2008 WPC
If you are attending the World Wide Partner conference, hopefully we'll get to meet. I'll be there this year, this will be my first conference. In an effort to be prepared for the conference, I took a look at the following article.
Take a Seat at WPC
http://redmondchannelpartner.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=2488
Two of their top selections stand out to me (below). For those of you that don't know me very well, Virtualization is one of my ultimate passions. I think this technology has so much potential and we have only scratched the surface. I've watched virtualization evolve over the past 5 years and I feel it will continue to evolve to the point that there will be no difference between a physical and virtual machine. I'm looking forward to the dynamic management of host resources.
Back to the WPC. Below are the two sections that stand out to me, please check out the article for your personal preferences.
6. Growing Your Core Infrastructure Business through Virtualization Opportunities
Virtualization is one IT area that's growing, dovetailing as it does with the current twin impulses to save money and make infrastructure greener. In recent years, Microsoft has been busy with technological development and acquisitions; currently, the company has about as much virtualization technology on the market as anyone between its own brand and those of close industry partners such as Citrix Systems Inc. This session combines virtualization with infrastructure optimization (IO), another Microsoft pet project (for more on IO, see "Optimize Sales," February 2008).
11. Business Intelligence: 'Ask the Expert' Panel Discussion
With the new version of SQL Server 2008 released on top of the business intelligence (BI) capabilities built into Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, BI is top-of-mind for many partners. Given the generally longer adoption cycles for databases and BI technologies, there's still time for partners to think about exactly how they'll get in on the SQL Server opportunities before the market erupts. This panel discussion builds on the basics outlined in another WPC session titled "Business Intelligence: The Fundamentals of Building Your Practice."
I still think "Business Intelligence" is still somewhat of an oxymoron though. LOL! BI has so much potential. Just think about how many decisions used to take days to make because of the data that had to be collected and reviewed. Now these decisions can be made in less than a day because of the faster hardware and the better organization of the data. BI has already made such a difference, I'm excited to see how BI will continue to evolve.
I hope to see you there.
Until next time!
Rob