Ahead of Microsoft Inspire, company shares how it is tuning
partner investments for the cloud era, including updates to
Teams, Dynamics 365, Azure
REDMOND, Wash., July 11, 2019 /CNW/ -- On Thursday, Microsoft
Corp. announced new investments in technologies and programs
designed to support its partner ecosystem. The investments are
aimed at helping optimize Microsoft's partner engagement for the
cloud era.
"Customers and partners alike continue to move to the cloud and
accelerate their digital transformation, leading us to new and
different levels of partnership," said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice
president of Microsoft's One Commercial Partner group. "Our
portfolio of programs, offers and resources for companies
partnering with Microsoft is transforming to help them capitalize
on this opportunity."
The following are some highlights of the news announced today,
with more details available here.
Investments in products and programs
- Microsoft Teams extensions and adoption. Just two years
after its launch, Teams now has 13 million daily active users and
19 million weekly active users. The company also announced new
features in Microsoft Teams for every worker —including new ways to
support healthcare organizations and firstline workers. Additional
new partner integrations include support for contact centers,
compliance recording and cloud solution providers.
- Dynamics 365 updates. The company announced significant
updates to the Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator and two new
integrations for Dynamics 365 that address the automotive and
financial services industries. In addition, the Business
Applications ISV Connect program is generally available, with new
development tools and guidance, marketplace resources, joint field
engagement processes and go-to-market support.
- Introducing Azure Lighthouse. Azure Lighthouse gives
partners a single control plane to view and manage Azure at scale
across all their customers. This provides a better managed Azure
experience with higher automation and efficiency, resulting in
greater visibility and security for customers. This marks the first
time Microsoft has architected a solution at this scale, with
partners and for partners.
- Azure Migration Program. The new Azure Migration Program
(AMP) helps customers accelerate their migration to Azure. AMP
offers proactive advice and tools to help mitigate risks and
address common issues associated with moving workloads to the
cloud.
Broadening partner opportunity
Since the inception of Microsoft's co-sell program 24 months
ago, the program has seen $9.5
billion in annual contracted partner revenue. The
investments announced this week are designed to build on that
opportunity:
- General availability of the Microsoft Security
competency. This new competency allows partners to market their
expertise and provides access to a range of benefits designed to
enable business growth and profitability.
- Five advanced specializations. These include Windows
Server and SQL Server Migration to Microsoft Azure, Linux and Open
Source Databases Migration to Microsoft Azure, Data Warehouse
Migration to Microsoft Azure, Modernization of Web Applications in
Microsoft Azure, and Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure.
- New advancements in marketplace. Additional pricing
models, a rewards program and a new route to market are rolling out
in July for companies that publish transactable offers in
Microsoft's expanded commercial marketplace. The pricing models
include monthly and annual SaaS billing, flexible, custom-metered
billing options, standard contracts, and free SaaS trials that
convert to paid engagements.
About Microsoft Inspire
Microsoft Inspire provides Microsoft's partner community with
access to key marketing and business strategies, leadership, and
information regarding specific customer solutions designed to help
partners succeed in the marketplace. Along with informative
learning opportunities covering sales, marketing, services, and
technology, Microsoft Inspire is an ideal setting for partners to
garner valuable knowledge from their peers and from Microsoft. More
information can be found at
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.