Microsoft Spain’s Ivete Ferreira: “We visualise a future that inevitably passes via Tech Intensity”

The cloud business has accelerated its expansion as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence of this is reflected in Microsoft’s strong Q4 financials. The tech giant announced that the power of the cloud propelled the results of the second quarter by 17%, up to $43.1bn. To find out more about Microsoft’s future strategy and get their view on the booming cloud market, we interviewed Ivete Ferreira, Director of Innovation & Cloud Adoption at Microsoft Spain.

The cloud has been the big technological trend of 2020 and it seems highly likely that the trend is set to continue in 2021. In that sense, what are Microsoft’s goals?

At Microsoft we aim to democratise the use of the cloud so that all companies, independent of size or number of employees, can take full advantage of the benefits it offers. Among these solutions, we find Microsoft 365, the platform of productivity and collaboration in the cloud; Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, for solutions focused on managing and connecting details, and, of course, Microsoft Azure, our platform that answers all our corporate needs. Also, key issues such as security, data, AI and the robotisation of processes are amid the talks with all our customers and we are prioritising them.

As the person responsible for cloud adoption, what’s your opinion on the cloud transformation of the Spanish companies as a result of the pandemic?

In recent years we have observed that the digital transformation of the companies was accelerating, however, 2020 has made this rate increase notably. So much so, that we have seen two years of digital transformation in just 2 months. We can see an example of this as in Spain we have gone from 15% of companies with a telecommuting strategy to 83%.

And what would you say are the most imminent challenges?

To be able to confront the challenges that 2021 brings, we need to apply a cycle of answer, recuperation and reimagination. The time has come to apply everything already learned in order to rethink the future, not only at company level, but also as a country, to reimagine Spain through the possibilities that the cloud offers us.

In general terms, how does Microsoft project the future of the cloud market?

At Microsoft we visualise a future that inevitably passes via the application we refer to as Tech Intensity. This technological force begins by taking on the most advanced and innovating technologies so that, in the second phase, the very organisations are capable of generating their own digital capacities. As soon as we have overcome these two obstacles, the third step consists in building solid partner relationships to help the potential of these new digital competences, based on technologies such as AI, IoT or Mixed Reality, among others.

And how do you think this Tech Intensity can be introduced to the domestic market?

This Technological Intensity will only be possible if it is able to overcome the Organization Culture barrier, which will contribute to increase innovation and competitivity seeing that they will be capable of attracting new talent to give answers to the current demands of customers and society.

Madrid is positioned as a potential digital hub for Southern Europe thanks to recent ads like the one about the future opening of a Data Region. Is Spain a strategic enclave to propel your cloud strategy?

Of course it is. This new Data Region Centre allows us to continue rolling out the cloud implementation in Spain and we will be capable of reimagining new scenarios in which technology helps to better the customer experience and boosts talent to generate new products and services that differentiate us as a country.

What implications can the opening of this new Data Region centre have in the corporate grid and, therefore in the Spanish economy?

I suppose that of great opportunity. It will give us the necessary scale to offer the applications to all users, where they are, maintaining the data home and supplying customers a wide range of options regarding regulatory compliance.

Low latency, security and a guaranteed bandwidth will be useful to create new situations around technologies 5G, Edge Computing and Industry 4.0, what examples do we have?

One of the areas that will take most advantage of the benefits of 5G and Edge Computing, apart from the industrial sector, is the health service. A good example of this is the experience of IVIRMA, the leading experts in Assisted Reproduction Technology, who have tools such as Azure and HoloLens services to make medical data more understandable. The predictive maintenance in the industry is also a key situation. Examples like the one we shared recently about Ferroli, is very characteristic. And another very relevant situation is the entertainment and immersive television. We have become accustomed to personalisation and 5G will make it possible.

Finally, what tech innovation projects are you working on at a national level?

We have many examples in various areas. At Microsoft we have developed a complete and valid proposal to accompany the organisations in their digital transformation no matter what their needs or goals may be. A digital transformation that also offers us the opportunity to face global challenges that we have as a society, in areas like health, mobility and sustainability.