Microsoft’s Partner Competency Changes Signal End of an Era
By: Scott Bekker Microsoft has long favored its licensing partners — until now. The upcoming retirement of a dozen MPN competencies, including Volume Licensing, marks a turning point in how Microsoft does business through the channel. There were prophets and portents enough that Microsoft was driving its partners to cloud. You’d have to be willfully […]
‘Microsoft Professional Degree’ Pilot Program Launches
By: Gladys Rama Microsoft is testing out a new training and certification program aimed at professionals who want to deepen their knowledge of emerging technologies like Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT). The Microsoft Professional Degree (MPD) program was announced Wednesday at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) by Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft’s corporate vice […]
The cloud is a utility, and we’re fine with that – AWS
By: Jamie Davies While the telco industry is fighting to avoid being relegated to the likes of utilities, AWS has already accepted cloud computing is commoditized, reports Telecoms.com. As cloud as a concept continues to become normalized within the business world, the number of competitors is growing day by day. AWS would generally still be […]
What Can Microsoft Dynamics Partners Expect From WPC 2016?
By: Guus Krabbenborg Microsoft expects more than 15,000 participants from over 150 countries at this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference. This event will be held from July 10th to 14th in Toronto. For the first time in the history of the event, the Worldwide Partner Conference is sold out. That is a pretty remarkable shift, since […]
SEC filing shows LinkedIn negotiating skills are worth $5bn
By: Jason Davies The US Securities and Exchange Committee has released its filings outlining the road to Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, during which $5 billion was added to the value of the deal, reports Telecoms.com. Five parties were involved in the saga, which eventually led to the news breaking on June 13, with Microsoft agreeing […]
Oracle and Fujitsu partner up to tackle Japanese market
By: Jamie Davies Oracle and Fujitsu have announced a partnership to deliver Oracle cloud application and platform services to Japanese customers, reports Telecoms.com. As part of the agreement, Fujitsu will install will install Oracle Cloud services in its data centre’s in Japan, connect them to its Cloud Service K5 in order to deliver enterprise-grade cloud […]
Google adds image recognition to growing AI portfolio
By: Jamie Davies Google has continued its charge on the artificial intelligence market through purchasing French image recognition startup Moodstocks, reports Telecoms.com. Moodstocks, founded in 2008, develops machine-learning based image recognition technology for smartphones, which has been described by developers as the ‘Shazam for images’. Financials of the agreement have not been confirmed to date. […]
Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online: Designed for Integration
By: Karen Kroll By integrating an Office 365 subscription with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, businesses can leverage the power of two programs designed to work together. “People are already paying for these products. Often, the products can do everything they want,” especially when they work together, says Kyle Welliver, inside sales representative with Power Objects, […]
Facebook launches 30 made-for-VR games at E3
By: Business Cloud News Facebook, Bethesda Softworks and Sony are among the names to have announced new made-for-VR games at E3, reports Telecoms.com. Facebook has launched 30 made-for-VR games for the Oculus Touch as it continues efforts to diversify its portfolio. Aside from those being released in the coming months, the Oculus team have also […]
Microsoft commits to $26bn LinkedIn purchase in social media play
By: Jamie Davies Microsoft has made a play to enter the social market after announcing it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, reports Telecoms.com. The announcement will create one of the largest cloud acquisitions this year, with LinkedIn shares jumping 47% following the news. During the same period Microsoft […]