Microsoft US Partner Enablement blog

Merging the US Partner Community and Enablement blogs

Microsoft US Partner Team — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 15:00:23 GMT

To help streamline communications and provide our partner community with a single source of information regarding partner programs and readiness, the US Partner Team is merging the US Partner Community Blog and the US Partner Enablement Blog into one. We will no longer update the US Partner Enablement blog and will post all future content to the US Partner Community blog. Partners can now access one single location to find news, articles, case studies, event calendar, training opportunities, and more. Please update your favorites and subscriptions and bookmark this new location.

The US StepUp webinar series

Microsoft US Partner Team — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 16:25:00 GMT

We are excited to introduce our new US StepUp webinar series program, replacing the US SMB JumpStart webinar series program. These workshops are designed to help your team understand, adopt, and deploy new Microsoft Cloud technologies to expand your business opportunities. There are three new US StepUp webinar series starting this fall. Each series walks you through specific aspects of the solution. Select the StepUp workshop series that best fits your organization’s needs and register today!

Proactively securing your customers with Microsoft solutions

Learn how you can secure Identity, Data, and Devices across your customers environments using Microsoft Security solutions. We will be showcasing a variety of offerings including Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, and Azure Information Protection. This webinar series is best suited for partner companies who want to learn how to protect their customers against cybersecurity attacks by providing and deploying Microsoft Security solutions across their environments. We recommend your company’s Technical Lead attend this webinar series.

Date	Topic
October 12	Enterprise-level identity protection
October 19	Control and protect information
November 2	Regulatory compliance
November 9	Proactive cyberattack detection and prevention

Leveraging Azure for business continuity

Learn how to provide Azure based solutions for your customers to solve their data backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery challenges. This four-week webinar series is designed to help your team understand, adopt, and deploy these Microsoft technologies, while at the same time helping you expand your business opportunities. This webinar series is best suited for partner companies who are looking to learn the fundamentals and are ready to start an Azure practice today. We recommend your company's Office 365 Technical Lead attend these sessions. If you have already adopted Azure Backup or Azure Site Recovery into your customer solutions, these sessions can be useful for new team members unfamiliar with the technology.

Date	Topic
October 31	Introduction to Azure Backup & Azure Site Recovery
November 7	Using Azure Backup
November 14	Using Azure Site Recovery – Hyper-V to Azure scenario
November 28	Using Azure Site Recovery – VMWare to Physical Machines to Azure Scenario

Streamlining database migration to the cloud with new cloud-based migration services

Customers are demanding cloud-based data platform capabilities now more than ever before. In the past, it was difficult for partners to help customers move their on-premises data workloads to Azure due to limited migration tools and complex architectures. That’s all changed with the availability of new Azure enabled tools that significantly ease Microsoft and non-Microsoft data migrations to the cloud. In this three-week series, you will learn about the tremendous opportunities to capitalize on this customer need with the tools and technologies to build a new practice offering. This program is designed for partners who are looking to understand the business opportunities for application modernization and database migrations with new technologies like Data Migration Services (DMS) and SQL Managed Instance that help accelerate that practice. Technical Leads and Business Decision Makers are best suited for this webinar series.

Date	Topic
November 30	Database modernization – the partner opportunity and what’s new
December 7	Introduction to Data Migration Service and SQL Managed Instance
December 14	Using DMS and Azure SQL Managed Instance and GTM Offer

If you have any questions about the StepUp webinar series, please send an email to smbin@microsoft.com.

October 2017 Hot Sheet partner training schedule

Microsoft US Partner Team — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 06:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the US Partner Community Hot Sheet, a comprehensive schedule of partner training, webcasts, community calls, and office hours. This post is updated frequently as we learn about new offerings, so you can plan ahead. Looking for product-specific training? Try the links across the top of this blog.

Community call schedule

Community calls for the US Partner Community are led by experts from across the US Partner Team, and provide practice-building and business-building guidance.

Community name	October calls information	November calls information
Application Development	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Azure Infrastructure and Management	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Cloud Growth and Profitability	Cloud profitability benchmark and playbook – on demand October 17 – Security practice development October 31 – Resources to help you expand your cloud business	November 14 – Build your cloud business plan November 28 – Take your cloud business to the next level – crafted from best practices of over 1,000 Microsoft partners
Cloud Services Partner Incentives	October 19	November 30
Data Platform and Advanced Analytics	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Dynamics 365	October 10 – Organizational Insights for Dynamics 365	November 14
Enterprise Mobility + Security	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
ISV and Application Builder	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Leading Edge Webinar	October 11 – Secure and manage your customers’ digital transformation: Security As A Service October 25 – Data Platform modernization with SQL Server 2017	November 8 – Deeper customer engagements with Office 365 E5 Auto-Attendant, Call Queues, more November 22 – Discover how adding Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Business edition to your practice will increase your customer opportunity
MPN 101	October 11 – New Partner Orientation October 18 – Cloud Solution Provider program: How to define and develop a solution	Call details will be available soon
Modern Workplace – Collaboration & Voice	Planning and deploying Microsoft Teams with Skype for Business – on demand	Call details will be available soon
Open Source Solutions	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
SMB Partner Insider	All Regions – on demand	November 1 – All Regions
Windows 10 and Devices	On demand	November 17

