Move to Cloud: That's what Microsoft wants its partners to do

If you are a Microsoft partner, then move to cloud! This was the clear message from Microsoft at the 2014 Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), held in Washington D.C. Aiming to put partners in the centre of cloud transactions, the company announced some new programme strategies and resources.

While addressing over 16,000 attendees, Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group said the company is integrating the cloud into the Partner Network, with three “new cloud-focused competencies” for Office 365 and Azure.
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“Putting partners first in our go-to-market strategy has always been key to our joint success, and it will continue to be a priority in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world,” Sorgen said.

A new reseller programme will offer competencies for SMB cloud solutions for partners selling Microsoft Office 365 to small and mid-market customers; cloud productivity intended for partners deploying Microsoft Office 365 for enterprise customers; and cloud platform will be for partners who specialise in delivering infrastructure, PaaS and SaaS solutions on Microsoft Azure.

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Microsoft also said that Cloud Accelerate, Cloud Deployment and Azure Circle programmes are being discontinued.

In addition, the company said it will waive the first year fee for Silver cloud competencies; enhancing Internal Use Rights for Office 365 and Azure, providing between 25 percent and 200 percent more IUR licenses depending on the competency level achieved; and launch Signature Cloud Support solution in September that will help cloud partners better support their customers. Also, fees for on-premises competencies will be reduced by up to 10 percent.

The Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider programme allows partners to own 100 percent of the customer lifecycle, with partners serving as the only contact for all customer needs. “This new programme provides our partners with complete control, and ensures our mutual customers can rely on their partner to ensure they’re getting the most out of their Microsoft cloud solutions. This program starts with Office 365 and Windows Intune, and will eventually cover all Microsoft cloud services,” Sorgen added.

The company also announced Azure Machine Learning University - a portfolio of online self-service learning assets designed to get partners started with Azure ML. Machine Learning University will provide partners with an overview of Azure ML, and walk through the data science life cycle from importing data to building predictive models and deploying in production.

The company also announced that the Dynamics CRM Online will be released through the company’s Open Licensing programme later this fiscal year. “The addition of Dynamics CRM Online to Open will make it easier to sell to SMBs - a huge market opportunity for our partners,” Microsoft said.
“This comes on the heels of Microsoft’s announcement to offer Azure in Open, coming in August. By offering all of our commercial cloud solutions in Open partners have a consistent and familiar licensing option that offers the benefits of Microsoft Volume Licensing, flexible monetary payments, and additional opportunities to grow revenues and deepen customer relationships.”

The Azure Certified programme has been also announced. This new logo certification programme will empower Microsoft partners to grow their business through new opportunities to promote and sell their applications and services on Azure. The programme begins as Microsoft Azure Certified for Virtual Machines, with partner applications offered in virtual machines that are deployable from the Azure Management Portal.

In addition, Microsoft comes up with a new marketing initiative, called ModernBiz. ModernBiz focuses on business issues and cross-product solution scenarios tailored to the specific needs of SMBs.