Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic: Fast and frictionless Kubernetes for all
AKS Automatic simplifies Kubernetes by offering a fully managed, opinionated experience that abstracts away from infrastructure complexity, while keeping the full power of Kubernetes at your fingertips. Learn how production-ready clusters and automated infrastructure operations can accelerate your time to delivery and simplify operations for you! Check out the announcement blog here!
August update: What's new in Azure for Partners
News and Announcements We just shared our FY26 partner strategy at MCAPS Start for Partners—and it’s all about what’s next with AI. Catch up on key announcements here. Explore the latest Cloud and AI platforms and Agentic AI partner playbooks which includes key skilling resources, investments, win formulas and more. GPT-5 is now in Azure AI Foundry, offering top-tier reasoning for building intelligent and safe AI apps and agents. Learn more. Serve customers in bandwidth-constrained environments who are building autonomous assistants or embedding AI into real-world workflows, using gpt-oss-20b on Windows AI Foundry. Learn more. Watch The AI Show to hear about the latest announcements, including Observability in Azure AI Foundry, App Templates, and more. This is a show by Seth Juarez for developers and tech experts. Watch now. Your customers can now mirror Azure Databricks Unity Catalog into Fabric. Deeper integration. No clusters. No pipelines. Just insights. Help them get started––learn more here. Dive into our latest blog and research to learn how Azure-native integration, autoscaling, and unified governance make Azure Databricks the best home for your data and AI workloads, and then share the information with your customers as they consider their preferred data platform. Learn more. Incentives and offers We recently announced Azure Accelerate—a unified offering within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program that brings together Azure Migrate and Modernize, Azure Innovate, and Cloud Accelerate Factory––all built upon the foundations of Azure Essentials. Nominate your project today. Dr Migrate is an AI-assisted platform for cloud migration planning, available within Azure Accelerate. Eligible partners can request licenses through Azure Accelerate to run customer environment assessments through Azure Accelerate. Invite a colleague to join the Azure Migrate and Modernize Partner Forum, your source for early access to Azure offerings, product roadmaps, and marketing updates for partners. Learn more. Skilling and Events Visit our skilling hub for the latest training resources to earn designations and specializations. Explore the most recent skilling blog for key skilling-related announcements. If you're a consultant or part of a Microsoft partner's sales or tech pre-sales team looking to drive AI apps and agents, join our virtual 3-day skilling event, Sept 9–11. Hear from Microsoft field and product leaders on sales best practices, product demos, and how to pitch AI CoEs—a key FY26 strategy for driving org-wide AI transformation. Register here. Join us for FabCon25 Europe in Vienna, September 15–18, for workshops, networking with customers, and insights from Microsoft leaders. Don’t miss Partner Day on September 15 to explore Fabric growth strategies and connect with the community. Learn more and buy your ticket here. Heading to VMware Explore Las Vegas? Join our exclusive partner session on August 25 to explore new Azure investments like TCO tools and migration funding. Visit booth #107 to discuss VMware workloads and register early—space is limited (max 2 attendees per organization).—register here. Join us at the Azure Dev Summit, a Microsoft-sponsored event designed for developers, architects, and technology leaders. Explore the latest in Azure, .NET, and Microsoft AI, gain insights from inspiring speakers, and connect with peers driving innovation. Reserve your spot today. SAP Specialization: Partners can now meet SAP Specialization requirements with the new Run SAP on Microsoft Cloudtraining path—aligned to SAP on Azure’s latest capabilities and validated during audits. This streamlined option simplifies the journey to specialization. Go-To-Market Take your marketing strategy to the next level with pre-designed campaigns, resources, and ready-to-go assets. Learn more. Drive success in building AI apps and agents with a comprehensive set of sales tools and marketing resources, including Microsoft pitch decks, guides, solution accelerators, demos, and more! Access them here. Unify your data platform to help your customers implement a data strategy that is fit for the era of AI, including customizable pitch decks and other go-to-market resources to help you succeed. Find it all here. Differentiate your expertise to customers with Solutions Partner designations and specializations. Introducing SAP Business Suite: Unlock mid-market growth by partnering with Microsoft and SAP. Lead with AI Innovation and leverage SAP Cloud ERP, GROW and RISE journeys, to deliver scalable cloud services, spark strategic cloud conversations, and access exclusive incentives, GTM resources, and tools to accelerate success. Access resources here. Customer success Discover how Microsoft can transform your sales strategy. Explore real AI case studies and customer success stories showing how businesses, NGOs and individuals leverage AI to transform their business. Follow the tag Azure news to stay updated on monthly Azure partner news.GPT-5 in Azure AI Foundry: The future of AI apps and agents starts here
OpenAI’s GPT-5 is available today in Azure AI Foundry. GPT-5 adds advanced capabilities to support agentic workflows, complex code synthesis, and safer, more flexible integrations. Ideal for: Unified reasoning + chat for end-to-end problem solving Agentic task mastery with multi-step tool use and auditable decisions, Frontier coding with minimal prompting Developer controls for depth, speed, verbosity Free-form function calling (no rigid JSON schemas) Safer completions for sensitive prompts Learn more here!Azure AI Foundry: Your GPS for the changing AI landscape