Week of October 9–13

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 9	Online	Moving to cloud with SharePoint 2016 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 9	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Meeting and Video (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 10–11	San Francisco, CA	Microsoft 365 Deployment and Management	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Dynamics 365 Partner Community call: Organizational Insights for Dynamics 365	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Introduction to Azure IoT Suite (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Big Data Analytics (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Ask The Experts Skype for Business: Enterprise Voice best practices (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Grow, manage and increase profitability with Enterprise Mobility Suite Internal Use Rights (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Hybrid cloud management and security: Introduction and log analytics (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 11	Minneapolis, MN	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 11	San Francisco, CA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 11	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Server Core and Voice improvements (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 11	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Secure and manage your customers’ digital transformation – Security As A Service	Business, sales
October 11	Online	MPN 101: New Partner Orientation	Business, sales, technical roles
October 11	Online	Introduction to Cortana Intelligence Suite (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 11	Online	Migrating applications to Microsoft Azure (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 11	Online	Office 365 Teamwork Organization	Technical roles
October 12–13	San Francisco, CA	Microsoft 365 Security training	Technical roles
October 12	Boston, MA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Chicago, IL	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Dallas, TX	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Houston, TX	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Detroit, MI	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	New York, NY	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Reston, VA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Online	Ask the Experts on Azure IoT: Stitching the story of connected world (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	US StepUp: Enterprise-level identity protection	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Migrating application databases and authentication mechanism to Azure Active Directory (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Big Data Analytics using Data Lake (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Hybrid Cloud Management and security: Automation and security (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	What's new in Enterprise Mobility Suite (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Azure IoT Suite (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 13	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Hybrid Deep Dive (Level 300)	Technical roles

Week of October 16–20

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 16	Chicago, IL	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 16	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Edge Architectures and Configuration (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 16	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Integration scenarios (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 16	Online	Protecting your data in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17–18	Downers Grove, IL	Dynamics 365 Business Transformation Cloud Workshop	Business roles
October 17	Dallas, TX	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 17	Atlanta, GA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 17	Online	Grow, manage and increase business profitability by actively using Office 365 Internal Use Rights (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Office hours	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Security practice development	Business and sales roles
October 17	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals – Day 2 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Service Fabric Deep Dive (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 17	Online	What's new and highlights for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Online	Technical Deep Dive on best practices moving from File Server To SharePoint Online (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 18–20	Chicago, IL	Dynamics 365 University for Sales Professionals	Sales roles
October 18	Atlanta, GA	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 18	Philadelphia, PA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 18	Online	Cloud Solution Provider program: How to define and develop a solution	Business, sales, technical roles
October 18	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Upgrading to Skype for Business (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 19	Boston, MA	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 19	Online	Marketing SureStep Cybersecurity Workshop: Apps and data– Boost productivity with cloud access while keeping information protected	Marketing, sales, and technical roles
October 19	Online	US StepUp: Control and protect information	Technical roles
October 19	Office hours	Cloud Services Partner Incentives	Business, Sales
October 19	Online	Microsoft 365 security and compliance business opportunities	Sales and technical roles
October 19	Online	Introduction to Power BI (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 19	Online	IP Staircase: Partner own IP - the cornerstone of cloud success	Business roles
October 20	New York, NY	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 20	Irvine, CA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 20	Online	Technical Deep Dive on deploying Skype for Business Module 3: Upgrading a Lync Infrastructure to Skype for Business (Level 300)	Technical roles

Week of October 23–27

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 23	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid OneDrive for Business and Sites (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 23	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: What's new (Level 100)	Technical roles
October 23	Online	Technical Deep Dive on hybrid cloud infrastructure using Windows Server 2016	Technical roles
October 23	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: DevOps	Technical roles
October 24–25	Dallas, TX	Microsoft 365 Deployment and Management	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Microsoft 365 Powered Device Proof of Concept and Pilot	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals –Day 3 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Ask the Experts: Introduction to Cosmos DB (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Containers and Nano Server (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 25–26	Bellevue, WA	Dynamics 365 Business Transformation Cloud Workshop	Business roles
October 25	Online	Introduction to Exchange Online (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Data Platform modernization with SQL Server 2017	Business, Sales
October 25	Online	Firstline Workers–A Massive New Opportunity To Grow Your Business	Sales and technical roles
October 25	Online	Enhance your Business with Skype for Business Online Academy (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Technical Deep Dive on SharePoint 2016 Hybrid Search (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Power BI Common Scenarios	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Storage and Networking for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 26–27	Dallas, TX	Microsoft 365 Security training	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Ask the Experts on Azure PaaS: Logic Apps – Quickly build powerful integration solutions (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 26	Online	IP Staircase: Finding your IP sweet spot	Business roles
October 26	Online	Getting started with Office 365 App Development (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Deploying Skype for Business Module 4: Migrating a Skype for Business Backend Database to SQL AlwaysOn (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Site Recovery and Backup (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 27	Online	High Availability and Disaster Recovery Options for Your Hybrid SharePoint Farm (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 27	Online	Ask the Expert: Understanding new features of Security and Compliance in Office 365 (Level 200)	Technical roles

