Geek Speak

One grand tour ends (the Tour de France) and another begins, the Tour de Cloud! You can now register for this multi-city roadshow featuring Azure, Office 365 and Windows starting late summer 2016.

Independent. The main asset of the Tour de Cloud is our independence. We pride ourselves

Another year, another WPC. This conference, boasting over 16,000 attendees, recently concluded in Toronto so a few shout outs are in order.

Microsoft Professional Degree (MPD). A new twist on an old concept was introduced and I both like it and dislike it. Microsoft has pivoted

It’s been nearly a month since Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in an all-cash transaction that valued it at a 50 percent premium. That’s not just a financial merger but clearly strategic. Why? Because Microsoft is placing big bets on the future with LinkedIn’s audience and its own acquisition of Lynda.com,

a channel for learning videos that LinkedIn bought for $1.5 billion in 2015. But enough Wall Street talk. What’s it all mean?

I assert that Microsoft is now competing with

Some weeks it feels like it’s always something. With the end of the Microsoft fiscal year upon us, there are, at least for SMB Nation, renewal deadlines upon us. For example we have to renew our Office 365 E3 partner plan as part of the Action Pack membership level. Understood.

But what I didn’t understand was how my pivot from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to the hosted version would trigger a one-month payment penalty. Let me explain.

Time to look forward to the future in the SMB partner community. You will recall that we have presented two prior installments on our annual salary survey in past issues (Educated and Income) I’d encourage you to refill your coffee (or your beer), review those prior installments before proceeding further. I’ll wait here.

Recently a friend of SMB Nation asked what’s going on at SMB Nation? The question created an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve accomplished this past few years. And it offered insights that we need to be louder in trumpeting our accomplishments (forgive the pun).

It’s our annual giving campaign and we want to take a moment to thank you for your support. Supporting SMB Nation over the past 15+ years has allowed us to act as your independent ombudsman in the small and medium-business technology arena. We’re all in this together!

This past week was a nationwide celebration called Cinco de Mayo. It was also National Small Business Week supported by the Small Business Administration (SBA). It’s an annual opportunity to reflect back on our roots as small business owners ourselves.

By: Harry Brelsford

An oft-quoted classic movie scene from “The Graduate” (1967) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graduate] concerns a successful businessman giving career advice to 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) to go into plastics as a career choice.

Techaisle forecasts that US SMB IT spend growth rate could very well remain flat at US$188 billion in 2016 as compared to 2015. However, the US midmarket spending growth will likely increase by 6% whereas the small business spending will fall by 2 percent in 2016 from 2015.

Antony Savvas (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

 Two thirds want a VAR or service provider to help them shows Barracuda research

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