New Partner Demo Showcase Built on Windows Azure

Wondering what Microsoft's Azure platform has to do with you as a partner? One simple answer is you'll be an early adopter of Azure if you use the partner Demo Showcase.

The Demo Showcase is a tool that allows Microsoft partners to demonstrate Microsoft technologies to customers without setting up an expensive demonstration center at their offices and dragging customers there, or without needing a pricey portable assembly to take on sales calls.

The Demo Showcase was previously distributed to partners as a DVD set and some demos were available online.

Last week at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in New Orleans, Microsoft unveiled the next release of the Demo Showcase, which is a reference platform for Azure. Demos are now hosted in the Azure cloud, and Microsoft uses Silverlight as the client.

But Azure serves as more than a new destination server for the demos. Partners can customize pieces of demos, add their own components and resequence it all. "Think of it as the ability to remix demos," said Ross Brown, vice president, solution partners and ISVs, Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group.

A finished demo can be downloaded as an executable for customer meetings in places with spotty connections. Partners can also choose to make their demos available to other members of the Microsoft Partner Network.

Posted by Scott Bekker on July 20, 2009 at 11:58 AM