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A commitment to security and transparency at Microsoft Inspire 2017
Microsoft Inspire (formerly Worldwide Partner Conference) gathered 16,000 attendees from around the world last week in Washington DC. At the event, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to its partners and its mission to “empower people to be more productive”. To kick off an exciting week, CEO Satya Nadella made five major announcements during the first vision keynote, including the introduction of Microsoft 365.
Commitment to security and transparency
During the vision keynote on day two, President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith provided updates and affirmation of Microsoft’s commitment to security and privacy. Smith promised dedication to security, saying, “Technology for technology’s sake isn’t particularly valuable. Applying technology towards solving human problems is where you unlock the value”. Smith presented a four-part integrated approach to confront ever-evolving cybersecurity threats: Platform, Intelligence, Partners, and Policies. With the cloud being bigger than ever before, Smith says every business has a digital opportunity. Microsoft has committed “new energy, new focus, new resources” to responding to security threats faster and better than ever before. These cloud principles and improved security features in Microsoft 365 will give partners better end to end security management. Better security and transparency help Microsoft and its partners build trust, and “move technology forward without leaving people behind”.
Security focused product announcements
Microsoft 365 is a new solution that combines software, management, and security options into a single subscription. Partners can choose from two solutions, Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business. Both options provide productivity and security capabilities and a cohesive experience across applications and devices, while simplifying delivery and management for IT.
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Includes Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security
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Available in two plans, as Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5
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Available August 1
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Includes Office 365 Business Premium, security and management features for Office apps and Windows 10 devices, upgrade rights to Windows 10, and a centralized IT console
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For small and medium-sized businesses
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Available in public preview on August 2
Partners can play a vital role in General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, by assessing customers’ readiness and helping them adapt to it.
Help your customers protect against breaches, detect breaches, and respond to breaches with a comprehensive security solution. This playbook focuses coverage on Microsoft products and services that play a critical role in securing this environment. Download the playbook here.
Microsoft recently announced its new hero offer called Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE). SPE provides the latest technology across Windows, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS). Frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time as businesses and consumers are increasingly aware of cybersecurity concerns. Here’s what partners can expect in terms of security capabilities from the innovative Microsoft stack and how they can leverage those capabilities to serve customers.
Conclusion
Inspire was surely an inspiring week for the partners who attended. With continued advances in the cloud and a better way for partners to build a modern, cohesive, and secure work environment with Microsoft 365, it should also be an exciting year.
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Introducing Microsoft 365
By Kirk Koenigsbauer as written on blogs.office.com
Today at Inspire, Satya Nadella unveiled Microsoft 365, which brings together Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security, delivering a complete, intelligent and secure solution to empower employees. It represents a fundamental shift in how we will design, build and go to market to address our customers’ needs for a modern workplace.
The workplace is transforming—from changing employee expectations, to more diverse and globally distributed teams, to an increasingly complex threat landscape. From these trends, we are seeing a new culture of work emerging. Our customers are telling us they are looking to empower their people with innovative technology to embrace this modern culture of work.
With more than 100 million commercial monthly active users of Office 365, and more than 500 million Windows 10 devices in use, Microsoft is in a unique position to help companies empower their employees, unlocking business growth and innovation.
To address the commercial needs from the largest enterprise to the smallest business, we are introducing Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise is designed for large organizations and integrates Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security to empower employees to be creative and work together, securely.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise:
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Unlocks creativity by enabling people to work naturally with ink, voice and touch, all backed by tools that utilize AI and machine learning.
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Provides the broadest and deepest set of apps and services with a universal toolkit for teamwork, giving people flexibility and choice in how they connect, share and communicate.
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Simplifies IT by unifying management across users, devices, apps and services.
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Helps safeguard customer data, company data and intellectual property with built-in, intelligent security.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise is offered in two plans—Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5. Both are available for purchase on August 1, 2017.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise is built on the foundation of the highly successful Secure Productive Enterprise, which grew seats by triple digits in the last year. Going forward, Microsoft 365 Enterprise replaces Secure Productive Enterprise to double-down on the new customer promise of empowering employees to be creative and work together, securely.
Microsoft 365 Business is designed for small- to medium-sized businesses with up to 300 users and integrates Office 365 Business Premium with tailored security and management features from Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It offers services to empower employees, safeguard the business and simplify IT management.
Microsoft 365 Business:
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Helps companies achieve more together by better connecting employees, customers and suppliers.
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Empowers employees to get work done from anywhere, on any device.
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Protects company data across devices with always-on security.
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Simplifies the set-up and management of employee devices and services with a single IT console.
Microsoft 365 Business will be available in public preview on August 2, 2017. It will become generally available on a worldwide basis in the fall of 2017, priced at US $20 per user, per month.
As a part of our commitment to small-to-medium sized customers, we’re also announcing the preview of three tailored applications that are coming to Office 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Business:
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Microsoft Connections—A simple-to-use email marketing service.
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Microsoft Listings—An easy way to publish your business information on top sites.
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Microsoft Invoicing—A new way to create professional invoices and get paid fast.
Today, we are also announcing that Microsoft’s mileage tracking app, MileIQ, is now included with Office 365 Business Premium.
Satya also discussed how Microsoft 365 represents a significant opportunity for partners to grow their businesses. Microsoft 365 will drive growth by enabling our more than 64,000 cloud partners to differentiate their offerings, simplify their sales processes and increase their revenue.
According to two Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Studies (commissioned studies conducted by Forrester Consulting), Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business increase average partner margins by an estimated 35 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over three years. Partners can learn more and explore training, sales and deployment resources on the Microsoft 365 partner site.
