Microsoft Renames Worldwide Partner Conference, Praises Partner Cloud Growth

Microsoft’s annual partner conference has a new name.

The tech giant has changed the name of its Worldwide Partner Conference to Microsoft Inspire. Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group, said the renaming reflects the interconnectedness of the company’s partner community.

“The name Microsoft Inspire better represents what this event provides. It is a destination event that fosters partner to partner connections, drives engagement with Microsoft, and surfaces new ideas to help bring our partners’ goals and visions to life and accelerate business while we work as one to deliver the very best solutions to our customers,” Schuster said in a blog Thursday.

She cited an IDC report that said digital transformation investments will hit $2.2 trillion by 2019. In other words, the forefront of business – not just the IT department – is searching for technology solutions. Schuster said that trend has led Microsoft to implement a few new investments for its partners. The company on Wednesday announced 12 new Azure training courses.

“These courses are designed to help partners respond to surging demand, realize huge returns and grow their market opportunity. Technology professionals can start with our Azure Fundamentals or Azure for AWS Experts courses, or dive right in to Azure Storage or Azure Networks,” Schuster said.{ad}

She praised the growth of cloud knowledge within the partner network, citing 86 percent year-over-year growth in partners earning silver or gold cloud competency. The number of partners in Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider program has gone from about 3,500 to more than 20,000 in just one year.

Microsoft Inspire 2017 will be held in Washington, D.C., July 9-13. Check out our gallery from this year’s conference.