B  V  A U.S. Partner Rebate Program: Microsoft FY12-H2 U.S. VAR Rebate Program Eligibility: In order to receive U.S. Partner Rebate Program rebates from Microsoft, you must be a Value Added Reseller of Microsoft Corporation software ...

by Ron Grattopp ……  I’m pretty sure by now that many of you have an idea that Microsoft invests heavily in research, at least you have if you’ve followed my blogs.  I believe our current investment is in the range of $9B/year .  It’s this...

Rob Waggoner I’ve put together a few quick overviews of different Microsoft Products. Today I wanted to share the overview of Windows Server 2008 R2.  While most of us have been using Windows Server 2008 R2 for a while, hopefully this video will...

A Roadmap for Increased Revenue in 2012 A nnuities. B usiness Building. C loud Computing. How to Increase Your Services and Licensing Revenue with Small and Medium Business Customers Please join us for the continuation of the East Region VAR Summit Series...

Q: (from Shawn) Visual Studio 2010 Professional comes with the action pack correct?   A: Sort of… There are now two Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) editions found at: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/memsubscriptions Microsoft Action...

Rob Waggoner Do you need a quick overview of the Microsoft Small Business Server offerings?  If so, this discussion is for you.      Here are a few links that will give you more detail on SBS.  This is the SBS Overview https:...

Rob Waggoner I’ve talked a lot about virtualization and I even demonstrated how to add a vCenter Server to SCVMM 2008 R2 here .  Today I wanted to show you how to add the same vCenter Server to a System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager Server...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- I’m not sure what’s up with me and my Office 365 equations…. but I’ll hope you agree that they add up to some great customer value! With an Office 365 account and a Windows Phone, you’ll be blessed with...

  Woody Walton   There are many posts on this blog about how to transact Office 365, software advisor fees, and the general benefits and opportunity represented in Microsoft’s Online Services.  The impetus of this post however, has its...

  Josh Condie - Windows XP and Office 2003 End of Support Windows XP and Office 2003 End of Support is just over 800 days away (April 8, 2014)! Great progress has been made to help raise the awareness of XP End of Support through field, partner and...

Rob Waggoner On January 17th we announced the new System Center 2012 lineup.  One of the improvements we made to System Center hasn’t received a lot of attention… yet.  That’s the new Unified Installer.  While you’ll only use the Unified...

B    V    A Announcing System Center Advisor officially launched - my teammate Ron Grattopp had a great post in November introducing the “Secret Sauce” to a brand new benefit available to Software Assurance customers – It...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- Partners, I know some of your customers have been asking about this…. and it’s finally here! Read more about it [HERE] : Connect anytime, anywhere with BlackBerry Business Cloud Services BlackBerry Business...

  Woody Walton I live in Kansas City.  If you are from the Mid West too, you know there are not as many “live” Microsoft events coming to town as in say New York or L.A with maybe the exception of perhaps Chicago or Dallas.   So ...

  Josh Condie - Office 365 Partner Deployment Training is designed for partners with a focus on building Office 365 deployment capabilities. Developed by the Microsoft Premier Deployment team, the training sessions use Office 365 Deployment Guide...

  Ron Grattopp ….. This sounded interesting so thought I’d share.  Microsoft has announced (via  a post on its Building Windows 8 blog ) that Windows 8 will introduce a new file system known as Resilient File System (ReFS) which will include...

Q: (from Beth) A customer is looking at a SharePoint deployment. They will have 10 internal users, all requiring enterprise CALs. They will also have 150 external users (customers). They have a set number of external users and their site will not be public...

Q: (from Stephen) … If the customer had office 365 could he set up users to only access the folders they are allowed to on the Sharepoint Team site?   A: My understanding is that all Office 365 plans (P &E) are granted 50 Partner Access Licenses...

  Woody Walton As a Microsoft partner it is important for you to keep abreast of the latest developments on the solutions you sell, implement, and service.  2012 will be a year of many product releases at Microsoft.  This means changes...

  Ron Grattopp ……most of you know one of my recurring themes is security, specifically the platform security that we provide that’s industry-leading.  And it’s that industry-leading platform security that I regularly remind you should be a key...

  Josh Condie – The Office365 YouTube Channel has a new look and feel with links to more and different resources: Enormous, current library of video presentations and demonstrations that address all levels of technical acumen and each subcomponent...

Last month I wrote about the refreshed recordings of the BMT ( Updated Business Model Transformation Training for Office 365 ) – this month I’m pleased to report that the live workshop series is back as a roadshow for Small and Medium Business (SMB) and...

B   V   A SQL Server 2012 is coming soon and will bring exciting opportunities  with our enhanced database platform, BI and developer tools.   Training titles below have been organized by Sales & Licensing and Technical...

Rob Waggoner     We tout the virtues of three nines , four nines , and five nines … I even heard someone use six nines recently!  We want our data centers to achieve the best possible up time, but what does that really mean?  We need...

Josh Condie – The Partner Learning Center has just released some high quality, multi-media training on each of our core MS Online Solutions: Office 365, Windows Intune and CRM Online. The training is between a 100-200 level and has valuable compete...