As you build services and software for your customers, Azure AI Foundry is your trusted guide, simplifying complex processes and empowering your team to achieve more. We released a host of new updates in Azure AI Foundry. Read the full blog for the details. Here are the highlights: Evaluate models quickly and easily: 1,917 models in Azure AI Foundry Model Catalog gives you choice, but evaluating the right model to use based on quality, cost, and throughput, or filter by industry, inference tasks like translation or text generation is important, and Azure AI Foundry makes this easy for your developers. But there's more! Find out how Evaluations API and Stored Completions API help in evaluating and refining models. New models from Meta Llama 4, eight new models from Azure OpenAI Service, Cohere, and more, including a Deep Seek R1 variant developed by the Microsoft AI team that outperforms Deep Seek R1 on responses to blocked topics and reducing harmful content while maintaining the same reasoning capabilities. You can find this model - MAI-DS-R1 - in Azure AI Foundry today. Azure AI Services to help you reduce time to market! Faster customer satisfaction! With Azure AI Agent Service in Azure AI Foundry, what originally took hundreds of lines of code can now be done in just a few lines of code. Find out how Fujitsu and NTT Data are using it! Similarly, Azure AI Search connects corporate knowledge into AI applications. New features make Azure AI Search one of the most cost-effective options on the market, delivering an enterprise-ready, full-featured retrieval system with advanced search technology without sacrificing cost or performance. Again, find out all the details in the full blog and make sure you share it all with your teams! Also, keep an eye out for the AI Show videos for a developer's take on all the cool updates!The latest Azure AI Foundry innovations help you differentiate your business
Discover how you can push the envelope of innovation for your customers with the latest in Azure AI Foundry. Combine Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI Foundry's capabilities to create custom AI agents with domain expertise Ensure consistent AI performance for your customers with PTU Spillover Automate workflows to reshape business processes with the Responses API and Computer-Using Agent (CUA) Improve AI project efficiency with NVIDIA NIM Microservices and AgentIQ Toolkit Explore how accessibility and inclusivity are integrated into AI development. Plus, don't miss the new MIT Technology Review Insights Report on AI customization. Check out the full blog post to dive deeper into these exciting updates and see how they can benefit your business!Drive demand for your offers with solution area campaigns in a box
Take your marketing campaigns further with campaigns in a box (CiaBs), collections of partner-ready, high-quality marketing assets designed to deepen customer engagement, simplify your marketing efforts, and grow revenue. Microsoft offers both new and refreshed campaigns for the following solution areas: Data & AI (Azure), Modern Work, Business Applications, Digital & App Innovation (Azure), Infrastructure (Azure), and Security. Check out the latest CiaBs below and get started today by visiting the Partner Marketing Center, where you’ll find resources such as step-by-step execution guides, customizable nurture tactics, and assets including presentations, e-books, infographics, and more. AI transformation Generate interest in AI adoption among your customers. As AI technology grabs headlines and captures imaginations, use this campaign to illustrate your audience’s unique opportunity to harness the power of AI to deliver value faster. Learn more about the campaign: AI Transformation (formerly Era of AI): Show audiences how to take advantage of the potential of AI to drive business value and showcase the usefulness of Microsoft AI solutions delivered and tailored by your organization. Data & AI (Azure) Our Data & AI campaigns demonstrate how your customers can win customers with AI-enabled differentiation. Show how they can transform their businesses with generative AI, a unified data estate, and solutions like Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Power BI, and Azure Databricks. Campaigns include: Unify your intelligent data - Banking: Help your banking customers understand how you can help them break down data silos, meet compliance demands, and deliver on rising customer expectations. Innovate with the Azure AI platform: Help your customers understand the potential of generative AI solutions to differentiate themselves in the market—and inspire them to build GenAI solutions with the Azure AI platform. Unify your intelligent data and analytics platform - ENT: Show enterprise audiences how unifying data and analytics on an open foundation can help streamline data transformation and business intelligence. Unify your intelligent data and analytics platform - SMB: Create awareness and urgency for SMBs to adopt Microsoft Fabric as the AI-powered, unified data platform that will suit their analytics needs. Modern Work Our Modern Work campaigns help current and potential customers understand how they can effectively transform their businesses with AI capabilities. Campaigns include: Connect and empower your frontline workers: Empower your customers' frontline workers with smart, AI-enhanced workflows with solutions based on Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Use this campaign to show your customers how they can make their frontline workers feel more connected, leading to improved productivity and efficiency. Microsoft 365 Copilot SMB: Increase your audience's understanding of the larger potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot and how AI capabilities can accelerate growth and transform operations. Smart workplace with Teams: Use this campaign to show your customers how to use AI to unlock smarter communication and collaboration with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot. This campaign demonstrates to customers how you can help them seamlessly integrate meetings, calls, chat, and collaboration to break down silos, gain deeper insights, and focus on the work that matters. Cloud endpoints: Help customers bring virtualized applications to the cloud by providing secure AI-powered productivity and development on any device with Microsoft Intune Suite and Windows in the cloud