This week, Microsoft will be holding its Global Hosting Summit in Seattle, and theWHIR will be there to provide as-it-happens coverage of the event.
The Global Hosting Summit is an annual event that brings together executives from Microsoft's top 180 hosting partners to "discuss trends and influences, learn, and network together." Conference general sessions, says Microsoft, will cover the company's strategy for partnering with services providers, while breakout sessions and workshops will provide an opportunity for deeper discussions.
Microsoft's objectives for the event include describing its vision for the hosting industry; outlining its plan for "Software + Services" and the Microsoft-hosted roadmap; discussing how partners can go to market with hosted services; networking between Microsoft and the industry; and hearing about its partners concerns and challenges.
The Summit's key themes include "succeeding as a service provider with mounting competitive pressures," how to partner with Microsoft in a Software + Services world, partnering strategically in the SaaS ecosystems and selling hosted services to SMBs.
All that is pretty much a verbatim repeat of the information we've seen about the event so far. We'll be posting coverage of the event for the next three days, however. So check back with the WHIR blogs for more. We'll also be shooting material for WHIRtv at the event, and that will show up on the site over the next few weeks.
Microsoft is posting information about the event at this site.
Along with the objectives and themes material, Microsoft provided some demographics about the event. Of the 320 "decision makers" representing its partners, 37 percent identified their primary business as Web hosting provider, 20 percent said application hosting provider, 11 percent are hosted exchange providers, 11 percent are telecommunications provider, 6 percent are ISVs and 15 percent are "resellers, Sis, VARs, distributors [or] consultants."
That's about all for now (until the event actually begins), except to say, of course, that if you're there and you'd like to speak to theWHIR, we'll be around. So please come say hi.
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