September update: What's new in Azure for partners
Navigate to News and Announcements, Incentives and Offers, Skilling and Events, Go-To-Market, Customer Success News and Announcements Explore Microsoft Marketplace, a trusted source for AI apps, tools, and agents and a growth engine for partners. With a dedicated AI apps and agents category, expanded discoverability and co-sell, distributor integration, and resale-enabled offers (in private preview), partners now have even more ways to connect innovation with customers everywhere. Learn more. Blog series: Catch up on our Cloud & AI Platforms blog series starting with Part 1: Capturing the market opportunity and continuing with Part 2: Migrations & modernizations. Microsoft Ignite 2025: Join us in San Francisco or virtually November 18–21, 2025, to bolster your knowledge, build connections, and explore emerging technologies to give you the edge you need to drive impact in the era of AI. Register today. Azure AI Foundry: Now featuring GPT-5, OpenAI gpt-oss, Foundry Local support, and a new browser automation tool to help you build intelligent agents using natural language. Learn more here. AKS Automatic: Managed Kubernetes is now generally available, making cloud-native and AI app deployment easier than ever. Read more. Oracle Database@Azure: Now available in Germany North—bringing availability to 23 regions worldwide. MySQL 8.4: Now generally available on Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server, MySQL 8.4 provides improved performance, observability, and replication management. Broadcom licensing update: Broadcom is changing its VMware licensing model. With the AVS VCF BYOL option, customers can now deploy AVS with their own VCF subscriptions (BYOL) in 35 regions, reducing costs. If you’re an Azure VMware Solution (AVS) partner, speak to your customers about their options. Access three new co-branded campaign in a box (CiaB) asset collections to generate demand and create more opportunities with your customers: Migrate and modernize your estate ENT & SMB and Unify your data platform ENT. Missed FabCon Europe? Learn about the top announcements and our Partner Day through these blogs from Jessica Hawk (CVP, Data, AI, and Digital Applications Product Marketing) and Arun Ulagaratchagan (CVP, Azure Data). Get ready for FabCon 2026 in Atlanta in March––register soon before they sell out. Microsoft Fabric Extensibility Toolkit: Software companies can help customers bring apps to Fabric, speed development, and integrate workloads. Get started today. Read the latest on why Databricks runs best on Azure from the Azure blog. New partner investments available for Microsoft Defender for Cloud––InfraDB and Azure: Expert MSP partners with the Microsoft Security designation are now eligible for incentives to help drive Defender for Cloud in migration and modernization projects. Access helpful resources here and sign up for our upcoming webinar on October 29, 2025, Americas/EMEA time zones or Asia time zone. Incentives and Offers Explore Azure Accelerate: A unified offering within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, Azure Accelerate brings together Azure Migrate and Modernize, Azure Innovate, and Cloud Accelerate Factory––all built upon the foundations of Azure Essentials. Nominate your project today. Cloud Accelerate Factory provides zero-cost deployment assistance for more than 30 Azure services, with expert support and joint delivery, no matter the project size. 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 environment and proof of value assessments with customers. Join the Driving Confidence Through AI-Assisted Cloud Migrations partner webinar to learn more about the Dr Migrate offer. 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. ISV Success Advanced Package: Top-performing software companies with certified software designations can qualify for financial incentives to build AI solutions or migrate customers to Azure. The package supports every stage of ISV Success. Learn more. New end-customer migration incentives are now available to help software companies and advanced specialized systems integrators securely and efficiently move software companies’ end customers to modern applications running on Azure. See the ISV Engagements tab in the incentives guide for more information. Grow your business with Microsoft Security Envisioning Workshops to reach more customers, refine your sales, and unlock new revenue with world-class security. 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. Looking for bite-sized skilling? Check out this episode of the Azure Essentials Show to learn how Azure Databricks transforms fragmented data estates into unified platforms for analytics and AI. Microsoft AI Tour for Partners is back: Join a free, one-day event to accelerate your AI journey with sales best practices, growth opportunities, hands-on labs, and technical deep dives. Upcoming stops: Toronto (September 30) and Chicago (October 8). Join the Fabric Global Hack (September 15–November 3, 2025): Build data and AI solutions with Fabric, collaborate globally, and compete for prizes up to $10,000. Participants get 50% off Fabric certifications. The Migrate and Modernize Summit replay is available now. Hear from Microsoft leaders––including Scott Guthrie, Jeremy Winter, Amanda Silver, and Cyril Belikoff––on the latest innovations around AI-assisted tooling and products to help simplify and accelerate cloud migrations. Join us at the Azure Dev Summit (October 13–16, 2025): This Microsoft-sponsored event is designed for developers, architects, and technology leaders to explore the latest in Azure, .NET, and Microsoft AI, gain insights from inspiring speakers, and connect with peers driving innovation. Participate in AgentCon 2025 by Global AI Community: Join a global series