Week of October 30–November 3

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 30	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid Cloud Storage (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 30	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Migrating to Exchange Online (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 31	Online	What’s new in Azure (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 31	Office hours	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Resources to help you expand your cloud business	Business and sales roles
October 31	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Exchange Online Hybrid Deployment Fundamentals (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 31	Online	Branding your application with Office UI Fabric (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 31	Online	US StepUp: Introduction to Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery	Technical roles
November 1	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Reference Architectures and Design (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 1	Online	SMB Partner Insider call – All Regions	Business and sales roles
November 2	Online	Help your customers with their GDPR compliance efforts	Sales and technical roles
November 2	Online	Technical Deep Dive on deploying Skype for Business Module 5: Configure Skype for Business Hybrid and User Migration (Level 300)	Technical roles
November 2	Online	External Sharing with SharePoint Online and Partner Facing Extranet Sites (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 2	Online	Introduction to Exchange Online (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 2	Online	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Site Recovery and Backup (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 2	Online	IP Staircase: Accelerating your IP development	Business roles
November 2	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Microsoft 365 Deployment (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 2	Online	Building apps with Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft Flow (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 2	Online	US StepUp: Regulatory Compliance	Technical roles
November 3	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Telecommunications Concepts (Level 200)	Technical roles

Week of November 6–10

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 6–9	Long Beach, CA	eXtreme365	Business, sales, marketing, and technical roles
November 6	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Meeting and Video (Level 300)	Technical roles
November 6	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Integration scenarios (Level 300)	Technical roles
November 7	Online	US StepUp: Using Azure Backup	Technical roles
November 7	Online	Introduction To Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement – Technical Onboarding Day 1: Introduction to Dynamics 365 and Administration, Pricing & Licensing (Level 100)	Technical roles
November 7	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Service fabric deep dive (Level 300)	Technical roles
November 7	Online	Ask The Experts Skype for Business: Enterprise Voice Best practices (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 7	Online	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 7	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Microsoft 365 Management (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 8	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Deeper customer engagements with Office 365 E5 Auto-Attendant, Call Queues, more	Sales roles
November 9	Online	US StepUp: Proactive cyber attack detection and prevention	Technical roles
November 9	Online	IP Staircase: Maximizing your market opportunity	Business roles

Week of November 13–17

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 14–16	Dallas, TX	Dynamics 365 University for Sales Professionals	Sales roles
November 14–15	Alpharetta, GA	Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent Technical Bootcamps	Technical roles
November 14	Charlotte, NC	Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Retail Technical/Functional Workshop	Technical and functional roles
November 14	Online	Using Azure Site Recovery – Hyper-V to Azure Scenario	Technical roles
November 14	Online	Dynamics 365 Partner Community Call	Technical roles
November 14	Online	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Build your Cloud business plan	Business and sales roles
November 15	Charlotte, NC	Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Retail Developer Workshop	Technical roles

Week of November 20–24

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 22	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Discover how adding Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Business edition to your practice will increase your customer opportunity	Sales roles

Week of November 27–December 1

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 28	Online	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Take your cloud business to the next level - crafted from best practices of over 1,000 Microsoft partners	Business and sales roles
November 28	Online	Using Azure Site Recovery – VMWare to Physical Machines to Azure Scenario	Technical roles
November 30	Online	Cloud Services Partner Incentives office hours	Business and sales roles
November 30	Online	Database modernization –The partner opportunity and what's new	Technical and business roles

December 2017

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
December 5–6	Dallas, TX	Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent Technical Bootcamps	Technical roles
December 7	Online	Introduction to Data Migration Service and SQL Managed Instance	Technical and business roles
December 14	Online	Using DMS and Azure SQL Managed Instance and GTM Offer	Technical and business roles

Microsoft 2017 events lineup

Microsoft Build: May 10–12 in Seattle, WA

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Data Insights Summit: June 12–13 in Seattle, WA

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Inspire: July 9–13 in Washington, DC

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Ignite: September 25–29 in Orlando, FL

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Envision: September 25–27 in Orlando, FL

Watch sessions on demand

Third party partner events with Microsoft presence

eXtreme365: November 6–9 in Long Beach, CA

Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner training schedule – Fall 2017

Microsoft US Partner Team — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:00:00 GMT

Dynamics 365 unifies CRM and ERP capabilities into one cloud service with purpose-built apps to help customers manage business functions that include Financials, Field Service, Sales, Operations, Marketing, Project Service Automation, and Customer Service.

Dynamics 365 Partner community

Find Dynamics 365-related courses on the US Partner Community Hot Sheet – a comprehensive and frequently updated schedule of in-person partner events, community calls, and webcasts.

Sales training schedule

Date	Training title and link to register
November 22	Leading Edge Webinar: Understand how adding Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Business edition will increase your revenue

Technical training schedule

Date	Training title and link to register
October 10	Dynamics 365 Partner Community call
October 17	What's new and highlights for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Level 200)
November 14	Dynamics 365 Partner Community call

Related competencies

Cloud Customer Relationship Management competency (follow the learning path)
Enterprise Resource Planning competency (follow the learning path)

On-demand training

Partner resources

Events

eXtreme365: November 6–9 in Long Beach, CA

Office 365 and Voice partner training schedule – Fall 2017

Microsoft US Partner Team — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:30:00 GMT

Office 365 offers customers familiar, top-of-the-line productivity tools, collaboration solutions, and built-in security.

Find Office 365-related courses on the US Partner Community Hot Sheet – a comprehensive and frequently updated schedule of in-person partner events, community calls, and webcasts.

