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April News Round-up | Fine-tune your go-to-market strategy

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Every month, we round up hosting and cloud service provider news you might have missed. Sign up for our monthly Microsoft Hosting and Cloud Newsletter to get the most current news delivered to your inbox.   summit-2Last week, Microsoft partners converged in Bellevue, WA for the 2017 Microsoft Cloud & Hosting Summit—an opportunity to connect and share ideas on emerging opportunities for cloud and hosting providers. This year’s summit focused on the demand for both hybrid cloud implementation and managed services for digital transformation—a customer need supported by a new Cloud & Hosting Study based on a survey of 1,700 organizations worldwide.

To help you focus your go-to-market strategies on these new opportunities, you’ll find resources listed below—as well as on our blog and website in coming weeks—to help you market, sell and service your customer. To get started, check out these resources:

Now Streaming On-demand! The Microsoft Cloud & Hosting Summit 2017

Watch videos of the keynote and event sessions from this year’s summit, available on-demand.  Hear first-hand about Microsoft’s data platform strategy. Get insider information on Office 365. See Microsoft artificial intelligence in action. And learn about Microsoft’s service provider strategy for cloud and Azure.

Special Report: 2017 Cloud & Hosting Study

The annual Cloud & Hosting Study is now available! Released at the 2017 Microsoft Cloud & Hosting Summit, the study captures the most critical customer needs and market trends based on a survey of 1,700 organizations worldwide. Read this overview of the study findings by Aziz Benmalek, Vice President, Worldwide Cloud & Managed Service Providers; and download the full report to explore the myriad of insights.

Go-to-market Webcasts & Guidance

Build your go-to-market strategy with these informative webcasts hosted by Microsoft hosting and marketing experts:

Also, be sure to read these articles for additional guidance:

April webcasts @ Cloud Channel Network

Check out upcoming webcasts for cloud and hosting service providers at www.cloudchannelnetwork.com.  Simply sign up for each individual webcast you wish to attend to receive a reminder before the event. Building Infrastructure Offers that Win. On your Mark, Get Set, GO!
April 19, 2017 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Pacific Time
What motivates ISV and Infrastructure buyers? Learn how to identify key offerings that are working in market and how to entice movement through infrastructure assessments and data platform activities to build winning infrastructure offers with tips and best practices from partner success stories.

Build with Office 365 – Modern Meetings and Modern Voice
April 26, 2017 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Learn how to extend the value of your Office 365 customers with Modern Meetings and Modern Voice offers. Hear the value of Skype for Business with Modern Meetings and Modern Voice plus the upsell opportunity it provides. Also learn about the exciting new features just added to Skype for Business Online.

Solution News

Reminder: CSP Power Up offers available through June 30 

Don't miss out on the CSP Cloud Power Up suite of incentives for Resellers (Direct & Resellers) and Indirect Providers . CSP Cloud Power Up incentives are designed to help you boost profitability, increase customer adoption of cloud services, sell more premium SKUs, and cross sell new cloud services.
Learn more about the offer.

Ready your team for SQL Server on Linux
Bring the performance and security of SQL Server to Linux! Widely adopted on the Windows Platform, SQL Server power, security, and functionality will be extended to the Linux Operating Systems this year, with the public preview now available.  SQL on Linux, part of the upcoming SQL vNext release, is an important Microsoft investment to make SQL available on any platform.

Hosting Service Providers have an incredible opportunity to address new market demand by providing deployment, monitoring, management, security, scalability, and migrations for SQL workloads supporting customers’ applications running on Linux.

Next Steps: Try SQL on Linux today!

Help Your Customers Collaborate with Microsoft Teams microsoft-teams-channel-webWe’re excited to announce the general availability of Microsoft Teams, the new chat-based workspace in Office 365. Naturally and thoughtfully integrated with familiar Office applications and services—and built entirely on the Office 365 global, security-rich, compliant hyperscale cloud service—Microsoft Teams enables you to offer customers:

  • Chat for today’s teams. Communicate in the moment, and keep everyone in the know.
  • A hub for team work. Give teams quick access to information they need, right in Office 365.
  • Customizable for each team. Tailor workspaces to include content and capabilities teams need every day.
  • Security teams can trust. Get the enterprise-level security and compliance features you expect from Office 365.

Next Steps: Get started with Microsoft Teams by reading the new Microsoft Teams Blog Post. Become familiar with the Collaborate with Office 365 and Microsoft Teams Pitch Decks, so you can prepare to engage in customer conversations about the benefits of Microsoft Teams. And review the Microsoft Teams Partner FAQ. Teams is included in your Internal Use Rights.

Partner News

Office 365 Partner Case Study: Skykick and GoDaddy
GoDaddy set out to help small businesses migrate to Office 365 simply and easily. Skykick partnered with them to automate that process. Watch the story:

[embed]https://youtu.be/JXXIlxdxuXo[/embed]

Azure Partner Case Study: SaasPlaza
SaaSPlaza is the leading global service provider for Microsoft Dynamics. They identified an opportunity in Asia to expand from one private datacenter to a hybrid environment running on Azure. Watch the story:

[embed]https://youtu.be/aykR1rrW0z4[/embed]