Jul
14
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009
This week, the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is going on in New Orleans. This the premiere Microsoft event of the year,with keynote addresses from top Microsoft executives and partners from around the world. There are a lot of news stories coming out of the conference, but I thought I would summarize some of the highlights here.
One of the main themes running throughout the conference so far is the future of software plus services. New and innovative cloud services, like Windows Azure, are paving the way for new ways to implement software solutions. Today, Microsoft announced the business model for the Windows Azure program. Companies will be able to deploy a cloud-based operating system, a web-based database (SQL Azure), and .NET Services with pay-as-you-go pricing. For more information on the new Windows Azure platform, check out Microsoft’s official press release from today.
In order news, Joe Matz, corporate VP of Microsoft Worldwide Licensing and Pricing announced an increased level of simplification for Microsoft licensing products. Through feedback from customers and resellers, Microsoft is constantly adjusting their licensing models to be easier to understand and deploy. One example of this is the new Microsoft Enrollment for Application Platform. It will save customers money and simplify purchasing decisions by bundling popular products together. This particular platform includes licenses for SQL Server, BizTalk Server, SharePoint Server, Visual Studio and more. For more in-depth examples of how Microsoft licensing will be changing this year, check out this interview with Joe Matz.
Also, I’ve embedded part of the Day 2 keynote below. In this segment, CEO Steve Ballmer gets the crowd excited about Microsoft’s upcoming product launches and the extraordinary changes coming for customers and partners.
For all the breaking info surrounding Microsoft WPC 09, including a live Twitter feed, check out Digital WPC09.