Office 365 Partner Community

Sales Training

Date	Training title and link to register
October 4	The modern workplace collaboration market opportunity (Level 100)

Technical training

Date	Training title and link to register
September 22	Technical Deep Dive on migrating to Exchange Online (Level 300)
September 25	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Hybrid Deep Dive (Level 300)
September 26	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Edge Architectures and Configuration (Level 300)
September 27	Ask the Experts on Skype for Business: Enterprise Voice best practices (Level 200)
September 28	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Upgrade to Skype for Business - What should I know (Level 200)
September 29	Technical Deep Dive on Exchange Online Hybrid Deployment fundamentals (Level 200)
October 2	What’s new in Skype for Business (Level 100)
October 2	External sharing with SharePoint Online and Partner Facing Extranet Sites (Level 200)
October 3	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals– Day 1 (Level 200)
October 4	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Reference architectures and design (Level 200)
October 4	Driving Office 365 Adoption for Education Solutions (Level 200)
October 5	Technical Deep Dive on deploying Skype for Business Module 1: Defining Requirements for a Skype for Business deployment (Level 200)
October 6 in Bellevue, WA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 6	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Telecommunications concepts (Level 200)
October 6	Moving to Cloud with OneDrive for Business (Level 200)
October 9	Moving to cloud with SharePoint 2016 (Level 200)
October 9	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Meeting and Video (Level 300)
October 10	Ask the Experts Skype for Business: Enterprise Voice best practices (Level 200)
October 11 in Minneapolis, MN	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 11 in San Francisco, CA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 11	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Server Core and Voice improvements (Level 200)
October 11	Office 365 Teamwork Organization
October 12 in Boston, MA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12 in Chicago, IL	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12 in Dallas, TX	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12 in Houston, TX	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12 in Detroit, MI	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12 in New York, NY	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12 in Reston, VA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 12	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Hybrid Deep Dive (Level 300)
October 16	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Edge Architectures and Configuration (Level 300)
October 16	Protecting your data in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business (Level 200)
October 17 in Atlanta, GA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 17	Grow, manage and increase business profitability by actively using Office 365 Internal Use Rights (Level 200)
October 17	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals – Day 2 (Level 200)
October 17	Technical Deep Dive on best practices moving from File Server to SharePoint Online (Level 200)
October 18 in Philadelphia, PA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 18	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Upgrading to Skype for Business (Level 200)
October 20 in Irvine, CA	Microsoft Teams Workshop
October 20	Technical Deep Dive on deploying Skype for Business Module 3: Upgrading a Lync Infrastructure to Skype for Business (Level 300)
October 23	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid OneDrive for Business and Sites (Level 200)
October 23	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: What's new (Level 100)
October 24	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals –Day 3
October 25	Introduction to Exchange Online (Level 200)
October 25	Enhance your Business with Skype for Business Online Academy (Level 200)
October 25	Technical Deep Dive on SharePoint 2016 Hybrid Search (Level 200)
October 26	Technical Deep Dive on Deploying Skype for Business Module 4: Migrating a Skype for Business Backend Database to SQL AlwaysOn (Level 300)
October 26	Getting Started with Office 365 App Development (Level 200)
October 27	High Availability and Disaster Recovery Options for Your Hybrid SharePoint Farm (Level 200)
October 27	Ask the Expert: Understanding new features of Security and Compliance in Office 365 (Level 200)
October 30	Technical Deep Dive on Migrating to Exchange Online (Level 300)
October 31	Technical Deep Dive on Exchange Online Hybrid Deployment Fundamentals (Level 200)
October 31	Branding your application with Office UI Fabric (Level 200)

Related competencies

Cloud Productivity competency (follow the learning path)
Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency (follow the learning path)
Communications competency (follow the learning path)
Project and Portfolio Management competency (follow the learning path)
Collaboration and Content competency (follow the learning path)

On-demand learning

Partner content

Microsoft Azure partner training schedule – Fall 2017

Microsoft US Partner Team — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:30:00 GMT

Microsoft Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy, and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Integrate public cloud applications with IT environments and build applications using any language, tool, or framework.

Find Azure-related courses on the US Partner Community Hot Sheet – a comprehensive and frequently updated schedule of in-person partner events, community calls, and webcasts.

Technical journeys for Microsoft Azure

Sales training

Date	Course title and link to register
September 26	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Is your business set up for success in the cloud?
September 27	Leading Edge Webinar: Accelerate your cloud practice building with the Microsoft Cloud Mentor Program for Azure, Office 365, and more
September 28	Cloud Services Partner Incentives
October 17	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Cloud profitability benchmark and playbook
October 18	Leading Edge Webinar: Understand how adding Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Business edition will increase your revenue
October 19	Cloud Services Partner Incentives
October 31	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Expand your cloud business – resources to help you identify opportunities to expand your profitability
November 14	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Build your cloud business plan
November 28	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Take your cloud business to the next level – crafted from best practices of over 1,000 Microsoft partners
December 12	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Hire and train for top performance

