuff turned on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes you are right, that is how I have to do it - I got it the wrong way round in my previous post. I enter the numbers into the app on my phone.

[–] Bluefruit 2 points 1 year ago

Yea thats a really bad implementation. We use 2FA at my work and its much less cumbersome than this.

[–] UristMcHolland 9 points 1 year ago

Your IT department set it up wrong in your Microsoft tenant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

We get the number on our device and the notification on mobile is right quick, so by the time you've unlocked your phone you click the notif, copy the number and done. That's not too unbearable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

And if you decide not to use ms Authenticator every time you log in with a third party one it’ll recommend you to get it every time. Don’t sell me shit when I’m trying to securely log in.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anthropomorphic paper clip pops up: "It looks like you're trying to run a monopolistic global enterprise... "

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago
[–] xenomor 14 points 1 year ago

This is good news. I’m in favor of anything that makes it more difficult for Amazon to operate.

[–] JTskulk 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do they call it 365 when it doesn't work for 5 days every year?

[–] naticus 4 points 1 year ago

Those are just paid vacation days.

[–] totallynotarobot 5 points 1 year ago

Doing the reacharounds in public eh?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Microsoft is preparing to bring on Amazon as a major customer of its 365 cloud productivity tools, a megadeal that would transform bitter rivals into business partners, according to an internal document and a person familiar with the situation.

The e-commerce giant has committed more than $1 billion over five years to secure more than one million Microsoft 365 license seats, according to the document, which was reviewed by Insider.

Groups within Microsoft's Office and security organizations are starting to scale up to meet the demand, according to the person familiar.

One potential draw for Amazon is that employees would have alternatives to in-house products such as WorkDocs and Chime, which are not that popular.

Amazon has tried to offer cloud-based productivity tools to other business customers, but those services have not had huge uptake generally.

Contact reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]).


The original article contains 368 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 59%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Nindelofocho 3 points 1 year ago

thats going to suck. 365 is hot garbage

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That might almost pay for how much of 365's infrastructure Microsoft has run on AWS over the years.

[–] totallynotarobot 3 points 1 year ago

I think they teach this in business school. It’s a technique called “you suck my duck, I’ll suck yours” and is covered in most “distracting the FTC 101” curriculums.

[–] HeyJoe 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The comments here are ridiculous. 2FA works fine if configured right, ours only checks in if outside network and only once per new device every 14 days. 365 works fine as well. I have had some issues using Web Excel, but all desktop apps work pretty much the same as the others. Outlook with the try new version is the only pile of trash I've seen. Other than that, the one thing that does suck more than any of this is its ridiculously expensive and subscription based. The fortune we spend now and monitoring needed to be done on licenses and space used is also frustrating. Mail only offering 2gb unless higher license level is crazy especially for how much you're paying them.

[–] TheDarkKnight 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah tbh never had any giant issues with M365, but it definitely requires you to set it up and plan it out right.