Microsoft’s New Channel Head: ‘I’m Making Sure I’m Listening’

Tyler Bryson, the new leader of the Microsoft partner program in the United States, has three main priorities for the channel: listening, quality enhancement and cultural improvements.

“I’m making sure I’m listening to all of you,” said Bryson, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Partner Group. Bryson made a guest appearance during the second day of Nerdio’s virtual event for managed service providers, NerdioCon.

Microsoft’s Tyler Bryson

“We know we don’t have everything right,” Bryson said. “There are things we need to work at to get better … because we want you to compete and win.”

In a Q&A session with Pax8’s Nick Heddy, Bryson discussed what he intends to do differently as head of Microsoft’s Azure efforts in the United States. First up, as he pointed out, listening. Second, he said, partners can expect to see enhancements “in the overall quality of the experience in working with us.”

“I’ve got to make sure you can spend more time focusing on customers and less time on administrative, procedural issues you’re facing,” Bryson said.

Third, he said, Microsoft is addressing its culture. That imperative comes in the wake of 2020’s social unrest.

“We want to be diverse and inclusive. … We’re creating equal opportunities for everyone to be their best and achieve more in the United States,” Bryson said.

Bryson and Heddy held their conversation as Nerdio announced its new platform, Nerdio Manager for MSP. Bryson called it “such an important product for our partners … at a time when they need us most.”

What’s Nerdio Manager for MSP?

Nerdio, a SaaS ISV that specializes in Microsoft, debuted its new product on Wednesday after months of development. Nerdio Manager for MSP moves new or existing Azure users to Windows Virtual Desktop in minutes. The company’s CEO, Vadim Vladimirskiy, dubbed the platform “an extension of native Azure.” In essence, it combines Nerdio for Azure with Nerdio Manager for WVD on a multitenant basis.

To that end, Nerdio Manager for MSP gives MSPs extensive resources. Partners can do per-user pricing, and Azure infrastructure and licensing cost, from within the platform. They also can manage customers’ desktops, servers, backup and more from the same portal. And they can perform functions including auto-scale and auto-heal; the latter detects and repairs problems in the environment. Further, Nerdio Manager for MSP contains several Azure platform-as-a-service tools, including SQL, Key Vault and Web App. Microsoft, not the MSP, manages these capabilities.

MSPs may install Nerdio Manager for MSP in their own Azure environments in any Azure region.

“It’s your own single instance,” Vladimirskiy said. “It’s completely isolated from every other deployment.”

Perhaps of most importance to partners, Nerdio Manager for MSP deploys quickly. A brand-new Azure user will take about an hour to get off the ground. An existing Active Directory user will require about 30 minutes. And existing Azure and WVD instances only need about 10 minutes.

Nerdio Manager for MSP will become generally available early next quarter. Partners can get it from Azure Marketplace or their Azure administrative portal.

The Channel’s Microsoft Opportunity

From Microsoft’s perspective, Nerdio Manager for MSP couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time. Referring to the “incredible growth” in remote work since COVID-19, Bryson said, “Our customers need help to enable these new scenarios.”

And Microsoft’s partners have responded, he said.

“Our Azure [cloud service provider] business grew 100% year over year,” Bryson said. “We’re just at the beginning of what’s possible.”

On top of that, Microsoft’s data and artificial intelligence capabilities grew about three times the pace of the market, he added.

Overall, Bryson projected that the channel has the ability to reach “about 77,000 untouched Azure customers” in the United States.

“There are thousands and thousands of VMs, desktops waiting for us to go out and serve them,” he said.

Pax8’s Nick Heddy

Heddy, chief revenue officer at marketplace vendor Pax8, agreed.

“We’re all viewing the SMB market as a huge potential as we look at the penetration numbers around Azure,” he said. “We’re seeing hundreds of partners becoming active on the CSP side each month.”

With that in mind, Microsoft stands ready to enable MSPs.

“We’re committed to this channel,” Bryson said. “We’re going to invest and grow together.”