Every year Microsoft hosts a Worldwide Partner Conference for its thousands of partners, pulling back the curtain a bit to show off the latest technologies and get partners pumped up for a new year of sales and partnerships. Only in the past, it hasn’t been quite so worldwide. Because Microsoft likes to show off unpublished works at these conferences, it has traditionally maintained a bit of a blacklist for some partners, like Google, Amazon, VMWare, and Salesforce, who are barred entrance to the annual event.
However this year, according to the Business insider, Microsoft is apparently turning over a new leaf and embracing its competitors, in a way that can only be described as “the new Microsoft”. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to BI that “Microsoft is not banning any competitors from attending” WPC this year.
Microsoft’s new willingness to work with former enemies like Salesforce and Google while bringing services like Office 365 and OneDrive across platforms has the company working, and thinking, in entirely new ways, and its willingness to open up WPC is just another example.
Further reading: Conference, Microsoft, WPC 2015
