90 Minds Community

I love when vendors "explain" by pointing to some high-level blog post and say "see, we already explained our position" when the blog article actually doesn't explain jack shit.

The $15k for the Advanced Support was a pain but a minor pain for us. We paid it happily to get the extra level of support for our customers and we kept our margin level intact (mid-30s).

The reduction of IURs is unfathomable at first glance. We are slowly and steadily incorporating in the Microsoft technology to serve our customers and our internal needs. Would I be doing that if I didn't have free licenses? Maybe. Maybe not. But the free licenses have made the decision a no-brainer. And as we use it, it makes us evangelists for Microsoft.

Every other partner is similar to us. Microsoft has been getting a ton of free, positive, enthusiastic press through those free internal use licenses. I wonder what the cost in marketing $$ will be as they shut them down.

The angle they are taking is old news: It's too costly to deal with all the small fry resellers. They have slowly and steadily been implementing tactics to "solve this problem" and push partners to go through distribution as what's called an "indirect partner" versus go through Microsoft directly as a "direct" or "Tier-1" partner. 

This move will accelerate that somewhat as the distributors will beef up to provide first level of support around technical and licensing issues.

As for me and Azamba, I made the decision at the start of the year that I am going to evolve my model to be independent from software license revenue so I'm grateful to be a step ahead of most partners. But adding up what I'm going to pay in internal usage and my head starts to spin. That takes money away from conferences, training, marketing, and other critical investments. It's going to be an adjustment.

I love when vendors "explain" by pointing to some high-level blog post and say "see, we already explained our position" when the blog article actually doesn't explain jack shit.

The $15k for the Advanced Support was a pain but a minor pain for us. We paid it happily to get the extra level of support for our customers and we kept our margin level intact (mid-30s).

The reduction of IURs is unfathomable at first glance. We are slowly and steadily incorporating in the Microsoft technology to serve our customers and our internal needs. Would I be doing that if I didn't have free licenses? Maybe. Maybe not. But the free licenses have made the decision a no-brainer. And as we use it, it makes us evangelists for Microsoft.

Every other partner is similar to us. Microsoft has been getting a ton of free, positive, enthusiastic press through those free internal use licenses. I wonder what the cost in marketing $$ will be as they shut them down.

The angle they are taking is old news: It's too costly to deal with all the small fry resellers. They have slowly and steadily been implementing tactics to "solve this problem" and push partners to go through distribution as what's called an "indirect partner" versus go through Microsoft directly as a "direct" or "Tier-1" partner. 

This move will accelerate that somewhat as the distributors will beef up to provide first level of support around technical and licensing issues.

As for me and Azamba, I made the decision at the start of the year that I am going to evolve my model to be independent from software license revenue so I'm grateful to be a step ahead of most partners. But adding up what I'm going to pay in internal usage and my head starts to spin. That takes money away from conferences, training, marketing, and other critical investments. It's going to be an adjustment.

I love when vendors "explain" by pointing to some high-level blog post and say "see, we already explained our position" when the blog article actually doesn't explain jack shit.

The $15k for the Advanced Support was a pain but a minor pain for us. We paid it happily to get the extra level of support for our customers and we kept our margin level intact (mid-30s).

The reduction of IURs is unfathomable at first glance. We are slowly and steadily incorporating in the Microsoft technology to serve our customers and our internal needs. Would I be doing that if I didn't have free licenses? Maybe. Maybe not. But the free licenses have made the decision a no-brainer. And as we use it, it makes us evangelists for Microsoft.

Every other partner is similar to us. Microsoft has been getting a ton of free, positive, enthusiastic press through those free internal use licenses. I wonder what the cost in marketing $$ will be as they shut them down.

The angle they are taking is old news: It's too costly to deal with all the small fry resellers. They have slowly and steadily been implementing tactics to "solve this problem" and push partners to go through distribution as what's called an "indirect partner" versus go through Microsoft directly as a "direct" or "Tier-1" partner. 

This move will accelerate that somewhat as the distributors will beef up to provide first level of support around technical and licensing issues.

As for me and Azamba, I made the decision at the start of the year that I am going to evolve my model to be independent from software license revenue so I'm grateful to be a step ahead of most partners. But adding up what I'm going to pay in internal usage and my head starts to spin. That takes money away from conferences, training, marketing, and other critical investments. It's going to be an adjustment.

I love when vendors "explain" by pointing to some high-level blog post and say "see, we already explained our position" when the blog article actually doesn't explain jack shit.

The $15k for the Advanced Support was a pain but a minor pain for us. We paid it happily to get the extra level of support for our customers and we kept our margin level intact (mid-30s).

The reduction of IURs is unfathomable at first glance. We are slowly and steadily incorporating in the Microsoft technology to serve our customers and our internal needs. Would I be doing that if I didn't have free licenses? Maybe. Maybe not. But the free licenses have made the decision a no-brainer. And as we use it, it makes us evangelists for Microsoft.

Every other partner is similar to us. Microsoft has been getting a ton of free, positive, enthusiastic press through those free internal use licenses. I wonder what the cost in marketing $$ will be as they shut them down.

The angle they are taking is old news: It's too costly to deal with all the small fry resellers. They have slowly and steadily been implementing tactics to "solve this problem" and push partners to go through distribution as what's called an "indirect partner" versus go through Microsoft directly as a "direct" or "Tier-1" partner. 

This move will accelerate that somewhat as the distributors will beef up to provide first level of support around technical and licensing issues.

As for me and Azamba, I made the decision at the start of the year that I am going to evolve my model to be independent from software license revenue so I'm grateful to be a step ahead of most partners. But adding up what I'm going to pay in internal usage and my head starts to spin. That takes money away from conferences, training, marketing, and other critical investments. It's going to be an adjustment.

I love when vendors "explain" by pointing to some high-level blog post and say "see, we already explained our position" when the blog article actually doesn't explain jack shit.

The $15k for the Advanced Support was a pain but a minor pain for us. We paid it happily to get the extra level of support for our customers and we kept our margin level intact (mid-30s).

The reduction of IURs is unfathomable at first glance. We are slowly and steadily incorporating in the Microsoft technology to serve our customers and our internal needs. Would I be doing that if I didn't have free licenses? Maybe. Maybe not. But the free licenses have made the decision a no-brainer. And as we use it, it makes us evangelists for Microsoft.

Every other partner is similar to us. Microsoft has been getting a ton of free, positive, enthusiastic press through those free internal use licenses. I wonder what the cost in marketing $$ will be as they shut them down.

The angle they are taking is old news: It's too costly to deal with all the small fry resellers. They have slowly and steadily been implementing tactics to "solve this problem" and push partners to go through distribution as what's called an "indirect partner" versus go through Microsoft directly as a "direct" or "Tier-1" partner. 

This move will accelerate that somewhat as the distributors will beef up to provide first level of support around technical and licensing issues.

As for me and Azamba, I made the decision at the start of the year that I am going to evolve my model to be independent from software license revenue so I'm grateful to be a step ahead of most partners. But adding up what I'm going to pay in internal usage and my head starts to spin. That takes money away from conferences, training, marketing, and other critical investments. It's going to be an adjustment.