Companies around the world are expected to spend $5.43 trillion on technology in 2025, which is 7.9% more than they spent in 2024. This comes from a new report by Gartner, a company that tracks business spending.

Here's what's really interesting: 62% of top business leaders think AI will decide which companies win or lose over the next 10 years. That's why spending on data centers is expected to jump 42.4% in 2025.

But there's a catch. Starting in early 2025, many companies hit the pause button on new spending. About 61% of companies started 2025 feeling good, but only 24% think they'll meet their goals by year end.

Business leaders say their biggest worries are economic shocks (41% of leaders) and world political problems (32% of leaders). They feel more confident handling pressure from customers, competitors, and government rules.

Microsoft is making a big change to how it prices its online software services starting November 1st. The company will stop giving volume discounts to large businesses that buy Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 through their Enterprise Agreement contracts.

This change hits Microsoft's biggest customers the hardest. Companies that used to get better deals for buying lots of software licenses will now pay full price. According to research firm Gartner, this means cost increases of 13.6% or more for many large organizations.

Microsoft says this move creates "greater transparency" and matches how they already price other services like Azure cloud computing. But for big companies used to getting wholesale rates, this feels like a major price hike on software they depend on every day.

The timing raises eyebrows since it comes right after UK regulators criticized Microsoft for using pricing tactics that hurt competitors like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

Some customers will try to renew their contracts early to lock in current pricing before November.

European tech companies face a tough choice between using American cloud services like AWS and Google Cloud or keeping their data under European control. This debate has heated up as tensions between countries grow stronger.

US cloud companies have been around for almost twenty years and have spent huge amounts of money building their services. This makes it very hard for newer European companies to catch up. American providers offer many advanced tools that work well together, which European alternatives often lack.

Big companies will not switch to European providers because they do not have enough features. European providers cannot build these features because they do not have enough customers paying them.

Making things more complicated is encryption, which most people do not understand well. This makes it hard for companies to know which approach keeps their data safest.

Building data centers in Europe requires lots of money and government support. Most European projects end up partnering with American companies anyway because it is faster and cheaper.

The experts think the future will likely mix both approaches, using global providers for some things and European alternatives for others.

Rick Ochs teaches us that Finops and Cost Optimization for AWS is not just technical but also cultural. To succeed, it is essential to balance performance, costs, and collaboration, driving a mindset shift within organizations.

FedEx just got a new tech boss. The shipping company named Vishal Talwar as its new chief digital and information officer this week.

Talwar comes from Accenture, where he worked for ten years. His last job there was chief growth officer. Before that, he worked at big tech companies like Dell, IBM, and Wipro.

Here's the interesting part: Talwar already knows FedEx well. He spent almost two years helping the company with its tech changes while working at Accenture.

The timing matters because FedEx's previous tech chief, Sriram Krishnasamy, left suddenly in July after only one year on the job. The company gave him a $3.27 million payout as part of his exit deal.

Under Talwar's watch, FedEx plans to keep working on big tech projects. They want to focus on data, AI, better computer systems, and keeping hackers out. All the tech teams will report directly to him.

Microsoft Azure faced a major problem on July 29, 2025, that caught many businesses off guard. Companies trying to create new virtual machines in Azure's East US region simply couldn't do it.

The reason wasn't a cyberattack or broken code. It was much simpler and more concerning: Azure ran out of space.

Think of it like trying to book a hotel room during a busy weekend. All the rooms were full, so new guests had to be turned away. Microsoft said they fixed the issue by August 5, but many IT teams reported problems lasting much longer.

This wasn't a one-time event. Other major cloud companies like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud have faced similar capacity crunches in recent years.

This Azure incident shows that promise has limits. Cloud providers still use physical computers in real buildings, and those computers can fill up just like parking lots.

Businesses should spread their work across multiple cloud providers or keep some systems in their own data centers as backup.

Join FinOps professionals at the FinOps Weekly Summit 2025 and discover how to:

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