Microsoft's hotly anticipated augmented reality platform HoloLens is no longer an invite-only affair.
In conjunction with the release Tuesday of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft moved beyond its initial four-month program of shipping HoloLenses to select developer and commercial partners and opened the not-yet-production-ready devices to North American buyers. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 03, 20160 comments
If anyone should know how Microsoft partners could make themselves fit into VMware's channel, it's Ross Brown.
For a while the No. 2 channel executive during the Allison Watson and Jon Roskill eras of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), Brown has spent the last year as VMware's channel chief.
More
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 01, 20160 comments
Internal Use Rights (IUR) have consistently been one of the most valuable elements of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) for partners, and Microsoft is doubling down on the benefit in the fiscal year that just started.
"We're providing more access to free software and services via Internal Use Rights (IUR). In fact, we're doubling our investment in free software, cloud services, and platforms for our partners over the next year, giving you the tools needed to build innovative solutions on top of Microsoft technologies," Microsoft's top channel executive, Gavriella Schuster, said last week in a blog post from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 21, 20160 comments
Security vendor Sophos on Tuesday released an update of its mature encryption product focused on making encryption more of a no-brainer for midmarket customers who are interested in securing their files but have felt boxed-out of the technology by the difficulty of implementation.
"We're reimagining how encryption needs to work to become widely adopted, versus just being used in enterprises," said Marty Ward, vice president of product marketing at Sophos, in an interview. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 19, 20160 comments
- See our full WPC 2016 coverage here.
Microsoft will add 250 technical people to its field organization over the next year to help partners develop their cloud businesses.
"I want to help you build new cloud and hybrid practices on our advanced workloads, so we're investing more technical resources in the field, cloud architects, to help you build those new practices," said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, during a keynote last week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 18, 20160 comments
RCP analyzed the Worldwide Partner Conference session catalog to help partners get the most out of the show or to track it from the office. For more on WPC 2016, visit our event page here.
These are the buzzwords that have graduated, at least in terms of Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) sessions and Microsoft commitment and focus, to full-fledged partner opportunities with concrete tools, processes and guidance behind them.
1. IoT: The number of sessions about Internet of Things (IoT) opportunities seems substantially higher than a year ago, with many of them focused on nuts-and-bolts concerns like the capabilities of the Azure IoT Suite. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 11, 20160 comments
RCP analyzed the Worldwide Partner Conference session catalog to help partners get the most out of the show or to track it from the office. For more on WPC 2016, visit our event page here.
Several columnists and regular contributors to Redmond Channel Partner magazine are presenting this week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto.
RCP Blogger, Columnist and Contributor Barb Levisay
• US05 - Connect to your customers through modern marketing
Tuesday, 2:30-3:30 p.m., North 104B (session repeats Wednesday, 4-5 p.m., in North 104C)
Speakers: Barb Levisay, Diane Golshan, Diana Ishak
"Your company's brand matters, and having a clear, actionable marketing plan for positioning your company with customers and for strategic partnerships is essential. In this panel discussion about modern marketing for U.S. partners, we share the tools, resources, and best practices for your partner business." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 11, 20160 comments
RCP analyzed the Worldwide Partner Conference session catalog to help partners get the most out of the show or to track it from the office. For more on WPC 2016, visit our event page here.
A cheat sheet for terms you might be hearing from Microsoft for the first time at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).
1. Madeira: It's billed as a project for small companies that have grown beyond simple financial tools but who haven't gotten to the point where they need full-fledged ERP systems. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 08, 20160 comments
RCP analyzed the Worldwide Partner Conference session
catalog to help partners get the
most out of the show or to track it from the office. For more on WPC 2016, visit our event page here.
There will always be surprises at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). Otherwise, what would be the point of attending? (Oh, yeah, the networking.) Anyway, here are a few major themes you can expect to hear a lot about.
1. Building the Intelligent Cloud: A few years ago, it might have been worth calling out Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Azure or hybrid cloud as themes. Now, those technologies form the backdrop against which the majority of the sessions are set. Look at almost every session description and it deals with the Microsoft cloud stack in some way. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20160 comments
RCP analyzed the Worldwide Partner Conference session
catalog to help partners get the
most out of the show or to track it from the office. For more on WPC 2016, visit our event page here.
Some call it coopetition, others call the companies involved frenemies. In any case, they're the tech giants that fight each other in some areas and work together in other ways.
1. Oracle: Some things never change. Microsoft may have taken away the "enemies list" that doesn't allow certain competitors to attend the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). But with SQL Server 2016 hitting the market, there's still a session in the WPC catalog about Oracle compete opportunities. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20160 comments
Rackspace announced it has become a 2-Tier distributor in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program on Thursday.
The rare designation means that companies in the Rackspace Partner Network will be able to resell or refer Office 365 and Microsoft Azure to customers. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 20160 comments
RCP analyzed the Worldwide Partner Conference session
catalog to help partners get the
most out of the show or to track it from the office. For more on WPC 2016, visit our event page here.
These Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) sessions are unlikely to transform anyone's business, but
they promise to be entertaining, thought-provoking or both.
1. Trust and the Microsoft Cloud: A year ago Microsoft's top lawyer Brad Smith made his first WPC appearance with a well-received talk about the company's attempts to balance government investigatory requests with customers' privacy expectations. Microsoft is taking the topic further this year with a session on the Microsoft Trusted and National Cloud offerings. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 06, 20160 comments