| The Microsoft Azure Partner Community is led by National Partner Technology Strategists from the Microsoft US Partner Team. Partner Community activities include blog posts, discussions on Yammer, newsletters, and community calls. |
Things here at Microsoft are incredibly exciting right now. The Build 2015 and Ignite 2015 conferences were sold-out events filled with amazing product announcements and discussions about Azure, Windows 10, Office 365, and more. In this month’s Azure Partner Community blog series and call, we’ll take a look at some of the Azure-related announcements and explain what they mean for partners.
2015 Worldwide Partner Conference
The 2015 Worldwide Partner Conference in Orlando, Florida is just a few weeks away, and there will be many opportunities for the Azure Partner Community to connect, learn, and share while there. If you are registered, you can build out your session and meeting schedule now in Connect, and if you’re not yet registered, take a look at the Session Catalog to get a sense of the great content being delivered. Filter on Azure and Azure IoT Services in the Products section for a list of 100+ sessions, and learn about the US Sessions here.
While you’re at WPC, plan to stop by the US Lounge in The Commons, where we’ll have Azure experts available to answer your questions about building your practice, profitability, and readiness. Look for the schedule here on the US Partner Community blog, as well as in the Azure Partner newsletter and Yammer group. Leading up to and throughout the conference, follow @wpcus on Twitter for real-time updates about US Partner activities. If you won’t be at WPC, follow @msuspartner for information about announcements and how to watch the Vision Keynotes live.
Take stock of your Azure practice
In several of our community blog posts this year, and in many of the conversations my colleagues and I have had with partners, we’ve suggested that you have to start thinking beyond just having an Azure practice. Azure is such a large and flexible platform, and I have been challenging partners to start getting more detailed.
A good way to start is by asking, do your sellers simply sell Azure, or do they sell solutions built on Azure? Our most successful partners don’t simply have an Azure practice, they have a “disaster recovery practice built on Azure” or an “identity management practice built on Azure.” Instead of selling Azure, they sell Disaster Recovery or Identity Management. This subtle change in approach can give sellers specific, focused solutions to talk to customers about. What solutions on Azure are you building?
Build an actionable Azure technical readiness plan
A common question I hear from partners is, “How do I build a readiness plan for my technical team?” Sometimes, the question is in the form of a statement, like, “We just need to learn Azure.” It can be daunting to ask someone to “learn Azure,” but you can approach this technical readiness similar to your sales strategy, and instead ask your technical team to learn “disaster recovery on Azure.”
Our guidance is to pick an area or two and ask your team to focus there. Once there is a focus, finding readiness resources and training is more manageable. Here is a list where you can find readiness and training:
- Azure Partner Readiness Catalog– search for recommended Azure resources from across Microsoft. Read Frank Campise’s blog post about this catalog
- See a list of Azure training offered by Partner Technical Services and our comprehensive Hot Sheet training schedule
- Read my blog post about preparing for an Azure certification
- Partner Technical Services has resources to help you sell, deploy, and support Azure—some of these are 1:1 consultative offerings
- Channel 9 has a wide variety of videos and webcasts that cover all aspects of building Azure-based solutions
- Go through the collection of Microsoft Azure courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy to learn Azure from experts, at no cost
- Build a learning plan for your team from the partner learning paths – select Microsoft Azure from the Products and Solutions section for a list of paths aligned to different technical roles
- Join the Azure Partners group on the US Partner Community Yammer network
Using the above list, you can build a really robust plan for your team. The plan will help you track progress. Don’t stop there—as we add new features and capabilities to Azure and our Cloud Platform, there are new information, materials, and training available. Check out the Cloud Platform roadmap, refer to the resources above regularly, and stay connected to the US Partner Community for updates.
 | In the remaining June posts, and in our June 18 community call, we’ll cover the latest announcements about Microsoft Azure, and talk about what they mean for partners. |
Previous Azure Partner Community topics
Focus on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2 – How CRM Online helps increase Azure adoption and usage
- Part 3 – How to start your CRM Online practice
- Part 4 – Dynamics CRM Online futures, vision, and customer studies with Azure
Focus on Data Platforms and Big Data
Focus on Azure benefits for partners
- Part 1 – Azure benefits overview
- Part 2 – Azure benefits for competency partners
- Part 3 – Signature Cloud Support for Azure
Focus on Top Partner Topics
- Part 1 – Introduction and RemoteApp
- Part 2 – Azure Site Recovery
- Part 3 – Azure API Management
- Community call recording
Focus on Office 365
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2 – Identify Management
- Part 3 – SharePoint on Azure
- Part 4 – Apps on Azure
- Community call recording
Focus on Networking
Focus on Managing Virtual Machines
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2 – Virtual Machine Management and developer tools
- Part 3 – Virtual Machine images and snapshots
Focus on Migration to Azure
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2 – Migration to Azure from Windows Server 2003
- Part 3 – Migrating VMs to Azure
- Community call recording