About Christian Longstaff

Hi. I work for Microsoft Australia as the Azure Business Development Manager, helping partners grow their businesses with the Microsoft Cloud platform. I have been with the company for over 12 years in various partner facing, business development and technical marketing roles. This blog covers a variety of topics but I am especially interested in Partners adopting, selling, developing and supporting Microsoft Azure, but also any software, services and communities. I would love to hear from you if you have a great powered-by-Azure example, especially around Mobile, Social Media Apps or Websites. To contact me, please email christian dot longstaff at microsoft dot com

Partner Summit Road Show 2013

The Partner team are about to embark on a 5 city road show to share the latest news with partners across  2 days.Day One will cover:

Day One Day Two
What’s new in Windows 8.1 Business Model Transformation Workshop – this half-day workshop is designed specifically for senior management teams of Microsoft Partners who want to understand how to design a profitable cloud practice and the next steps for your organisation to make this transition.
Selling devices with Windows 8 Device Day – this half-day session will take a deeper look at the opportunity for Microsoft Partners in the world of devices and apps. Whether you are selling devices, building apps or managing and securing devices for your customers.
What’s next for Office 365 Optional – Education Days (see below)
Product campaigns to help you market to your customers  
How to Sell – selecting the right licence type for your customers  

Mark these dates in your calendar and register today to secure your spot.  We look forward to seeing you there!

New this Year to Day two of Partner Summit “The Education Stream”

Education is increasingly a competitive and critical market for Microsoft and our partners, with key organisations seeing the long term value of winning the institution and seeding their brand through these schools to reach teachers, students and parents. The combination of the consumerisation of IT, technology adoption at younger ages, the accelerating desire for 1:1 computing and BYOD are requiring schools to take more innovative approaches to learning in the classroom.

If you focus on the Education Industry Mark these dates in your calendar and register today to secure your spot. 

Azure Remote Desktop Services now permitted for Service Provider Partners

Windows IT Pro reports that Microsoft has announced a licensing change to Remote Desktop Services (RDS), allowing service providers (partners) to use RDS to offer remote connections to applications and shared desktops that are being hosted in a VM on Windows Azure.

The Microsoft Product User Rights has been updated to also reflect the changes:  Microsoft Product Use Rights and Product List. The licensing has been updated in the Windows Azure Licensing FAQ here: Remote Desktop Services on Windows Azure (as per the below snippet):

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Note that the licensing changes are only for partners, not Enterprises or end users.

This table may also be useful for partners wanting to know what licensing options are available for other Microsoft Server workloads supported by Windows Azure Virtual Machines from http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/licensing-faq/#header-3 

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New Horizons Windows Azure Seminar

Together with New Horizons, Microsoft have arranged complimentary training all about Windows Azure Infrastructure Services. You will learn about Windows Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Networking, and how to manage it all. This session is a must for IT professionals in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane – but sign up now, because seats will certainly go fast!

Event Highlights:

  • Explore the capabilities and benefits of Windows Azure
  • Learn how to meet growing demands with limited resources
  • Discover the secrets to reducing IT costs while increasing scalability, & flexibility
  • Understand how to build applications across a global network
  • Master seamless public cloud – existing IT environment integration
  • Stay relevant in the constantly evolving world of Cloud Computing

Audience:

  • Network Managers
  • IT/Infrastructure Managers
  • Info. Services Managers
  • Chief Operations Officers
  • Cloud Systems Manager
  • Cloud Alliance Managers
  • Cloud Computing Architect

LOCATIONS & DATES:

SYDNEY: Tue, 18th June, 2013
Microsoft – Sydney, North Ryde, NSW (Map)
8:30am – 10:00am
10:30am – 12:00pm

BRISBANE: Wed, 19th June, 2013
Microsoft – Brisbane, Brisbane City, QLD (Map)
10:00am – 11:30am

MELBOURNE: Fri, 21st June, 2013
Microsoft – Melbourne, Southbank, VIC (Map)
9:00am – 10:30am

Register: http://www.nhaustralia.com.au/events/Event-Details?e=577

Azure IT Pro Training

Learn about the latest capabilities with the newest Windows Azure release! This Jump Start training focuses on key technical topics including Windows Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks and PaaS implementation for IT Pros.

David Tesar (Azure Technical Evangelist) and David Aiken (Azure Group Technical Product Manager) show how you can use Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, such as Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks, to migrate, extend, run, manage and monitor common workloads in the cloud.

Download the course contest and sit the assessment at no charge at http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/windows-azure-for-it-professionals-jump-start

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Lessons learned from using Azure VMs

Now that Windows Azure IaaS is now generally available, Nuno from partner Aditi, has provided a list of lessons learned from using Azure VMs.

