Crossing the Chasm: Turning Cloud Opportunity into Reality for Partners

Today I will speak to Microsoft’s global partner community for the first time in my new job as corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group (click here if you want to watch my keynote online). This is my 13th day in this role, and while each of those days have given me a new chance to see the capability and power of Microsoft’s partners, nowhere is that more clear than at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington D.C. this week. I’m amazed by the energy here!

It’s clearer than ever that our partners are integral to Microsoft’s success.  I’ve seen it again and again throughout my 17 years at Microsoft. Partners are the connection between Microsoft and our customers, and I’m excited to be the new champion for our partners. Without our partners we could never serve customers on the ground in communities around the world the way we do today.

Yesterday you heard Steve Ballmer , Bob Muglia , Tami Reller  and Stephen Elop  talk about how the technology industry is transforming with the emergence of the cloud, and share their vision for how Microsoft and our partners will lead that transformation. Today, I will show you how we will help our partners adapt and find the right cloud opportunities so we can continue to grow and succeed together.

You’ll hear me talk about new tools and resources that will help our partners pave a path to profitability in the cloud, including the new Microsoft Cloud Essentials and Microsoft Cloud Accelerate, Business Builder for Cloud Services, and Cloud Profitability Modeler. I’ll also share new Microsoft Partner Network sales and marketing resources to help partners attract customers and close deals. You can get more details on everything we’re announcing today on the Redmond View blog.

The opportunity in the cloud is tremendous, and it’s an opportunity we want to continue to pursue hand-in-hand with our partners. I hope that at the end of this week every one of our partners is as excited as we are about the huge potential in the cloud, and the opportunity it offers to leapfrog computing innovation forward, and serve customers even better than we have before.

Before I wrap up, I just want to say thank you to our partners who have joined us here at WPC and online at DigitalWPC.com this week, and all the partners around the world who continue to help make Microsoft the company we are today. I’m so excited to meet you face-to-face here at WPC this week, and I hope you’ll continue to share your feedback about the vision, innovation and resources we’ve shared with you this week.

Posted by Jon Roskill
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group

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