Technical training

Date	Course title and link to register
September 18	Technical Deep Dive on migrating applications to Azure (Level 200)
September 19	Hybrid Cloud Management and Security: Introduction and Log Analytics (Level 300)
September 20	Technical Deep Dive on Containers and Nano Server (Level 300)
September 26	Technical Deep Dive on Storage and Networking for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure (Level 300)
September 26 in Chicago, IL	Envision: Natural Computer Interactions
September 26 in Chicago, IL	Envision: Immersive Technologies
September 26 in Reston, VA	Envision: Natural Computer Interactions
September 26 in Reston, VA	Envision: Immersive Technologies
September 26 in Mountain View, CA	Envision: Natural Computer Interactions
September 26 in Mountain View, CA	Envision: Immersive Technologies
September 28	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid Cloud Storage (Level 300)
October 3	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service (Level 200)
October 4	Creating Apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Scalability and architecting (Level 300)
October 4	Machine Learning (Level 300)
October 5	Azure Data Factory (Level 300)
October 5	Grow, manage and increase profitability with Azure Internal Use Rights (Level 200)
October 10	Introduction to Azure IoT Suite (Level 300)
October 10	Big Data Analytics (Level 300)
October 10	Hybrid cloud management and security: Introduction and log analytics (Level 300)
October 11	Introduction to Cortana Intelligence Suite (Level 200)
October 11	Migrating applications to Microsoft Azure (Level 200)
October 12	Ask the Experts on Azure IoT: Stitching the story of connected world (Level 200)
October 12	Migrating application databases and authentication mechanism to Azure Active Directory (Level 200)
October 12	Big Data Analytics using Data Lake (Level 300)
October 12	Hybrid Cloud Management and security: Automation and security (Level 300)
October 12	Technical Deep Dive on Azure IoT Suite (Level 300)
October 16 in Chicago, IL	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour
October 16	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Integration scenarios (Level 300)
October 17 in Dallas, TX	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour
October 17	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Service Fabric Deep Dive (Level 300)
October 18 in Atlanta, GA	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour
October 19 in Boston, MA	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour
October 20 in New York, NY	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour
October 23	Technical Deep Dive on hybrid cloud infrastructure using Windows Server 2016
October 23	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: DevOps
October 24	Ask the Experts: Introduction to Cosmos DB (Level 200)
October 24	Technical Deep Dive on Containers and Nano Server (Level 300)
October 25	Technical Deep Dive on Storage and Networking for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure (Level 300)
October 26	Ask the Experts on Azure PaaS: Logic Apps – Quickly build powerful integration solutions (Level 200)
October 26	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Site Recovery and Backup (Level 200)
October 30	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid Cloud Storage (Level 300)
October 31	What’s new in Azure (Level 200)

Related competencies

Application Development competency (follow the learning path)
Cloud Platform competency (follow the learning path)
Datacenter competency (follow the learning path)
Enterprise Mobility Management competency (follow the learning path)

On-demand training

Partner content

Cloud Growth and Profitability Office Hours series

Microsoft US Partner Team — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 14:00:00 GMT

Why is success in the cloud so important? According to the FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions report from IDC, investment in digital transformation initiatives will reach 2.2 trillion dollars by 2019 – almost 60 percent more than this year. We are introducing the Cloud Growth and Profitability Office Hours call series to prepare you to take your share in that huge investment. Learn about strategies and best practices to increase your profitability in the cloud by attending the Cloud Growth and Profitability Office Hours. These biweekly interactive sessions will discuss different tools, resources, ideas, and thought leadership pieces that can help you grow your business. The Office Hours will include a brief presentation on a cloud profitability topic and a Q&A session. We post cloud growth and profitability content in the Cloud Growth and Profitability Yammer and LinkedIn groups for thought and discussion a week prior to the Office Hours. Join the groups and contribute to the conversation! Register for the Cloud Growth and Profitability Office Hours

Date	Topic
October 3	Security practice development
October 17	Cloud profitability benchmark and playbook
October 31	Expand your cloud business – resources to help you identify opportunities to expand your profitability
November 14	Build your cloud business plan
November 28	Take your cloud business to the next level – crafted from best practices of over 1,000 Microsoft partners
December 12	Hire and train for top performance

Accessing and using the Office 365 Service Assurance information

Microsoft US Partner Team — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 16:44:37 GMT

By David Branscome, Partner Technical Architect

When partners work on customer requests for proposal (RFPs) for Office 365 and Azure, they often have questions about Microsoft datacenters. Customers that get frequent audits will need to provide specific evidence that their data is securely stored. Partners can easily provide such evidence by accessing information on the Office 365 Portal. On the portal, the Service Assurance Center, within the Security and Compliance section, has information that partners will need. In this post, I have provided details on accessing and using the Service Assurance information.

Service Assurance user permissions

Not everyone with an account in Office 365 needs to see their organization’s security configuration. A compliance officer with no special permissions in Office 365 would see something like this: Here is how to grant permissions to users who need to be able to access the Service Assurance Center: 1. Log in to the Office 365 portal with Global Admin credentials 2. Go to the Security and Compliance app and select Permissions 3. In Permissions, check the box for Service Assurance User 4. Select Edit role group and in the Members area, click on Edit 5. Select Choose members to add people who should have these permissions 6. Click Add and then find the user 7. Finish the wizard and you’ll see the user as a member of the Service Assurance User permissions group 8. When the user logs in again, he or she will be able to go to https://protection.office.com/ and see the Service Assurance Center

