Microsoft Highlights New Ways for Partners, Customers to Embrace Cloud

by Darryl K. Taft

Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center gets gussied up for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2013.

Microsoft takes over downtown Houston as 15,000 partners from all over the world converge on the city for the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).

Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group at Microsoft acts as master of ceremonies for the WPC event. At WPC, Roskill introduced a Microsoft study that showed that channel partners selling cloud solutions experience nearly double gross profits and faster growth than those that do not.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer acknowledged that he was “nervous” having to speak to the company’s partner community, which he deemed one of the most important elements of the company’s go-to-market strategy. Ballmer discussed Microsoft’s devices and services strategy, and the four major opportunities in cloud, big data, social and mobile.

Ballmer said Microsoft is leading in the enterprise cloud era. Later in the conference, Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group, told partners they should “lead with the cloud and close with hybrid.”

Microsoft’s big data strategy features several key products and technologies, including Bing, Windows Azure, Hadoop, SQL Server and Excel.

Tami Reller, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer and chief financial officer for Windows, tells partners Windows 8.1 will be available to OEMs by late August.

Tami Reller called Microsoft’s Surface tablet “hands down more productive than an iPad.” She said, “It’s a great tablet for business because it quickly goes from tablet to laptop.” However, there has been some negative reseller reaction because Microsoft’s channel strategy limits Surface reseller authorizations to only 10 large account resellers (LARs), and more channel partners hope to be able to sell the tablets.

Microsoft said Windows 8.1 holds key opportunities for partners to build new applications for customers, especially as support for Windows XP is coming to an end.

Jensen Harris, director of program management for the Widows User Experience team, demonstrates Windows 8.1 on a number of devices, including the Acer Iconia W3 shown here.

Nick Parker, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s OEM division, shows Windows 8.1 on a variety of form factors on a variety of devices.

Satya Nadella, president of the server and tools business at Microsoft, speaks about the cloud opportunity for partners.

Microsoft can empower a dynamic business powered by Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics, Nadella said.

The combination of Microsoft cloud services and on-premise software fosters people-centric IT, Nadella said.

The combo of Windows Server with Windows Azure and Visual Studio fosters rapid solution development, Nadella said.

A huge billboard in the George R. Brown convention center said that Windows Phone is built for business.

Dell is a partner with Microsoft in Cloud OS Accelerate, a program to invest more than $100 million to help put thousands of new private and hybrid cloud solutions into the hands of customers.

HP is also a partner with Microsoft in Cloud OS Accelerate, which is aimed at putting thousands of new private and hybrid cloud solutions into the hands of customers.

Cisco is a partner with Microsoft in Cloud OS Accelerate as well.

As a primary supplier of CPUs for Microsoft-powered PCs and devices, Intel is one of Microsoft’s most important partners.

Parallels, a hosting and cloud services enablement provider, announced support for a Microsoft Azure Pack for Hosting Providers and updates to a collection of cloud service delivery solutions for Microsoft partners.

Ford partners with Microsoft on the Ford SYNC in-vehicle infotainment system.

Here’s a look at the Ford SYNC infotainment system inside a new Ford Fusion on the show floor at Microsoft WPC.