Written by Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Solutions
Microsoft believes in the value of the partner ecosystem, and in response to partner feedback, on October 1, 2022, Microsoft will implement major revisions and upgrades to its outsourcing and hosting terms that will benefit partners and customers globally. With these changes, it is exciting to see the potential customer benefits that will enable new scenarios for how they can license and run workloads with infrastructure outsourcers. Additionally, I am happy to share that the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program will have a new program option that enables participating partners to more effectively sell hosted solutions to customers, either with licenses included or to customers that are already licensed.
These changes have three primary goals:
- Make it easier for customers to bring their software to the partner’s cloud: Expanded use rights allow customers to run their software, including Windows 11, on hosters’ multitenant servers and more easily license virtual machines for Windows Server.
- Ensure partners have access to the products necessary to sell cost-effective solutions that customers want: Create more opportunities for partners to work with more customers, to sell the solutions they need, and to run them where they prefer.
- Empower partners to build hosted solutions with speed and scale: Enable partners to build hosted desktop and server solutions to help directly fulfill customers’ hosting needs.
Why are we making these changes? These program updates are based on partner feedback, and we’re grateful for the requests and recommendations we’ve received from our partners.
Partners have asked Microsoft to simplify licensing and to expand the range of products that can be offered to customers at fixed pricing for longer terms, and we’ve responded. We also want to provide more opportunities for customers to be able to have Microsoft software hosted on partners’ infrastructure. These details today follow our May 18 announcement of a new initiative to support European Cloud Providers, where we affirmed our commitment to making these changes to Microsoft’s licensing terms and partner program. These changes will be applicable worldwide.
Here’s what hosters and customers can expect later this year:
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