solutions. Business Applications Nurture interest with audiences ready to modernize and transform their business operations with these BizApps go-to-market resources. Campaigns include: AI-powered customer service: Highlight how AI-powered solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 are transforming customer service with more personalized experiences, smarter teamwork, and improved efficiency. Migrate and modernize your ERP with Microsoft Dynamics 365: Position yourself as the right partner to modernize or replace your customers' legacy on-premises ERP systems with a Copilot-powered ERP. Business Central for SMB: Offer customers Microsoft Dynamics 365, a comprehensive business management solution that connects finance, sales, service, and operations teams with a single application to boost productivity and improve decision-making. AI-powered CRM: Help your customers enhance their customer experiences and close more deals with Microsoft 365 Dynamics Sales by making data AI-ready, which empowers them to create effective marketing content with Microsoft 365 Copilot and pass qualified leads on to sales teams. Use this campaign to show audiences how Copilot and AI can supercharge their CRM to increase productivity and efficiency, ultimately leading to better customer outcomes. Modernize at scale with AI and Microsoft Power Platform: This campaign is designed to introduce the business values unlocked with Microsoft Power Platform, show how low-code solutions can accelerate development and drive productivity, and position your company as a valuable asset in the deployment of these solutions. Digital & App Innovation (Azure) Position yourself as the strategic AI partner of choice and empower your customers to grow their businesses by helping them gain agility and build new AI applications faster with intelligent experiences. Campaigns include: Build and modernize AI apps: Help customers building new AI-infused applications and modernizing their application estate take advantage of the Azure AI application platform. Accelerate developer productivity: Help customers reimagine the developer experience with the world’s most-adopted AI-powered platform. Use this campaign to show customers how you can use Microsoft and GitHub tools to help streamline workflows, collaborate better, and deliver intelligent apps faster. Infrastructure (Azure) Help customers tap into the cloud to expand capabilities and boost their return on investment by transforming their digital operations. Campaigns include: Modernize VDI to Azure Virtual Desktop - SMB: Show SMB customers how they can meet the challenges of virtual work with Azure Virtual Desktop and gain flexibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Migrate VMware workloads to Azure: Help customers capitalize on the partnership between VMware and Microsoft so they can migrate VMware workloads to Azure in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Migrate and secure Windows Server and SQL Server and Linux - ENT: Showcase the high return on investment (ROI) of using an adaptive cloud purpose-built for AI workloads, and help customers understand the value of migrating to Azure at their own pace. Modernize SAP on the Microsoft Cloud: Reach SAP customers before the 2027 end-of-support deadline for SAP S/4HANA to show them the importance of having a plan to migrate to the cloud. This campaign also underscores the value of moving to Microsoft Azure in the era of AI. Migrate and secure Windows Server and SQL Server and Linux estate - SMB: Use this campaign to increase understanding of the value gained by migrating from an on-premises environment to a hybrid or cloud environment. Show small and medium-sized businesses that they can grow their business, save money, improve security, and more when they move their workload from Windows Server, SQL Server, and Linux to Microsoft Azure. Security Demonstrate the power of modern security solutions and help customers understand the importance of robust cybersecurity in today’s landscape. Campaigns include: Defend against cybersecurity threats: Increase your audience's understanding of the powerful, AI-driven Microsoft unified security platform, which integrates Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR, Security Exposure Management, Security Copilot, and Microsoft Threat Intelligence. Data security: Show customers how Microsoft Purview can help fortify data security in a world facing increasing cybersecurity threats. Modernize security operations: Use this campaign to sell Microsoft Sentinel, an industry-leading cloud-native SIEM that can help your customers stay protected and scale their security operations.Keep pace with the latest in AI!
Check out our fresh new video series, where leaders from Microsoft show their creative side as they share the latest updates in AI, in a manner that's both educative and fun! Watch the videos, share them with your teams, and bookmark aka.ms/AIOnTheGo to stay updated!Partner Blog | What's new for Azure partner-led offerings: ISV Success and specialization updates
As a partner-first company, Microsoft is dedicated to investing in partner success and creating new opportunities to drive business and AI transformation. In this blog post, we'll share what's new for Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate as of January 1, 2025—including expanded AI benefits and incentives with ISV Success, updates to specializations, and the growing Azure Essentials momentum. Throughout the year, you can find key updates here on the partner blog as new scenarios and workloads are added. Overview of Azure partner-led offerings Azure partner-led offerings—which include Azure Innovate and Azure Migrate and Modernize—are built to work together to simplify the adoption of Azure. With comprehensive resources, extensive coverage across scenarios, and tailored incentives in one easy-to-navigate hub, accredited partners can access these offerings to better support customers from migration to innovation. To underpin these offerings, Azure Essentials equips partners with foundational guidance, best practices, and dedicated skilling to help you elevate security, reliability, and ongoing performance for cloud and AI workloads. What's new effective January 2025 Continue reading full blog here
