Azure Sponsorship Credits - assistance required
Case 2606160050003641 has been open for more than 5 days without any response. We need assistance applying renewed Azure Sponsorship credits from Partner Success Expanded Benefits to an existing Azure Sponsorship subscription. Our Azure Sponsorship activation is currently blocked, and we would appreciate an update on the investigation and the recommended steps to proceed.
Important: FY26 PRACR close deadlines
We’re sharing the Partner Reported Azure Consumed Revenue (PRACR) deadlines for the close of fiscal year 2026 (July 2025–June 2026) to help you stay on track. These dates are sequential and critical to an accurate year-end close, ongoing submission eligibility, and a smooth transition to FY27. Category Deadline Requirement Owner Notes PRACR submissions June 10, 2026 (EOD) Final cutoff to submit PRACR reports through Partner Center Partner N/A Deal eligibility June 13, 2026 (EOD) Last day to mark deals as “Won” in MSX Microsoft Seller Required before deal registration Deal registration June 14, 2026 (EOD) Deals must be registered in Partner Center and all revalidation and disputes must be submitted by June 14. Deal registration will resume starting July 15, 2026. Partner Only registered deals can be reviewed for approval Exception handling June 19, 2026 (EOD) Final deadline to submit exception requests with full evidence through the PRACR Ops alias Partner or PDM Last exception forum of fiscal year 2026: June 24 Deal review June 26, 2026 (EOD) If deal is selected for further review, final date to submit required documentation Partner N/A No immediate action is required at this time; however, you as a partner are expected to plan and align internal activities to meet the deadlines outlined above. This communication is intended for awareness and planning purposes and partners are expected to align activities accordingly.Partner Blog | Building AI-ready applications on open, enterprise-grade Azure platforms
Microsoft Build 2026 reinforced a practical reality for organizations moving from AI experimentation to production: AI is only as strong as the foundation it runs on. Customers need modern databases, governed data, secure infrastructure, and developer experiences that can carry performing AI-enabled applications at scale into production with confidence. The public preview announcements of Azure HorizonDB and Azure Linux, along with the general availability of Azure Container Linux, show how Microsoft is investing in open platforms, developer ecosystems, and enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure for AI-ready applications. These announcements also point to a broader shift: open source has become a strategic foundation for enterprise modernization, innovation, and strategic growth. These announcements give partners a straightforward way to connect customer AI goals to the open, secure, enterprise-ready platforms needed for production. They also create timely opportunities to engage customers on data modernization, AI-ready application development, secure infrastructure, and cloud-native operations. What was announced at Build 2026 Azure HorizonDB: A new standard for AI-native, enterprise PostgreSQL Azure HorizonDB enters public preview as a new PostgreSQL cloud database service engineered for performance, scale, and modern AI-powered application needs. For business leaders thinking about data strategy, this is significant. Organizations are under pressure to modernize legacy databases and support intelligent applications without sacrificing resilience, governance, or developer productivity. Azure HorizonDB is designed to address those priorities with a platform that can scale storage automatically for large enterprise workloads, scale compute across primary and replica nodes, and bring AI-native capabilities directly into the database layer. What stands out is that Azure HorizonDB gives enterprises a way to simplify architecture while also accelerating innovation. Features such as advanced filtered vector search, in-database AI model management, Microsoft Entra ID integration, and GitHub Copilot integration through the PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code position it as more than a database modernization story. Developers can use Microsoft 365 Copilot with live database context to generate schema-aware SQL, explore database structures, analyze and rewrite queries, and build against HorizonDB-specific capabilities without leaving Visual Studio Code. It is designed to bring together open-source PostgreSQL, enterprise security, AI readiness, and a more integrated developer experience in a single managed service. For business leaders, that can create a faster path from data estate modernization to measurable business outcomes. In Microsoft internal testing environments, Azure HorizonDB performed three times faster than self-managed PostgreSQL. For partners, the announcement creates an opportunity to engage customers in PostgreSQL modernization, intelligent application architecture, migration planning, performance optimization, and AI-enabled development. Azure Linux: Open-source infrastructure at enterprise scale The Azure Linux public preview announcement is meaningful for leaders focused on cloud efficiency, security, and platform consistency. Linux is already foundational to modern digital infrastructure, and two-thirds of customer cores in Azure run Linux. Now Azure Linux provides a first-party Linux distribution, purpose-built for Azure, and is available for Azure virtual machines (VMs), VM scale sets, and container images. We also announced Azure Container Linux (ACL), a secure, immutable container host designed to help platform teams run Kubernetes workloads at scale on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). By bringing Azure Linux forward as a more visible first-party platform choice, Microsoft is giving organizations a cloud-native operating system designed for modern workloads, including virtual machines (VMs), containers, and AI infrastructure. This matters because infrastructure choices increasingly shape agility, security posture, and operating cost. Azure Linux reflects the Microsoft focus on secure-by-default design, consistent servicing, and tighter alignment between the operating system and the Azure platform. For enterprises, that can translate into simpler operations and a more predictable foundation for cloud-native applications. These announcements reinforce what the Microsoft partner ecosystem and customer usage have shown for years: open-source infrastructure is foundational to Microsoft cloud strategy, as more than 65% of customer cores in Azure run Linux. Continue reading blog hereGitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing
Instead of counting premium requests, every Copilot plan will include a monthly allotment of GitHub AI Credits, with the option for paid plans to purchase additional usage. Usage will be calculated based on token consumption, including input, output, and cached tokens, using the listed API rates for each model. This change aligns Copilot pricing with actual usage and is an important step toward a sustainable, reliable Copilot business and experience for all users. Learn more here and access partner resources here. APAC Office hours link – May 6, 7:00 PM — 8:00 PM PDT EMEA/AMER Office hours link – May 7, 8:00 AM — 9:00 AM PDTDiscover how Microsoft Marketplace can support your FinOps strategy and cost optimization goals
Learn how Microsoft Marketplace can help organizations streamline cloud procurement, optimize spend visibility, and simplify software purchasing through a FinOps-driven approach. This upcoming Microsoft Marketplace customer office hours session explores how partners and customers can leverage Marketplace capabilities to align cloud investments with business outcomes, improve operational efficiency, and maximize the value of Azure consumption commitments. Read the full event details and see why this session is valuable for organizations focused on cloud financial management, procurement modernization, and Marketplace growth strategies. 👉 Register Here: Microsoft Marketplace as a FinOps platform - Microsoft Marketplace customer office hours
