B  V  A One of my favorite new features that offers significant business value to move to Windows 8 is the USB Windows to go .  Windows To Go workspace is an enterprise feature of Windows® 8 that enables users to boot Windows from a USB...

B  V  A Recently I have had several questions from Partners around Windows 8 and downloading the RTM, as well as, when it will be on the Volume licensing price sheet.  We have a number of programs that provides various audiences early access...

B  V  A I recently saw some interesting information out on the web on Windows Server 2012 and wanted to make sure everybody understands our licensing changes.  We are NOT moving to core licensing with Windows Server 2012! You can stack...

B  V  A The Cloud Easy Offer gives your customers choices on Microsoft Online solutions to fit their organization’s unique IT Productivity and investment requirements. Customers who make a qualifying Online Services purchase earn money back...

Q: (from Bill) Can you share with me some info on Windows 8 Media Center? I need to see if that will be available for the Enterprise sku...   A: Here are some blog entries from Steven Sinofsky: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/03/making...

  Woody Walton   Keeping in mind that there are many types of Microsoft partners, it is always a good idea to snoop around and see what training, readiness, and customer focused content is available for the partner community at large, even if...

Josh Condie – In continuing the theme of the blog entry that my friend and colleague Steve Deming posted about 3 weeks back (8/8/12), Microsoft is now making free exam vouchers available for individuals who were unable to pass exam 74-323.  The voucher...

  B   V  A   Welcome to the all-new: Partner Sales Skills Excellence Program Your Microsoft Partner Network training is about to get even easier. With the growing success of the current Microsoft Sales Specialist program (over...

Q: (from Matt) Do you know where we can find more information how mobile devices work with O365?   A: Here’s a nice summary: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/mobility.aspx Following are some more detailed resources: Messaging (Exchange Online...

Woody Walton   With the Release of Windows Server 2012 next week, you are likely to start getting asked more and more questions regarding the licensing changes to include transitions, retirements, and software assurance (SA) license grants among...

By Ron Grattopp ….Just wanted to update you on Microsoft Partner readiness opportunities and resources.  I’m hoping most of you are already familiar with these tools and resources and are using them to your best advantage, but it’s always good to...

If you have been researching the Small Business Competency , you may have read the feedback on the 74-323 Exam and that Microsoft is releasing a revised exam 74-324: Administering Office 365 for Small Businesses . In addition, the Jump Start readiness...

B  V  A As we head into the New Era at Microsoft, we will be launching new versions of many of our core solutions.  We will have many Partner oriented launch events starting in October, but I wanted to call attention to some other launch...

Q: (from Nikkia) Good morning Stephen!  It was great to meet you last night at the IAMCP DC chapter meeting!  I remember you saying (hopefully, remembering correctly) that SharePoint development can be done on Azure.  Is that true? ...

Are you prepared?!? Windows Server 2012 was released to manufacturing (RTM) earlier this month: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/08/01/windows-server-2012-released-to-manufacturing.aspx?Loc=zatfz_zTS1z&type=zEVz&media=zWCz&tech...

Q: (from Bill) I’m giving a presentation on Tuesday morning.  I’m going to be highlighting Windows 8 but also wanted to talk about the other product launches in this wave.  Do you have any resources that gives some details about the new versions...

Q: (from Bill) Is there a calculator somewhere to compute the Azure costs?   A: Here is a cost/usage calculator: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/ and here is an ROI calculator: http://www.microsoft.com/brasil/windowsazure/tco...

  By Ron Grattopp ….besides security and Windows, one of the themes I commonly blog about is training and certification.  A few months back I mentioned the great opportunity for you to win prizes by completing free training on Partner Learning...