of one-day conferences designed exclusively for developers building the future with autonomous AI agents. The 2027 deadline to move SAP workloads to S4/HANA is approaching, so now is the time to activate your SAP on Azure practice Partner Ready and Sales Ready courses to help business managers unlock Azure benefits and equip sales teams to effectively position SAP on Azure solutions. The Azure Cosmos DB Partner Acceleration Program for FY26 has officially launched. Designed to upskill partners through technical enablement, monthly sessions, and self-learning resources, the program also offers customer engagement assistance—including funding for proofs of concept (PoCs) and migrations—and direct access to the product group for blockers. Enroll today and don’t miss the first training on October 14, 2025. Go-To-Market Take your marketing strategy to the next level with predesigned campaigns, resources, and ready-to-go assets. Learn more. Generate leads leveraging custom propensity lists and executing marketing initiatives with Microsoft CloudAscent and Solution Play Propensity Accelerate Revenue and KPIs (SPARK) Propensity. Looking for proven and scalable AI transformation assets that deliver value quickly? AI Solution Accelerators are proven, prebuilt PoC assets that drive successful AI implementations, enabling you to demonstrate the value of AI capabilities and accelerate time to value. 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, and explore Fabric here. Differentiate your expertise to customers with Solutions Partner designations and specializations. Customer Success Discover how Microsoft can transform your sales strategy with case studies and customer success stories that showcase how businesses, NGOs, and individuals leverage AI to transform their business. Follow the tag Azure news to stay updated on monthly Azure partner news.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!Generate Now! Podcast - Agentic AI Partner and Industry Conversations
James Caton sits down with Microsoft industry experts and leading global system integrators (GSIs) to explore how Agentic AI is transforming industries— from banking and healthcare to manufacturing and public sector. Apple Podcasts Spotify Podcasts YouTube Channel Subscribe and listen on all major podcast platforms. Each episode will feature behind-the-scenes insights, measurable impact, and the strategic thinking that’s driving Agentic AI success at scale. Season SN Topic 2 1 Gaming Industry Agentic AI (Byung-su Kim, Microsoft) 2 2 Banking Industry Agentic AI (Daragh Morrissey, Microsoft) 2 3 Retail CPG Industry Agentic AI (Mike Edmonds, Microsoft) 2 4 Telco Industry Agentic AI (Rick Lievano, Microsoft) 2 5 Manufacturing Industry Agentic AI (Eleni Rachaniotou, Microsoft) 2 6 EY's Ed Bobrin on Agentic AI 2 7 PwC's Diego Jarne on Agentic AI 2 8 Capgemini's Roshan Gya on Agentic AI 2 9 NTTDATA's Charlie Doubek on Agentic AI 2 10 Infosys Mona Dash on Agentic AI 2 11 LTIMindtree Sheba Fernando on Agentic AI 2 12 EPAM Dmitry Tikhomirov on Agentic AI Connect with James at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmcaton/Register for the Cloud and AI Platforms FY26 Partner Playbook Walkthrough Replay and Q&A session
Join us for a replay and exclusive Q&A session on September 11, at 8:00 AM Pacific Time or 5:00 PM Pacific Time to learn about the exciting go-to-market (GTM) priorities and initiatives planned for FY26 across the Cloud and AI platforms solutions area, aligned to the System Integrator partner audience. We are excited to invite you to an exclusive session where we will unveil the FY26 Cloud & AI Platform Partner Playbook and guide you through any Q&A. This comprehensive guide is designed to help you leverage Microsoft's latest investments and strategies to grow your business and enhance customer engagement. What to Expect: Business Overview: Gain insights into the FY26 investments and strategic priorities. Customer Opportunities: Understand the growth drivers and market opportunities for FY26. Solution Plays: Learn how to migrate and modernize your estate, innovate with Azure AI apps and agents, and unify your data platform. Partner Skilling: Discover opportunities for partner skilling and certifications to enhance your capabilities. Why Attend? Exclusive Insights: Get a detailed overview of the playbook and how it can benefit your business. Interactive Sessions: Participate in discussions and Q&A sessions to address your specific needs and questions. We look forward to your participation and collaboration in driving mutual growth and success. Please register now to secure your spot. Can’t attend the live event? Register anyway to get notified when the event content is available on demand. Register here for the morning and evening session! When you join this meeting, your name, email address and/or phone number may be viewable by other session participants in the attendee list. By joining, you’re agreeing to this experience. Learn more at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839. This event may be recorded and shared publicly with others, including Microsoft’s global customers, partners, employees, and service providers. The recording may include your name and any questions you submit to Q&A. You may submit questions anonymously.Join the Movement at Azure Dev Summit!
Azure Dev Summit is a chance for you to join a community of developers, architects, and tech leaders building with Azure, .NET, and Microsoft AI. This isn’t just another conference. It is a Microsoft-sponsored celebration of innovation, learning, and connection — and we’re bringing some of the most inspiring voices in tech to the stage. Find out more about the speakers at Azure Dev Summit and make sure to register! https://azuredevsummit.com/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.