Service Assurance Center experience

Once you have the necessary permissions, you can start exploring information in the Service Assurance Center. You can start by looking at all the controls and audited elements. Let’s say you want to see how Office 365 meets ISO 27001 standards. The first thing I’d recommend is to go to the Settings area and define the region – in our case, Europe. You’ll also need to select at least one of the industries, the regulations of which would be relevant to your search, then click Save. As the green box indicates, you can now go into the Compliance Reports, Trust Documents and Audited Controls and review the content for the relevant region and industry. If you look in the Compliance Reports area, you’ll see the listing of certificates that Microsoft cloud datacenters have achieved. You can click on and download these certificates. For example, if I expand the ISO reports section and scroll down, I can find and download a report named “Office 365 Germany ISO 27001 ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 Audit Assessment Report”. This is the final report stating that Office 365 meets the expectations for compliance. This report doesn’t tell me what was tested as part of the process. For that, I can go to the Audited Controls section, where I can find and download the ISO 27018-2014 audit report. In this case, the report is an Excel spreadsheet that includes the title of the control, implementation and testing details, when it was tested, and who performed the testing. This level of detail is usually sufficient for a customer’s audit team to be reassured of Microsoft’s compliance with the standard. If you want to change the scope of the controls (region, industry, etc.), you can change the parameters in the Settings tab.

The trusted cloud

Microsoft is constantly working on achieving, maintaining and exceeding compliance standards to secure customer data and make our cloud the most trusted cloud in the world. The Service Assurance section of Office 365 is one evidence of that effort. Make sure to take advantage of it! Additionally, check out the resources in the Microsoft Trust Center for information about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), security, protection of user’s personally identifiable information, and the Microsoft commitment to providing customers with the controls necessary to secure their environment and user identities.

Office 365 and Voice Partner Community

September 2017 Hot Sheet partner training schedule

Microsoft US Partner Team — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 06:00:00 GMT

Community call schedule

Community calls for the US Partner Community are led by experts from across the US Partner Team, and provide practice-building and business-building guidance.

Community name	September calls information	October calls information
Application Development	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Azure Infrastructure and Management	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Cloud Growth and Profitability	How to calculate Lifetime Value and Customer Acquisition Cost–on demand	October 3 – Security practice development October 17 – Cloud profitability benchmark and playbook October 31 – Resources to help you expand your cloud business
Cloud Services Partner Incentives	September 28	October 19
Data Platform and Advanced Analytics	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Dynamics 365	on demand	October 10
Enterprise Mobility + Security	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
ISV and Application Builder	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
Leading Edge Webinar	Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) Academy – on demand	October 11 – Secure and manage your customers’ digital transformation: Security As A Service October 25 – Data Platform modernization with SQL Server 2017
MPN 101	Partner incentives and investments– on demand Navigating the Microsoft Partner portal–on demand Your modern marketing resources – on demand September 27 – Training and enablement resources	Call details will be available soon
Modern Workplace – Collaboration & Voice	General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – on demand	Call details will be available soon
Open Source Solutions	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon	No calls currently scheduled. Look for new schedule soon
SMB Partner Insider	on demand	October 4 – All Regions
Windows 10 and Devices	No calls in September. Look for new schedule soon	October 19

Week of September 25–29

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
September 25	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Hybrid Deep Dive (Level 300)	Technical roles
September 26	Chicago, IL	Envision: Natural Computer Interactions	IT Pro, engineers, architects, consultants
September 26	Chicago, IL	Envision: Immersive Technologies	IT Pro, engineers, architects, consultants
September 26	Reston, VA	Envision: Natural Computer Interactions	IT Pro, engineers, architects, consultants
September 26	Reston, VA	Envision: Immersive Technologies	IT Pro, engineers, architects, consultants
September 26	Mountain View, CA	Envision: Natural Computer Interactions	IT Pro, engineers, architects, consultants
September 26	Mountain View, CA	Envision: Immersive Technologies	IT Pro, engineers, architects, consultants
September 26	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Edge Architectures and Configuration (Level 300)	Technical roles
September 26	Online	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Is your business set up for success in the cloud?	Business and sales roles
September 26	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Storage and Networking for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure (Level 300)	Technical roles
September 27	Community call	MPN 101 Community call: Training and enablement	Business, sales, technical
September 27	Online	Ask The Experts on Skype for Business: Enterprise Voice best practices (Level 200)	Technical roles
September 28	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Upgrade to Skype for Business - What should I know (Level 200)	Technical roles
September 28	Office hours	Cloud Services Partner Incentives	Business, Sales
September 28	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid Cloud Storage (Level 300)	Technical roles
September 28	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Power BI Common Scenarios (Level 300)	Technical roles
September 29	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Exchange Online Hybrid Deployment fundamentals (Level 200)	Technical roles

Week of October 2–6

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 2	Online	What’s new in Skype for Business (Level 100)	Technical roles
October 2	Online	External sharing with SharePoint Online and Partner Facing Extranet Sites (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 3–4	Irvine, CA	Microsoft 365 Deployment and Management	Technical roles
October 3	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals– Day 1 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 3	Office hours	Cloud Growth and Profitability office hours: Security practice development	Business and sales roles
October 3	Online	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 4	Community call	SMB Partner Insider – All Regions	Business, Sales
October 4	Online	Creating Apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Scalability and architecting (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 4	Online	The modern workplace collaboration market opportunity (Level 100)	Sales Professionals
October 4	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Reference architectures and design (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 4	Online	Driving Office 365 Adoption for Education Solutions (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 4	Online	Machine Learning (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 5–6	Irvine, CA	Microsoft 365 Security training	Technical roles
October 5	Online	Technical Deep Dive on deploying Skype for Business Module 1: Defining Requirements for a Skype for Business deployment (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 5	Online	Exchange Online Protection: Configuration and best practices	Sales and technical roles
October 5	Online	Marketing SureStep Cybersecurity Workshop: Device security – Enhance device security while enabling mobile work and BYOD	Marketing, sales, and technical roles
October 5	Online	Azure Data Factory (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 5	Online	Grow, manage and increase profitability with Azure Internal Use Rights (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 6	Bellevue, WA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 6	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Telecommunications concepts (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 6	Online	Moving to Cloud with OneDrive for Business (Level 200)	Technical roles

