Flashback three years - a new CEO Satya Nadella is on stage making a commitment to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build out a Government Cloud - Amazon has a head start and Microsoft was playing catch up - FAST Forward today. What progress has the organization made to catch up and surpass the competition and what specific opportunities exist for partners in Government Cloud?

Michael Batt, Director of Government Partner Programs and a 21 year veteran of the company joins this episode to discuss the important role partners play to growing Microsoft's Government Cloud business.

We discuss what differentiates Microsoft's Government Cloud versus the competition, the attributes of partners that "got it right" working in Government, the opportunity created by emerging partnerships with companies like Adobe and Citrix, and the market opportunites for partners to leverage IoT and Advanced Analytics to create new applications in government.

Mike also referenced a contracting vehicle that made it easy for partners with little to no previous government contracting experience could engage to sell their solutions, the US Communities Contract.

Partners looking to connect and partner in Government Cloud can reach Mike Batt at: [email protected].

Mike's Recommended Book: This Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back, by Thomas Friedman.