How AI is Reshaping Our Microsoft Relationship and the Cloud File Services Industry  

When I started leading our business development efforts with Microsoft five years ago, the Nasuni value proposition was straightforward. Our goal was to help organizations transform their infrastructure by moving data off local hardware and into Azure Blob object storage. This is still one of our primary functions today. Cloud storage is what we know and love. 

Yet now it’s only one piece of what we provide.

Today, enterprise datasets are not just headaches that need to be managed. Files are valued assets waiting to be searched, analyzed, and mined for insights by data intelligence and AI tools. Generally, the output of AI solutions is only going to be as good as the data provided. So, if you don’t have a technology partner like Nasuni to curate, manage, and prepare your data, your chosen AI tools won’t generate optimal results.

As Microsoft continues driving the evolution of enterprise AI tools, Nasuni has established itself as the AI-ready data platform for large organizations. We’re not an AI company. We provide the cloud file services technology you need to get the most out of AI, and this critical function is reshaping and expanding our strategic relationship with Microsoft.

How Nasuni’s Cloud File Services Integrate with Microsoft AI

Copilot for Microsoft 365 now includes integrations with all the familiar office applications, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, and Outlook, and we are working to ensure our customers get the most out of these updates. My colleague Jim Liddle recently wrote about our new Graph Connector integration with Copilot for Microsoft 365, which extends access to your Nasuni files, along with our support for customers creating custom Copilots.

Nasuni’s Graph Connector integration provides three main benefits:

1. You’re going to unlock greater value. Your Nasuni-managed data is going to be accessible for personalized experiences via Microsoft Copilot 365 and Microsoft Search, enriching user interactions with relevant content.
2. You’re going to be able to leverage AI-powered search and insights. The Graph Connector lets you index Nasuni-managed files into Microsoft’s semantic index, which is utilized by Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Search to provide contextually relevant answers and insights across Microsoft 365 applications.
3. You’ll have a unified data interface. Customers benefit from single-pane-of-glass access to their Office 365 data (including SharePoint and OneDrive) and Nasuni, allowing for efficient searching and interaction with documents across the entire unstructured file stack, inclusive of Nasuni-managed data.

If we widen the aperture, these integrations aren’t just point solutions. They signal a new and exciting phase in our Microsoft partnership.

Is Your Azure Data Fit for AI?

The public release of ChatGPT hasn’t even hit its two-year anniversary yet and GenAI technology is still evolving rapidly. At Nasuni, we’re working closely with our joint Microsoft customers to understand how they’re using Copilot – and how we can help them optimize their deployments – as they test new and innovative use cases.

Naturally, we’re working very closely with Microsoft, too. As I noted above, I have been managing Nasuni’s partnership with Microsoft for five years, so I can attest to the fact that this is a tight, integrated relationship. The Nasuni platform was one of the earliest technologies offered on Azure Marketplace. Nasuni is a prior winner of Microsoft’s partner of the year award. Our joint customers have grown consistently each year. And we both put those customers first.

Our strategic and product visions have never felt more complementary. As Microsoft focuses on driving enterprise AI adoption, the Nasuni File Data Platform ensures customer data is AI ready, increasing the chance of success of tools like Copilot. We are going to continue helping more and more customers leverage Azure to store, protect, and extend global access to their data. This last half-decade of storage-centric work has been incredibly productive. But I’m most excited for our future together, and the new business opportunities our cloud file services will unlock as enterprise AI scales in the years ahead