Week of October 9–13

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 9	Online	Moving to cloud with SharePoint 2016 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 9	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Meeting and Video (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 10–11	San Francisco, CA	Microsoft 365 Deployment and Management	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Dynamics 365 Partner Community call	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Introduction to Azure IoT Suite (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Big Data Analytics (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Ask The Experts Skype for Business: Enterprise Voice best practices (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Grow, manage and increase profitability with Enterprise Mobility Suite Internal Use Rights (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 10	Online	Hybrid cloud management and security: Introduction and log analytics (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 11	Minneapolis, MN	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 11	San Francisco, CA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 11	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Server Core and Voice improvements (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 11	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Secure and manage your customers’ digital transformation – Security As A Service	Business, sales
October 11	Online	Introduction to Cortana Intelligence Suite (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 11	Online	Migrating applications to Microsoft Azure (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 11	Online	Office 365 Teamwork Organization	Technical roles
October 12–13	San Francisco, CA	Microsoft 365 Security training	Technical roles
October 12	Boston, MA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Chicago, IL	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Dallas, TX	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Houston, TX	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Detroit, MI	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	New York, NY	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Reston, VA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 12	Online	Ask the Experts on Azure IoT: Stitching the story of connected world (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Migrating application databases and authentication mechanism to Azure Active Directory (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Big Data Analytics using Data Lake (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Hybrid Cloud Management and security: Automation and security (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	What's new in Enterprise Mobility Suite (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Azure IoT Suite (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 12	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Hybrid Deep Dive (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 13	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Hybrid Deep Dive (Level 300)	Technical roles

Week of October 16–20

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 16	Chicago, IL	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 16	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Edge Architectures and Configuration (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 16	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Integration scenarios (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 16	Online	Protecting your data in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Dallas, TX	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 17	Atlanta, GA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 17	Online	Grow, manage and increase business profitability by actively using Office 365 Internal Use Rights (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Office hours	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Cloud profitability benchmark and playbook	Business and sales roles
October 17	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals – Day 2 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: Service Fabric Deep Dive (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 17	Online	What's new and highlights for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 17	Online	Technical Deep Dive on best practices moving from File Server To SharePoint Online (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 18	Philadelphia, PA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 18	Atlanta, GA	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 18	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: Upgrading to Skype for Business (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 19	Boston, MA	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 19	Online	Marketing SureStep Cybersecurity Workshop: Apps and data– Boost productivity with cloud access while keeping information protected	Marketing, sales, and technical roles
October 19	Community call	Windows and Devices Partner Community call	Technical roles
October 19	Office hours	Cloud Services Partner Incentives	Business, Sales
October 19	Online	Microsoft 365 security and compliance business opportunities	Sales and technical roles
October 19	Online	Introduction to Power BI (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 20	New York, NY	Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour	Developers
October 20	Irvine, CA	Microsoft Teams Workshop	IT Professionals, Developers
October 20	Online	Technical Deep Dive on deploying Skype for Business Module 3: Upgrading a Lync Infrastructure to Skype for Business (Level 300)	Technical roles

Week of October 23–27

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 23	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid OneDrive for Business and Sites (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 23	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Technical Series: What's new (Level 100)	Technical roles
October 23	Online	Technical Deep Dive on hybrid cloud infrastructure using Windows Server 2016	Technical roles
October 23	Online	Creating apps for the Intelligent Cloud: DevOps	Technical roles
October 24–25	Dallas, TX	Microsoft 365 Deployment and Management	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Microsoft 365 Powered Device Proof of Concept and Pilot	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Introduction to Skype for Business Fundamentals –Day 3 (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Ask the Experts: Introduction to Cosmos DB (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 24	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Containers and Nano Server (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Introduction to Exchange Online (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Data Platform modernization with SQL Server 2017	Business, Sales
October 25	Online	Firstline Workers–A Massive New Opportunity To Grow Your Business	Sales and technical roles
October 25	Online	Enhance your Business with Skype for Business Online Academy (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Technical Deep Dive on SharePoint 2016 Hybrid Search (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Power BI Common Scenarios	Technical roles
October 25	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Storage and Networking for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 26–27	Dallas, TX	Microsoft 365 Security training	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Ask the Experts on Azure PaaS: Logic Apps – Quickly build powerful integration solutions (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Getting started with Office 365 App Development (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Deploying Skype for Business Module 4: Migrating a Skype for Business Backend Database to SQL AlwaysOn (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 26	Online	Introduction to Microsoft Azure Site Recovery and Backup (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 27	Online	High Availability and Disaster Recovery Options for Your Hybrid SharePoint Farm (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 27	Online	Ask the Expert: Understanding new features of Security and Compliance in Office 365 (Level 200)	Technical roles

