Microsoft Partnering 101


Microsoft: Surface Tablets May Cause OEMs To Abandon Windows

Microsoft acknowledged on Thursday that its forthcoming Surface tablet could strain relationships with its hardware partners.

SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 Released

Service Pack 2 (SP2) of SQL Server 2008 R2 is now available for download, Microsoft announced Thursday.

Microsoft Details Exchange 2013 Preview's Management Perks

Microsoft shed more light on the management improvements in the Exchange 2013 preview beta, which was released last week.

Why Microsoft's Services Partners Need To Specialize

In addition to competing against other Microsoft partners and other software vendors' partners, there's now the possibility of competition with the mothership.

Channel Execs on Partners: 'They're Not All Going To Make It'

A recent CompTIA survey reveals some juicy insights into what's bugging channel executives about their partner ecosystems.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 Beta Released

Microsoft announced the availability of the Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 beta last week.

VMware Inks Largest Acquisition with $1.26 Billion Nicira Buy

Virtualization giant VMware has agreed to purchase Nicira Inc., a provider of software defined networking (SDN) virtualization technology, for $1.26 billion -- the largest and perhaps most significant acquisition by VMware to date.

SharePoint 2013, Excel 2013 Previews Get BI Boost

Microsoft on Monday outlined some finer points for organizations wanting to test the business intelligence (BI) capabilities available in the SharePoint 2013 and Excel 2013 previews released last week.

Price Hike Coming for MPN Gold Competency

Microsoft will raise the gold competency membership fee in the Microsoft Partner Network by an undisclosed amount later this year.

Office 365 Metro Apps Missing from Microsoft Demo

The Metro user interface for the service-enabled version of Office was missing during last week's Microsoft San Francisco event.

Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and Exchange 2013 Previews Released

On the heels of Monday's "customer preview" release of the next version of Office 365, Microsoft this week announced the availability of preview trials of other 2013-branded products, including SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, Office Web Apps Server, Project, Visio and Office Professional Plus.

Microsoft Finalizes Yammer Acquisition

Yammer is now part of Microsoft's Office Division, Microsoft said on Thursday.

'Soft PC Sales' Bring Down Microsoft Q4 Earnings

Microsoft's fiscal fourth quarter report reflected mostly positive news across divisions, although the Windows and Online Services divisions slipped again.

Microsoft: Windows 8 Hitting General Availability Oct. 26

The official release date for Windows 8 will be Oct. 26, 2012, according to a Windows Team blog post on Wednesday.

Microsoft Threatened with Sanctions over Missing Browser Choice Screens

Microsoft is facing possible sanctions by the European Commission (EC) for failing to fully abide by its promise to give European users a choice of Web browser with their Windows distributions.