Microsoft Hosting Summit to Strengthen Partnerships for 2010. But why Bellevue?

Why are
we holding Microsoft’s annual Hosting Summit in Bellevue, WA instead of some
more exotic location like Miami, Dubai or Singapore? The answer is simple. Access.
My goal of the Summit is to create an environment where hosters can share their
thoughts on the hosting industry with Microsoft and each other as well as hear
Microsoft’s view of the hosting industry. Having the event in Bellevue gives
hosters the maximum amount of access to Microsoft staff ranging from Bob
Muglia, president, Server and Tools Business, to product managers in the System
Center group responsible for specific features.

If I do
my job well, hosters’ view of market trends and realities will penetrate deep
into Microsoft and Microsoft’s Cloud strategy will reach deep into the hosting
community. In turn this will help all of us evolve our strategies so that we
can jointly win in the market.

What you
might not realize is that this is an invitation only event for Microsoft
employees also. This year, we had to turn down more people from Microsoft than
ever before. They all want to learn how to enable the hosting community.
In the five years that I have been participating in this Summit the tone has
changed considerably. In the beginning, we struggled for content that was
relevant to hosters. It felt more like a one way conversation where hosters
told us what they needed and we were only satisfying a small portion of those
requests. Today, we have more to share than we can fit in a 2 day conference.
And this has all come about because of your feedback and willingness to partner
with us.

I look
forward to the next two days.

John
Zanni, general manager, Worldwide Hosting, Microsoft Communications Sector