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Partner Watch, August 16

Hosting.com offers users a chance to test out betas of Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005. Also, SyncCast develops a digital music kiosk with partner Mix & Burn.

Hosting.com unveiled last Tuesday its free ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 hosting plans that allow customers to beta test the new Microsoft products.

The free Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 hosting plan includes a $1 setup fee, 200MB disk space, 10GB monthly data transfer and one FTP account.

The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 hosting plan offers options which will allow users to focus less on repetitive administrative tasks and more on effectively collecting data. The SQL Server 2005 plan includes a $1 setup fee and 50MB of space.

For more information on the free hosting plans provided by the Microsoft Certified Partner, go to Hosting.com's Web site.

Also in the latest partner news, SyncCast, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, announced Aug. 8 that it and Mix & Burn will debut the Digital Download Music Kiosk at this year's National Association of Record Merchandisers, Insights and Sounds event.

The partnership combines Mix & Burn's Music Tablet in-store kiosk with SyncCast's software-based technology, built on Microsoft's Windows Media DRM 10. Customers will be able to download digital songs directly to their Windows Media-compliant portable players at the kiosks.

For more information, go SyncCast's Web site.

Here's what else is happening in the partner world this week:

Other Recent Partner Sightings
Recently Certified
  • AfterMail (Wellington, New Zealand) - e-mail management solution; Microsoft ISV/Software Solutions Competency; Gold Certified, Aug. 15.
  • LightEdge Solutions (Des Moines, Iowa) - managed data networking and business services; Gold Certified, Aug. 10.

About the Author

Dan Hong is the associate Web editor of MCPmag.com, CertCities.com, TCPmag.com, Redmondmag.com and RCPmag.com.

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