We are incredibly enthusiastic about Microsoft 365 and how it will help customers and partners drive growth and innovation. To learn more about Microsoft 365, please visit Microsoft.com/Microsoft-365.
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July 20, 2017 – At “Inspire,” Microsoft’s Annual Global Conference, held earlier this month in Washington D.C. Managed Solution, the top 1% of Microsoft Cloud Service Providers worldwide, was honored with “CIE Facilitator of the Year” Award.
This prestigious accolade recognizes Managed Solution’s contributions to the SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise communities for their commitment to excellence in delivery and execution in conducting dozens of Customer Immersion Experiences in the Southwest. The Marketing Team at Managed Solution developed innovative engagement experiences for attendees with the development of HoloLens demos and virtual CIEs.
About CIEs: Customer Immersion Experiences are provided, in a public or private setting, with up to 12 team members. Lunch is provided by Microsoft and participants engage with the suite of Office 365 products. Attendees interact with software in a classroom environment and learn actionable ways to boost productivity within the workplace.
About Managed Solution: Managed Solution was founded in 2002 and was quickly recognized as one of San Diego’s 40 fastest growing companies and the 27th fastest growing IT company in Southern California. With corporate headquarters in San Diego, Managed Solution provides IT services nationwide and was recently recognized as one of the top 10 National Cloud Service Providers.
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Last week, the Managed Solution team joined thousands of other Microsoft partners for Inspire – Microsoft’s annual world partner conference in Washington D.C. As a premier partner, Managed Solution is in the top 1% of Microsoft Cloud Service Providers worldwide and fully aligned with Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
It is the one time of year when Microsoft invites partners from around the world to celebrate this past year’s successes, unveil changes with insights, and offer best practices with advice for how to empower customers and enhance end user experience in a digital world.
The week is composed of a daily keynote by a Microsoft executive, followed by hundreds of learning sessions. Several topics are discussed, such as: How do you bring out critical thinking and creativity in the workplace? How do we create dynamic teams that come together to service a customer in different ways?
Major announcements at Microsoft Inspire answered these questions with the launch of Microsoft 365 and enhanced resources to help customers address the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Microsoft 365
As a complete, secure, and intelligent solution to empower employees, Microsoft 365 now rolls together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security into a single secure package to help end users be more productive while increasing protection.
With more than 100 million commercial monthly active users of Office 365, and more than 500 million Windows 10 devices in use, Microsoft is in a unique position to empower employees to be creative and work together, securely. To address the commercial needs from the largest enterprise to the smallest business, Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business were introduced.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Meeting the requirements of the European Union’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by May 25, 2018 is a pressing topic for many organizations worldwide. In Microsoft’s effort to provide customers with helpful GDPR compliance resources, they have been hosting webinars and discussions around how the Microsoft Cloud, including Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, and Azure data services, Enterprise Mobility + Security, and Windows 10 can help customers on their GDPR compliance journey. They have backed up their commitments through their contracts and by sharing their experience, as well as other partners’ experiences, with their audiences along the way.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, discussed the advent of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. It is his belief that soon everything will become multi-device and AI will be intrinsic in every application built. Nadella spoke about the four main goals of digital transformation: the empowerment of employees, the engagement of customers, the optimization of operations, and the transformation of products.
“We’ve just skimmed the surface of how much support – sales tools, product training, case studies, sales teams, etc. – Microsoft has created to help its partners succeed. Today, MSPs around the globe are struggling with some of the same issues that we do. Addressing those issues is precisely why SNAP & Stratogator have such a bright future, not just in the U.S.” - Susan Kuruvilla, CEO, Managed Solution
Two New Tools to Optimize Cloud Spend & Operational Efficiency
With Microsoft's “all-in” strategy to help customers move to the cloud, the Microsoft Inspire conference was the perfect opportunity for Managed Solution to launch two new tools that empower MSPs to govern their cloud adoption, as we move towards digital transformation, and ensure their customers are receiving the best price for these cloud instances. Chairman and Founder of Managed Solution, Sean Ferrel, launched and demoed these tools at Booth #103 on the exhibit floor at the conference.
1. SNAP: Cloud Service Marketplace that evolves with the market and offers new services, bundles, and SKUs for your cloud sales organization. Customize and offer the selection of cloud services that your team needs to drive customer sales.
2. StratoGator/AzureGator: Cloud Service Brokerage Platform where aggregation of top tier cloud providers in the Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) space will be compared against one another based on three pillars: cost, management, and reporting. Providing a user friendly centralized marketplace for Channel Partners allowing them to reduce overhead by 30-40%.
Ferrel also shared how these tools provide the customization MSPs need to support and sell to their customers both within and outside the cloud. These tools finally give the managed services provider the control they need and their customers want over their Microsoft products, streamlining their ability to align with the changes and vision of the tech giant.
“Microsoft is super-successful right now, yet still changing. That's an indication that they're future-focused and have a vision for where this is all headed. They're not complacent which inspires us to continue to innovate.” - Tina Rountree, Director of Sales, Managed Solution
Transformed Through Digital Technology
During Microsoft Inspire, partners shared stories around the ways that they are using Microsoft solutions to improve their communities as well as bring about positive change in the world. Working closely together allows us to build and go-to-market with innovative solutions for the long-term journey for our customers – as Nadella stated in his remarks, we create a strong local impact that ultimately has a profound global impact.
“With increasing digitization, where every part of our society and economy is being fundamentally transformed because of digital technology, the opportunity is greater than ever before," Nadella said, relating his vision back to his partner audience. "Being in this industry, being in this [Microsoft partner] ecosystem, the opportunity is tremendous.” -Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
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