Being a hoster has been a phenomenal business model for many years. The concept was easy: You built a datacenter in your own building or rented colocation space elsewhere, and then you bought hardware and expanded as needed. It was a simple way to earn good money when you did it right with a structured, industrial approach.
For many years, I ran my own hosting company and it was the best of times. But times are changing! With the adoption of megascale cloud computing provided by Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google, many local hosters are becoming obsolete and losing their customers. Some local hosters will still make a decent living for years to come, but they might benefit from special requirements in a certain vertical or geography. More
Posted by Per Werngren on September 17, 20190 comments
Over the years, it has been very lucrative for partners to look at where Microsoft is making investments and to make sure that their bets are aligned with Microsoft's.
The level of investment from Microsoft that goes into engineering, readiness, marketing and sales means that partners who make sure to align their businesses with those priorities have a lot of wind at their backs. More
Posted by Per Werngren on August 12, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, including Microsoft channel veteran and RCP contributor Per Werngren.
I have been a leading advocate for partner to partner (P2P) cooperation for several years and in recent years I'm seeing a hockey stick effect, which is marketing lingo for something that takes off and grows like crazy.
P2P is simply on everyone's lips, and the momentum that I saw last year is a great promise for what 2019 will bring to us. More
Posted by Per Werngren on March 22, 20190 comments
With diversity and inclusion top of mind for most companies, both the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) and The WIT (Women in Technology) Network are working hard to help businesses build programs and take advantage of education that will foster success. A new joint membership promotion makes it easier for respective members to be part of the unique opportunities each organization is driving.
The IAMCP and The WIT Network share an impressive history, with both organizations demonstrating significant impact on this critical agenda. It is this robust and mutually successful growth that has led to an official alliance between the two organizations. More
Posted by Gail Mercer-MacKay on March 21, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, including Howard M. Cohen, Senior Resultant, The Tech Channel Partners' Results Group.
It has now become incredibly easy to know how to optimize your Microsoft relationship and enjoy the best of their support and attention. Easier than ever.
From the very beginning of the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) through to the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) it has always been all about "The Big Bet." While the current Big Bet at any given time has changed regularly, causing partners to have to be very light on their feet, there has always been at least one Big Bet. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on February 21, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, including Mark Rice, General Manager, Managed Services Partners, Microsoft.
As customers digitally transform themselves, all partners are also going through some level of transformation necessary to take advantage of the growing customer demand and opportunity in the cloud. The promise of the recurring revenue of long-term cloud managed services is a clear end game to their customer engagement. This is a journey, and can be looked at in three pillars: business transformation, capability transformation and sales and marketing transformation.
Business Transformation
Customers are looking for dynamic solutions focused on business outcomes from their partners, who can help them navigate the move to the cloud. But they're not just looking for partners to help navigate, they're looking for help optimizing and governing their use of the cloud. Partners who are best positioned to deliver this to their customers are those who can deliver a full customer cloud engagement lifecycle. This sounds very simple, but taking a customer from plan/design through migration, application modernization, optimization and running requires solutions, tooling, automation and, of course, a ton of talent. Partners who adapt to guide customers through this cycle will have a competitive advantage over their peers in the coming years. More
Posted by Mark Rice on January 29, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, including Keith Lubner, Chief Strategy Officer, Sales Gravy.
Your success will be predicated upon how well you can manage your time in 2019.
Collectively, we are consumed by inordinate amounts of data, by vast arrays of communication methods, and by the demands of an "instantaneous" society. As professionals, we are being asked to respond quicker, be more thoughtful and compete in more situations. More
Posted by Keith Lubner on January 24, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, including Toby Richards, General Manager, Partner GTM and Programs, Microsoft.
Going into 2019, we're hoping more and more commercial partners, including services partners and independent software vendors, take advantage of the Microsoft portfolio of go-to-market services. Partners should focus on attaining technical competencies and delivering validated solutions in order to remain competitive.
In the past year, Microsoft has released new programs that help partners differentiate themselves in the marketplace, including the Azure Expert MSP program, the release of the company's security competency later this year, and advanced specializations in the area of SAP solutions on Azure and Azure Stack partners. I encourage partners to take advantage of these programs that work in tandem with Microsoft to differentiate. More
Posted by Toby Richards on January 24, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, includingMike Harvath, President & CEO, Revenue Rocket.
The cloud is a means, not an end.
Success in modernizing IT in 2019 and beyond, through the cloud, will be driven by a complete standardization and through intentional growth strategies.
What we're seeing is that cloud adoption has been increasing at a rapid pace. According to research from Forbes and Gartner, cloud-specific spending is expected to grow more than six times the rate of general IT spending through 2020. Many companies, both large and small struggle to get the full value of this trend of moving their enterprise systems to the cloud, despite many organizations finding success by implementing specific software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions or adopting cloud-first strategies. More
Posted by Mike Harvath on January 22, 20190 comments
What are the top steps Microsoft partners can take to help their businesses succeed in 2019? We put that question to top experts, including Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft.
It's 2019, are you ready to give customers what they're craving? Customers have sky-high expectations of both Microsoft and our partners. We all need to rise to the challenge to meet customers' needs. The good news is, with our technology and your expertise, IP and services capabilities, we have the perfect ingredients for success.
In 2019, Microsoft is calling for partners to up their competitive edge through collaborative innovation as we develop even more effective resources and investments for our partners to win in the market. The demand for cloud and other emerging technology is high, and the innovations from Microsoft -- coupled with the incredible partner leadership in our ecosystem -- present both opportunity and a responsibility to delight our customers with solutions that drive their digital transformation. More
Posted by Gavriella Schuster on January 17, 20190 comments
So you're a startup? Congratulations on a wonderful and highly exciting journey!
I have started and sold companies my whole life. Now, I focus on investing and helping entrepreneurs. Based on my experience, here's some advice from the trenches. More
Posted by Per Werngren on October 10, 20180 comments
The rate of cool technology is accelerating at an unbelievable pace. Across the board, vendors are developing and releasing applications and services quicker than ever before.
This amazing speed is causing two particular problems in the channel: Partner personnel are becoming overwhelmed and complexity is dictating the day. More
Posted by Keith Lubner on September 12, 20180 comments