  1. Place each data disk in a single storage account to improve IOPS;
  2. Always use Data Disks for Read/Write intensive operations, never the OS Disk;
  3. Use striped disks to achieve better performance;
  4. Configure Data Disks HostCache for ReadWrite;
  5. Always create VMs inside a Affinity Group or VNET to decrease latency;
  6. Always leverage Availability Sets to get SLA;
  7. Always sysprep your machines;
  8. Never place intensive read/write information on the Windows System Drive for improved performance;
  9. Never place persistent information on the Temporary Drive (D:).

Visit Nuno’s blog for more detail: http://blog.aditi.com/cloud/windows-azure-virtual-machines-lessons-learned/

Register for a Cloud Business Model Transformation Workshop 30 June

Adding a cloud practice to your business requires much more planning than adding a product or service. It is a journey that will impact many areas of your traditional operations, as well as the priorities of the leaders responsible for them. It will encompass new thinking by your leadership team beginning with the company value proposition to your customers. It will also impact how you deliver that value proposition in your services delivery, sales, and marketing operations.

The Business Model Transformation Workshop is a one-day workshop designed specifically for senior management teams of Microsoft partners who want to understand how to design a cloud practice to deliver expected profit, and how to chart a path to guide your company through the transition.

Major topics covered in this workshop are:

  • The impact Cloud based offerings will have on existing partner business models.
  • Aligning your business value proposition with the new Cloud paradigm.
  • Creating a financial pro forma plan that quantifies the potential cloud opportunities based on your competencies.
  • Incorporating new customer expectations and buying behaviours into your marketing and sales strategy and execution model.
  • Creating an action plan for change that aligns your organization around the value proposition of Cloud Services.

If you are interested in understanding the economic and business model implications of operating a cloud based practice, the Business Model Transformation is the ideal starting point.

  • Who should attend: Two senior people, such as CEO; Sales Leader or Services Delivery Leader
  • When: 30 May 2013
  • Where: Microsoft, 1 Epping Road, North Ryde
  • Timing: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
  • Workshop Purpose: Development of your specific business plan that will allow you to enhance or integrate your Cloud solutions into your current business model.
  • Cost: Complimentary

Attendees should bring their laptop.

Register now>

Windows Azure Partner Training Webinars

Please join us for this series of Partner webinars delivered by our Global Partner Services Team. You will learn about the many new features available in Windows Azure as well as the opportunities for Microsoft Partners.

You may either register for the series or for an individual session.

Session Title Objective Date & Time Registration / Download Link
WINDOWS AZURE OVERVIEW You will receive a high level understanding about all of the services that are part of the Windows Azure platform. 16 May, 2pm-4pm Webinar and slides
INTRODUCTION TO INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE You will learn about The Cloud Landscape • Types of Cloud offerings • Introduction to Windows Azure VMs • Understanding regions and Affinity groups • Creating Virtual Machines • The Virtual Machine Costing structure • Demo: Host a load balanced ASP.NET application 23 May, 2pm-4pm Webinar and slides
AZURE STORAGE You will learn about Windows Azure Storage Concepts • Using Tables • Using Blobs • Using Queues • Monitoring storage from Management 30 May, 2pm-4pm Webinar and slides
MIGRATING WORKLOADS TO AZURE VIRTUAL MACHINES How to deploy apps to VMs to Windows Azure 6 June, 2pm-4pm Webinar, slides and HOL
BUILDING HYBRID APPS You will learn the various scenarios our customers face and what tools and techniques are available. 13 June, 2pm-4pm Webinar and slides
SITE TO SITE VIRTUAL NETWORKS

You will learn about how to setup and configure a Vnet,build hybrid solutions using VPNs to connect to data on premises. A way to reduce your storage and archive costs with a cloud solution that can save you 60 – 80% compared to your current costs?

· A more effective, cost efficient way to manage BIG file archives and repositories (SharePoint)?

· A more effective, cost efficient way to manage the massive amount of content in BIG file shares?

· A way to replace tape as a means of offsite data protection – backup and restore?

20 June, 2pm-4pm Register now >

6 Weeks of Windows Azure Australia

Register for our 6 Weeks of Windows Azure training program to learn how to go from Cloud zero to Cloud hero. Each week will be themed around a different aspect of adopting the cloud – // Design / Build / Test / Market / Sell. And the best bit is … you won’t need to leave your office to take part as we will be delivering the majority through interactive webinars with a smidgen of really impactful sessions which will take place at various places around the country.

We are planning two tracks: Technical and Business. The Microsoft and Industry Speakers are about to be announced from Microsoft, but if you want to be involved as a speaker or as a member of the community, please let us know.