Microsoft Inspire, Las Vegas 2018

Day 1 at Microsoft Inspire, Las Vegas

The 1^st day at Microsoft Inspire, the largest annual meet conducted by Microsoft, year after year for its network partners to gather on one platform and review as well as ready for the next insights from Microsoft and also to broaden the community’s understanding of its services and products and brainstorm on ideas and solutions that can be offered to the customers around the globe to be able to use the available services in an increasingly efficient manner was a feast for the eyes. With the largest gathering of IT brains all across the world, the event presented the numerous partners and employees who traveled from lands near and far a plethora of opportunities than ever wherein everyone gathered in the T-Mobile Arena to hear to the world leaders talk about how Microsoft technologies and services were being channeled y the partners and global entrepreneurs to bring innovation and ease the life of customers and change business perspectives through intelligent transformation  across borders.

The focus was also on the upcoming financial year 2019 on how industry specific solutions and customer centric policies and updates that would not only help acquire new customers and businesses but also help retain the previous clientele. New strategies, enhanced training methodologies and readiness opportunities for the new players that come into the market and anchor themselves with Microsoft technologies which would give them the much needed base for growth in the industry.

The evening also witnessed great insights from Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice president, One Commercial Partner, about programs, tools and resources that would help partners to rejuvenate as well as differentiate their business with the help of latest Microsoft technologies and updates.

 Day 2nd  Microsoft Inspire, Las Vegas

Corenote, about to start at 8.30 AM Pacific Time was filled with activities and similar sessions  with opportunities to connect with active partner communities at the Community Hub. Shuttle services from the hotels started from as early as 6 AM. With resources available to book meeting spaces and also tools that allow booking face-to- face meetings with other attendees till a maximum 9 members per meeting.  Also the meeting could be reserved for available slots at the MyInspire meeting tables or any other alternate locations. The Happy Hours in The Commons started from 5 PM to 7 PM that provided unparalleled opportunity to meet up fellow partners and Microsoft Ready Attendees.

Day 3rd  Microsoft Inspire, Las Vegas

that concluded the Corenote at Las Vegas, Nevada was made all the more worth it by the  address of Satya Nadella that enlightened the audience comprising of partners and employees on how Microsoft planned to harp on its mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more using its latest technologies such as the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud and Microsoft Intelligent Edge.  There were talks by Microsoft Solution area leaders who spoke about new resources and assets that aided delivery of strong Modern Life Solutions with stories from customers all around the world that showed how Microsoft 365 enabled employees to bring in more innovation and creativity into the workspace. Also, the day included details about the expansion of the Azure platform that enabled improvisation across multiple domains.

Enamoring the event were performances from Grammy Award Winner Bruno Mars at One Celebration, Las Vegas Motor Speedway which added to the quotient of entertainment, networking and fun of the event. With the event in full swing, Microsoft also added to the excitement by putting up 10 new announcements which have already started creating ripples in the market and the results of these announcements would be soon seen in numbers. The announcements put forth by Microsoft are as listed below

• New marketplace capabilities such as Integrated Partner to Partner Solutions that will help channels grow their business with sales and deployment.
• Expansion of Private Offers in Azure Marketplace that will help partners move away from standard prices, offer better buying prices to customers who in turn achieve a unique buying experience and meet their buying needs.
• Special Bootcamps and free access to the dynamic self service for partners, including business insights which would help them get a better understanding of the business apps and enable them to understand performance and stability of their business.
• Microsoft also announced advanced specialization and services for its partners that would help them go the extra mile and boost their profitability.
• The Azure Expert MSP or Managed Service Provider program which begun as a pilot program earlier this year has been introduced by Microsoft for their partners who stand out of the crowd by demonstrating extra ordinary skills in delivering consistent Managed Services in Azure
• Market Benefits Package: Helping its partners build market practices that are more targeted and help partners to select from four business packages depending on their business focus in the later part of the year.
• New Apps and Technologies for Azure: Announcements regarding the launch of Azure Data Box Disk and Azure Firewall and Azure Virtual WAN. These innovations seem quite promising when it comes to data transfer within organizations as well as compliance policies.
• Microsoft 365 Updates: Announcing the availability of Microsoft Teams collaboration app as a free version in the Office 365 suite. Also, an additional feature of Workplace Analytics was added that would help teams discover and meet challenges.
• Updates on Software as Services: Releasing updates on a lot many services from its plethora of services such as Azure IoT Central which would in turn support for Power BI and Microsoft Flow to enable real time intelligence visualization.
• Expansion of the Microsoft Library of free playbooks with two new additions to help its partners build practices in new arenas which would serve as guidelines for managing and developing cloud practices.