"Microsoft copies Google, Salesforce, and Red Hat in new partner initiative"

That is the title of an article I found on News.com (click to read).
Actually I wanted to give a comment but their site is not working well, temporarily, so here goes my comment:

For persons that attended the WPC in Houston the idea of the new partnership strategy is clear. All the event was designed to tell us that MSFT is not preparing to attack their partner base, actually they are preparing to make more sense of the huge value added their partner base can provide.

Microsoft's goal is to provide all the platform needed by partners to concentrate on adding customization, services, development and of course consulting.

If you see, selling licenses is not very profitable if it is not used as an opportunity to get a customer. When the licenses are sold, then the customer could be better prepared to ask for other kind of ITC services. Therefore the business will be in the value added and that is 100% for the partner.

Microsoft's wish is to motivate partners to change their business models and get advantage of Software + Services. That would help partners to focus on sales, realization and worry less on infrastructure.

In the case of small business. Why to pay for hosting environments and maintenance when Live services are for free? (www.smb-email.com)

I don't think that MSFT is copying anybody. It is obvious that it is flexing its stronger muscle in order to catch up. Microsoft built this formidable partner base, and actually they depend on us for achiving success. If partners start moving to other technologies and add value using that new knowledge... then Microsoft could face a strong problem.

Where is the opportunity? Partners that adapt or change their business models fast will get the best out of it. Partners slower to adapt will see Microsoft as competition. This is a great moment for small business!