All eight solutions in the System Center 2012 product family are now available as release candidates (RCs), Microsoft announced on Tuesday.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - January 18, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    The cloud contracts just keep on coming for Google, which this week inked a deal for the biggest rollout of its Google Apps suite to date. 
                    
			            - By Gladys  Rama
 - January 12, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Partners would be ill-advised to ignore the growing popularity of app stores. 
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - January 11, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft will reveal more about its vision for the private cloud during an hour-long webinar on Jan. 17 titled "Transforming IT With Microsoft Private Cloud."
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - January 05, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    RCP asked 19 channel luminaries for their best piece of advice for the year ahead. Here are their tips on ways to make 2012 a banner year for Microsoft partners. 
                    
			            - By Scott  Bekker
 - January 03, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    The fight for market share is intensifying, and as a result the costs for a share point of growth are getting frightfully more expensive.
                    
			            - By Mike  Harvath
 - January 03, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft would not comment on a report that states the company is planning to allow customers to host Linux servers on its Windows Azure cloud service this year. 
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - January 03, 2012
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    WEB EXCLUSIVE: For many partners, matching their priorities with Microsoft's is a sure-fire way to boost business. Conveniently, Microsoft has just listed its top priority areas -- or "priority workloads" -- for the Microsoft Partner Network. Here they are, along with the related products and competencies for each.
                    
			            - By Scott  Bekker
 - December 31, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft has lost the bid to provide cloud-based e-mail and calendaring services to the University of California, Berkeley, which announced this week that it has chosen Google Apps for Education over Microsoft's Office 365 suite.
                    
			            - By Gladys  Rama
 - December 23, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    WEB EXCLUSIVE: In Part 2 of our Q&A with Microsoft's Tom Rizzo, he discusses Office 365's momentum and how Microsoft's advisor and syndication partners are contributing to its growth.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - December 20, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    WEB EXCLUSIVE: Part 1 of our two-part Q&A with Microsoft's Tom Rizzo. He talks about the cloud, Office 365's recent compliance coup, and why Google Apps wouldn't be missed if it got shuttered.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - December 19, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Gartner analysts say that while the three companies are different, they are competing in the same battlegrounds: social networking, portals and collaboration, mobile device operating systems, the Internet cloud and e-mail.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - December 15, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft on Tuesday made its consumer-oriented SkyDrive cloud storage service available for Windows Phone-based devices and, somewhat surprisingly, for Apple mobile devices.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - December 14, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    All this cloud hype will finally come to a head next year. Here's what your business needs to do to get ready.
                    
			            - By Keith  Lubner
 - December 08, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    What's happened since Microsoft completely switched over to the Microsoft Partner Network with its dramatically different competency, specialization and incentive structures? A lot.
                    
			            - By Scott  Bekker
 - December 01, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Parallels announced Thursday the addition of three senior executives, including a Microsoft technical fellow, to support the cloud services enablement and desktop virtualization company's global growth goals.
                    
			            - By Scott  Bekker
 - December 01, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    A recent interview with Jon Roskill, Microsoft's channel chief, hints at a possible cloud requirement for the Microsoft Partner Network's highest tier.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
 - December 01, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    A quick progression from the moment you meet a prospect to the moment you close the opportunity is critical to a partner's cloud business. The "Velocity Sales Process" shows you how to get from Point A to Point B.
                    
			            - By Ken  Thoreson
 - December 01, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft on Tuesday announced major updates to two of its cloud-based services, Office 365 and SkyDrive.
                    
			            - By Gladys  Rama
 - November 29, 2011
 
		            
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Subscribers of Microsoft's Office 365 cloud service can now download the Lync for Mac 2011 unified communications solution, which Microsoft broadly released on Wednesday.
                    
			            - By Kurt  Mackie
 - November 18, 2011