Founder intelligence
Microsoft makes the market. Independent thinking makes it negotiable.
Unfiltered perspective on Microsoft economics, enterprise support and the decisions hiding inside your next renewal.
Rob LaMear
Founder, US Cloud
Thirty years inside the Microsoft ecosystem—and a point of view built on what enterprise customers actually experience.
Microsoft economics ✦ Support performance ✦ Procurement leverage ✦ AI cost governance ✦ Renewal strategy
Latest Intelligence
One consequential Microsoft decision, stripped of sales language and examined from the enterprise buyer’s side of the table.
Procurement · 7 minute read · September 15, 2026
What 30 Years in the Microsoft Ecosystem Taught Me About the Price of Dependency
Microsoft became indispensable to the enterprise by creating enormous value. The risk begins when that indispensability quietly removes competitive discipline from the decisions surrounding it.
Explore the signal
Analysis organized around the decisions facing CIOs, procurement leaders and Microsoft platform owners.
Original research
Microsoft support performance—measured, not marketed.
A severity-by-severity examination of time to resolution across more than 70,000 historical Microsoft cases, compared with US Cloud’s 2026 performance.
“Enterprise customers deserve an independent point of view—especially when one supplier controls the products, the pricing and the support.”
RL
From the founder
About Rob
Thirty years of Microsoft context. None of the Microsoft script.
Rob LaMear founded US Cloud to give enterprise customers a credible alternative to Microsoft’s support monopoly. His perspective combines three decades in the ecosystem with direct experience supporting complex Fortune 500 and Global 2000 environments.
Founder Insights translates that experience into practical intelligence for leaders making high-stakes decisions about Microsoft cost, risk and operating performance.
The Microsoft Cost & Support Brief
One concise briefing each month. The signal behind Microsoft pricing, support, and enterprise negotiation.
