How Openness Translates into Opportunities for Microsoft Partners

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Posted by Mark Hill
Vice President, Open Source Sales and Marketing

Worldwide Partner Conference 2014 (WPC) kicks off today in Washington D.C., where partners get to see first-hand how Microsoft’s mobile-first, cloud-first vision translates into partner opportunities. As Satya Nadella said in a message to employees last week, “developers and partners will thrive by creatively extending Microsoft experiences for every individual and business on the planet.”

Openness is crucial to enabling this thriving technology ecosystem and we’ve seen some big milestones this year in working with open source communities and in delivering an open cloud platform. From significantly increased engagement with open source developers to releasing Office for iPad and betting big on Hadoop for big data, we’re showing that openness is ingrained in our day-to-day approach to business and I’m excited about what’s still to come.

WPC is great opportunity for us to further illustrate how this spirit of openness translates into tangible opportunities for our partners. If you’re at the event, there are a few ways to connect with the Openness team:

  • Stop by our booth in the Microsoft Central area of the One Microsoft Expo (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday).
  • Refresh at our Openness Happy Hour with surprise musical guest, also in the Microsoft Central area of the One Microsoft Expo (Tuesday at 4:30pm to 5:30pm).
  • Participate in my one-hour “Microsoft Open Source Software Strategy and Partner Opportunities” sessions at Convention Center room 145B (Monday at 1pm; Tuesday at 9am; Wednesday at 4pm).

If you’re not in D.C. this week, you can watch Monday's WPC keynote live online (5:45am PT/8:45am ET).

Be sure to check back on the blog this week, when we’ll be highlighting key Openness partners who are working with us to deliver innovative cloud solutions that incorporate open data, big data, and open source software.