As many of you know MaximumASP was Microsoft’s 2009 Hosting Partner of the Year. I thought it would make an interesting blog post to discuss how to be a better Microsoft partner. To develop this post, I reached out to Monish Sood who is part of the hosting partner management team at Microsoft. Mo is based in Redmond and works with hosting partners worldwide. I have included below excerpts from my interview with him.
Q: Approximately how many hosting partners does Microsoft have?
A: Microsoft works with approximately 8,000 hosting partners worldwide to deliver enterprise-class solutions and rich user experiences to developers, designers, SMBs, enterprises, and consumers by leveraging the Windows hosting platform and services. We’re committed to helping our partners uncover new business opportunities and provide access to our vast training and support resources to serve their end customer and increase satisfaction.
Q: With so many hosting partners, what is the best way for a partner to engage with Microsoft?
A: Every Microsoft hosting partner has access to the vast resources within the Microsoft Partner Network. It offers partners training, sales support, marketing materials, and technical support. Partners that acquire the Hosting Competency typically have a designated partner account manager. Partners without an account manager should start with microsoft.com/hosting for technical guidance and general resources to help on latest solutions like the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit. For marketing and sales resources, partners should visit the Hosting Community section of the Microsoft Partner Network. It offers ready-to-use materials like the Web Hosting Sales Kit, which provides customizable Web pages, brochures, and PowerPoint templates to sell hosting services to small and medium businesses and Web developers and designers.
Q: How are you positioning Azure in the hosting community?
A: The Windows Azure platform provides secure, highly available compute and storage. For most customers this will be only an enabler, not a finished solution. We are counting on our partners, including hosters, to use Azure to build finished solutions. Microsoft for years has been helping its hosting partners move up the stack to offer value-added services vs. pure play hosting, and that goal remains today and in the future.
Hosting partner GoGrid is a good example. GoGrid interoperates with the Windows Azure Platform Application Lifecycle Management Service, allowing its customers to rapidly deploy load-balanced and hybrid servers without purchasing costly hardware. With the release of the Windows Azure platform, GoGrid has been able to extend its services and enable customers to develop, test, deploy, and back up applications built on the Windows Azure platform efficiently and cost-effectively.
Another great example is the work we’ve been doing with Mamut, who recently built Mamut Online Backup on Windows Azure. The idea behind Mamut Online Backup was to create a secure, cost-effective and user-friendly backup solution that ensures important files are automatically encrypted and protected at all times. Mamut chose Windows Azure given the affordability of the platform and its ability to meet the demands on their server solution as their customer base increased.
Q: You recently launched the Website Spark program, how’s it going?
A: The WebsiteSpark program has been tremendously successful since its launch – we’ve actually signed up roughly fifteen thousand Web professionals (designers and developers). As you know, the program was designed to help enable business development for professional Web development and design companies with up to 10 employees. The program helps Web Pros drive new business opportunities through increased visibility and connections with partners (including Web Hosters) and customers around the world; WebsiteSpark also provides Web Pros with Microsoft tools and hosting solutions, as well as support and training.
Q: Are there any changes that will impact hosters we can expect over the next 12 months.
A: Microsoft is continually working with partners to improve products, solutions, and SPLA pricing to enable partners to successfully go to market with their services. While we don’t have anything specific to report at this time, I can say that we have enhancements planned for the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit and the web hosting catalogs that drive more demand and traffic to partner sites. Additionally, we are introducing SharePoint 2010 which is will offer native multi-tenant features and functionality for SharePoint foundation and SharePoint server 2010
About Stacy Griggs
Stacy Griggs is Sr. Director of Customer Experience for Cbeyond Cloud Services , previously Stacy was the Vice President of Sales for MaximumASP which was acquired by Cbeyond in 2011. Cbeyond (NASD-CBEY) is a publicly traded provider of telecommunication and cloud services, which has been recognized by Microsoft at its 2009 Worldwide Hosting Partner of the Year and 2010 Hyper-V Cloud Provider of the Year. Prior to Cbeyond Stacy held a series of positions at Hosting.com including Chief Sales Officer, Chief Service Officer and General Manager for their flagship Delaware data center.
Stacy has led several information technology services companies over the last 15 years. He was a Managing Director for KForce a $1 Billion publicly traded professional services firm. At KForce Stacy managed 5 business units that collectively generated $18 Million in revenue and had 140 employees. Prior to KForce Stacy was a Vice President and part-owner of Diamond Technologies, an 80 employee custom software development firm. Previously Stacy held management positions at TMP Worldwide, the University of Pennsylvania, and Humana.
Through his theWHIR blog, Stacy will touch upon sales and service in the Web hosting space, web hosting events, cloud computing and industry trends.
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