By samdizzy

CloudBearing, a Microsoft Office 365 partner, has won a cloud migration project with the University of California, Merced. The migration, involving 8.500 staff, faculty and students, is expected to be completed in Spring 2013, Talkin' Cloud has learned. The Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) cloud win is noteworthy for a number of reasons. Chief among them: CloudBearing is led by CEO Nicholas Vossburg, an MSP industry veteran who jumped on the cloud bandwagon long before many other channel partners. 

In a related move, CloudBearing recently hired Gabe Loshbaugh, a former member of the Microsoft Office 365 for education team, to head its efforts in that vertical market.

An official announcement about the CloudBearing-University of California, Merced, win is expected on or about December 12, 2012. According to a prepared statement from CloudBearing:

"After evaluating Office 365 for education versus Google Apps, the UC Merced team indicated in a report that it preferred Office 365 for email, calendaring and collaboration. The campus will be rolling out 25 GB mailboxes for everyone; a modern calendaring system that directly integrates with mobiles devices, Outlook and the Web; SharePoint for document management and filesharing; and Lync which provide enterprise-grade instant messaging, audio/video conferencing and whiteboard capabilities."

Microsoft and Google have been locked in a war to shift universities, colleges and K-12 schools to their respective cloud platforms. Both sides have won plenty of deals, but often the victories fail to mention whether channel partners are involved.

In this case, CloudBearing is more than happy to grab its seat at the head of class. The company's CEO, Nick Vossberg, is a familiar name in and around the IT channel. He previously built MSP-oriented companies in the Washington, D.C., area, using a range of remote monitoring and management tools to maintain customers' on-premises systems.

More recently, Vossberg has been betting heavily on Office 365 migration projects. I don't have a feel for CloudBearing's overall revenue model. Among my key questions: What percentage comes from cloud consulting projects vs. ongoing recurring revenue as a Microsoft cloud partner? 

I'll be sure to ask Vossberg next time I speak with him.