Week of October 30–November 3

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
October 30	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Hybrid Cloud Storage (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 30	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Migrating to Exchange Online (Level 300)	Technical roles
October 31	Online	What’s new in Azure (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 31	Office hours	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Resources to help you expand your cloud business	Business and sales roles
October 31	Online	Technical Deep Dive on Exchange Online Hybrid Deployment Fundamentals (Level 200)	Technical roles
October 31	Online	Branding your application with Office UI Fabric (Level 200)	Technical roles
November 1	Online	November 1 – All Regions	Business and sales roles
November 2	Online	Help your customers with their GDPR compliance efforts	Sales and technical roles

Week of November 6–10

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 8	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Deeper customer engagements with Office 365 E5 Auto-Attendant, Call Queues, more	Sales roles

Week of November 13–17

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 14	Online	Dynamics 365 Partner Community Call	Technical roles
November 14	Online	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Build your Cloud business plan	Business and sales roles

Week of November 20–24

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 22	Online	Leading Edge Webinar: Discover how adding Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Business edition to your practice will increase your customer opportunity	Sales roles

Week of November 27 – December 1

Date	Location	Course, webcast, or call	Who should attend
November 28	Online	Cloud Growth and Profitability: Take your cloud business to the next level - crafted from best practices of over 1,000 Microsoft partners	Business and sales roles
November 30	Online	Cloud Services Partner Incentives office hours	Business and sales roles

Microsoft 2017 events lineup

Microsoft Build: May 10–12 in Seattle, WA

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Data Insights Summit: June 12–13 in Seattle, WA

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Inspire: July 9–13 in Washington, DC

Watch sessions on demand

Microsoft Ignite: September 25–29 in Orlando, FL

Microsoft Envision: September 25–27 in Orlando, FL

Third party partner events with Microsoft presence

eXtreme365: November 6–9 in Long Beach, CA

Understanding the basics of blockchain and real-world applications

Microsoft US Partner Team — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 15:57:50 GMT

By David Branscome, Partner Technical Architect

Microsoft Azure allows customers to set up blockchain solutions to support their business initiatives. Customers can provision their own blockchain network in a globally distributed system, using Azure compute and storage infrastructure as the foundation. In this post, I explain the basics of blockchain with the help of a real-world scenario. I came across a reference to blockchain as I was reading this article in ZDNet about several organizations creating a “Food Trust Framework” designed to decrease fraudulent food practices and increase food quality in the global supply chain. Most of the references to blockchain that I’ve seen before centered around the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. This time it was discussed in the context of food safety which I found very interesting. The news article mentioned that there was a growing concern in China about counterfeit food and discussed how blockchain technology could help tackle food fraud.

Blockchain basics

The example below will help explain the principle behind blockchain. We all understand the concept behind money. If I want to pay someone a dollar, I can hand them a dollar bill, and the transaction is complete. The other person has the physical, tangible object in their hand, so there’s no need for a third party to confirm the transaction. However, imagine that I owe ten dollars to six different people, but I only have ten dollars in my bank account. And let’s say it’s possible for me to pay people by emailing them pictures of money. I take a picture of a ten-dollar bill and email it to all six people. At this point, nobody can claim the ten dollars in my bank account because there’s no proof that they are the only ones who have the picture of that bill. But what if there was somebody that I had to email the picture of my money to first and who could hold me accountable for that payment? He would track my payment in his ledger and then pass it along to the intended recipient. If I tried to email a picture of the ten-dollar bill to someone else, the person with the ledger would say that the money had already been claimed. Imagine that hundreds of people have a copy of that ledger, and it’s kept updated in real-time. If I tried to get one person to change their ledger to my benefit, others in the chain would prevent that from happening. That’s blockchain – a shared digital ledger that allows you to verify and validate the transactions contained in that ledger. The ledger is shared among many machines in a decentralized, distributed, encrypted network, so nobody can artificially manipulate the data because all the other machines in the network serve as an integrity check. Blockchain isn’t limited to financial transactions. It can be used to validate almost any kind of record, including records that impact food safety.

Preventing distribution of counterfeit food

Let’s consider how to apply blockchain to the food safety scenario. Imagine I am a dishonest supplier of orange juice. When I receive an order to produce 500 gallons of orange juice I decide to use half the number of oranges and supplement the mixture with 250 gallons of water, so I can double my profits. How can blockchain prevent this fraud? Blockchain allows a company (for example, the grocery store that buys my orange juice) to watch for anomalies in the production process that could indicate fraudulent practices. The first assumption is that all the suppliers in the chain are required to put relevant records into blockchain, so the supply chain can be accurately tracked. The blockchain records would show that I only received half the number of oranges from my orange grower needed to produce 500 gallons of orange juice. The Internet of Things (IoT) sensors tracking water consumption in my plant would show that I’m using a lot of water in my production process. Shipping records would show that I’m shipping twice the product that one would expect. I can’t falsify my records because all participants in blockchain will be validating that my records match their own. This allows the grocery store at the end of the supply chain to backtrack and identify where orange juice has been diluted. Similar to food safety, there are other interesting use cases of blockchain technology:

The healthcare industry is investigating its use in tracking patient records and payment history
The financial services industry takes advantage of this technology to validate financial transactions
The energy industry uses it to protect against intraday price fluctuations in energy resources, such as solar and wind-generated energy.

Now that you know the basics, investigate blockchain and try it out for yourself!

Resources

Azure Infrastructure and Management Partner Community