Speaking out: The year in quotes

We look back at what those in the channel had to say in 2014

2014 has been an important year for a number of tech giants and channel players alike. We take a look back at what some of the industry's leaders had to say during the year.

"This will be the best Windows release ever for businesses. And with hundreds of thousands of pieces of feedback flowing into the team already, Windows 10 will be the most collaborative version of Windows we have ever shipped... Our cloud offerings continue to grow at a rapid rate.

"More people in organisations are signing up and we are generating more revenue across commercial and consumer customers. Out commercial cloud revenue grew 128 per cent year over year, the fifth consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth. In fact, we're the only company with cloud revenue at our scale that is growing at triple-digit rates."

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella talked up the successes in his company's commercial division as he discussed its first-quarter results. He said cloud was the foundation of the firm's future growth.

"As [the indirect channel] has reached scale, it's become what we call ‘Dell-normal'. It's part of what we do every day, not an appendage. When we design a product, when we add capabilities, when we look at services or financing, our channel is built into that. It's built into our whole go-to market... in 2007, we said ‘we come in peace,' and ‘this is not an experiment'. We've showed over those seven years a real commitment, consistency and predictability. That's been rewarded with very strong and robust growth."

Back in May, Michael Dell hailed the channel side of his business "Dell normal". He insisted the firm's once-direct-only reputation has worn off over the seven years since PartnerDirect was born.

"For the first time ever we're putting IBM's renowned big data analytics at iOS users' fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver."

Apple's chief executive Tim Cook boasted about the partnership his firm announced with IBM over the summer. The duo teamed up in a bid to bring the power of big data to iPads and iPhones.

"It's correct that parties interested in acquiring Trustmarque were asked to sign a legal document as part of the due diligence process designed to protect our business. This was normal practice and in fact it would have been irresponsible of us not to ensure such terms were in place.

"We've been impressed with the loyalty our staff have shown, especially in the face of some of the noise being made by our competitors. We have moved on and it's back to business as usual building a strong services-led business. Clearly you'd expect we'll take action against any organisation that breaks the terms of the agreements they entered into with us."

Trustmarque's sales and marketing director Angelo Di Ventura defended his firm's decision to make firms interested in buying Turstmarque promise not to poach its staff. The reseller - which faced a week of uncertainty in September after its backers pulled out - was criticised by a recruiter who claimed the company was forcing its staff to stay against their will.

"This is one in the eye for anyone who thinks that techies have no artistic flair. Sure, we did gain some satisfaction from deploying a complex adaptation of a Mitel 3300, but that's beside the point. The end result was mind-bendingly wonderful. I doubt I'll ever look at a call centre in quite the same way again."

NG Bailey IT Services' head of new business Scott Baker enthused about his company's latest customer case study. The firm was asked to install and fully functioning call centre (pictured) as part of a live art exhibition in London.