The future of computing will involve some combination of public clouds, private clouds or hosting facilities managed by third parties. Whatever the deployment type, there's a role for partners.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - June 15, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft recently took the wraps off its new Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) F-Series, aimed at organizations running "gaming servers, Web servers and batch processing." 
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - June 15, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft partners are evaluating whether the Windows Server 2016 generation Azure Stack improves enough upon the Windows Server 2012-era Windows Azure Pack to meet customers' demands for private or hybrid cloud solutions.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - June 08, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft gets an average of 70,000 requests a year from governments worldwide that are seeking information about Microsoft's business and consumer customers.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - June 08, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft has long favored its licensing partners -- until now. The upcoming retirement of a dozen MPN competencies, including Volume Licensing, marks a turning point in how Microsoft does business through the channel.
                    
			            - By Scott  Bekker
 - June 06, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Companies with Enterprise Agreements (EAs) can now use prebuilt images to move their existing SQL Server licenses to Azure Virtual Machines (VMs).
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - June 01, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Longtime technology partners Microsoft and Citrix this week unveiled their most extensive collaboration in 25 years.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - May 27, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    In one of their most extensive collaboration efforts, Microsoft and SAP this week announced a broad partnership to integrate Azure and Office 365 with the SAP HANA data platform.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - May 18, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Organizations moving from the "classic" Azure management portal to the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) portal can now take advantage of newly released resource materials from Microsoft.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - May 16, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Despite rivals Microsoft and Google enjoying growth rates well over 100 percent, Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) maintains a solid lead in the cloud infrastructure market with 31 percent worldwide market share.
                    
			            - By David  Ramel
 - May 06, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    In a move to beef up its emerging Internet of Things (IoT) platform, Microsoft on Tuesday announced the acquisition of 5-year-old Italian startup Solair.
                    
			            - By Gladys  Rama
 - May 03, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    During Microsoft's third-quarter earnings call last week, CEO Satya Nadella touted Office 365 as a new cornerstone of Microsoft's embrace-and-extend philosophy that once made Windows the standard for business computing.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - April 25, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft's transition to the cloud hit some speed bumps the third quarter of its fiscal 2016. 
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - April 21, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft's Azure Container Service became commercially available on Tuesday, alongside the launch of a new open source project from partner Mesosphere.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - April 19, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft plans to roll out several enhancements to its OneDrive for Business product over the next couple of months. 
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - April 14, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    You may have noticed Microsoft (and other cloud providers) usurping traditional partner services like migration. Get used to it.
                    
			            - By M.S.  Partner
 - April 11, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft's Cloud App Security service became generally available on Wednesday, enabling customers to track the use of Software-as-as-Service (SaaS) applications within their organization.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - April 07, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    The shift to cloud services presents huge challenges to managed services providers (MSPs). Industry experts say the successful MSP of the near future looks very different from the successful MSP of the recent past. 
                    
			            - By Scott  Bekker
 - April 06, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft fired another volley against cloud rival Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) at its Build conference last week, announcing the preview release of its new Azure Functions service.
                    
			            - By David  Ramel
 - April 04, 2016
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft announced several developments related to its Azure cloud computing resources during Build this week.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - April 01, 2016