Ultimate Partner LIVE Fall 2025: AI ecosystem masterclass & partner success summit
Mark your calendars! Ultimate Partner LIVE Fall is coming to the Washington, D.C. area, October 27-29, and this event presents a unique, high-impact opportunity for partners looking to stay ahead of the tectonic shifts, align priorities, and accelerate performance in 2026. We are taking the ecosystem to Carahsoft's facilities for a masterclass in how to become the Ultimate Partner. With immersive workshops, direct access to decision-makers, and a curated executive audience; you’ll accelerate your strategy to new levels. Here is what you can expect: Decode the Tectonic Shifts: Learn how AI, Marketplaces, Co-Selling, and Ecosystems are reshaping partner success — and what you must do now. Hear directly from Microsoft leaders, Erwin Visser, Matt Berg and Wole Moses who will take you through the exciting $450B+ durable cloud budget flowing through marketplaces, FY26 AI priorities, and where you should align. Access Proven Frameworks & Playbooks: Attendees will also participate in hands-on workshops facilitated by top industry experts including: The Odigo Group, Carve Partners, ISSI, AvePoint, Bridge Partners, Digitalzone, WorkSpan, Revstacker and more! Workshops will focus on co-selling, AI marketing strategy and Building Service Models to grow revenue. Be in the Room with Leaders Network with 200+ executives, thought leaders, ISVs, GSIs, MSPs, distributors, and consultants in an intimate, high impact setting. 40+ amazing speakers will share their secrets to successful partnering! ⭐SPECIAL OFFER As a valued Microsoft partner, Ultimate Partner is offering a 15% discount on general passes to experience UP LIVE⭐ 👉 [Register Now for UP LIVE: Reston] USE CODE: ULTIMATEVIP15 at checkout Hope to see you there, Vince Menzione CEO, Ultimate Partner ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ultimate Partner is the go-to destination for technology leaders and partners aiming to thrive in the Hyperscaler ecosystem. Ultimate Partner delivers high-impact content, expert insights, and exclusive events—both live and digital. Our mission is to “Empower technology leaders to achieve their greatest results through successful partnering”. Learn more
FY26 Q1 update: Make the most of your certified software designation
Key reminders for partners with current top tier benefits Now: Partners can start the process of attaining a certified software designation—which is required to access benefits like partner-reported Azure consumed revenue (PRACR) reporting. Until December 31, 2025: Partners can retain access to current top tier benefits, including PRACR reporting and Azure partner-led incentives. Starting January 1, 2026: Partners will need to have a certified software designation to continue accessing these benefits. Updates for FY26 PRACR-reporting partners PRACR reporting has moved to Partner Center: PRACR reporting is now centralized in Partner Center and tied to active contracts—meaning that partners will need to register legacy deals and renewals as net-new to maintain eligibility. Partners who missed the April 30 deadline for estimated Azure consumption (EAC) percentage (EAC%) will receive a default rate unless updated proactively. If partners are renewing expired deals as net new through the deal registration process in Partner Center, please ensure a co-sell motion has occurred as part of the renewal. Review the Partner Center requirements for PRACR and ensure your reported deals are registered accordingly. Make the most of PRACR with vNext documentation: To support your success with vNext PRACR, we’re launching a suite of clear, actionable documentation designed to guide you through onboarding, transitions, and ongoing participation. News and announcements From FAQs to playbooks, our resource collection has the tools you need to succeed as a Solutions Partner with a certified software designation. Explore resources Enhanced FY26 go-to-market benefits: Solutions Partners with certified software designations can access updated go-to-market (GTM) benefits, including solution play cards, solution briefs, and an animated solution video—all designed to raise awareness of your solution and support your co-sell success. Learn more here or here. New Industry AI designations now available: We introduced six new designations for industry-specific AI—Energy, Government, Telecom, Education, Defense, and Nonprofit—so software development companies can further differentiate and align their solutions to sector-specific needs. Learn more here. Incentives and offers Microsoft’s FY26 Partner Incentives empower software development companies to accelerate customer migrations and modernizations with substantial financial rewards. Partners with certified software designations—including Azure, Security, and Industry AI—can earn up to $175,000 USD for qualifying Customer Migrate & Modernize engagements. These incentives, a part of Marketplace Rewards Advanced Package, support a wide range of customer scenarios, from migrating on-premises environments to Azure-hosted solutions, moving from competitive platforms, expanding Azure solution footprints, and acquiring net new customers. Check out the “ISV Engagements” tab in the incentives guide for more information. Partner success Hear how Symphony AI, Rockwell Automation, Rescale, Accenture, and Avanade are leveraging their certified software designations to expand global reach, increase brand visibility, and deliver cutting-edge AI-powered solutions. View here. Follow the tag certified software designations to stay updated on quarterly partner news for certified software designations. *“Solutions Partner” refers to a company that is a member of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and may offer software, services, and/or solutions to customers. Reference to “Solutions Partner” in any content, materials, resources, web properties, etc. and any associated designation should be not interpreted as an offer, endorsement, guarantee, proof of effectiveness or functionality, a commitment or any other type of representation or warranty on the part of Microsoft. All decisions pertaining and related to your business needs including but not limited to strategies, solutions, partner selection, implementation, etc., rests solely with your business. **A certification is (1) specific to the solution’s interoperability with Microsoft products and (2) based on self-attestation by the solution owner. Solutions are only certified as of the date the solution is reviewed. Solution functionality and capability are controlled by the solution owner and may be subject to change. The inclusion of a solution in the marketplace and any such designations should not be interpreted as an offer, endorsement, guarantee, proof of effectiveness or functionality, a commitment or any other type of representation or warranty on the part of Microsoft. All decisions pertaining and related to your business needs including but not limited to strategies, solutions, partner selection, implementation, etc. rest solely with your business.
App Advisor updates: Build smarter, publish faster with these new features
The App Advisor experience has been enhanced to help you build smarter and publish faster to the Microsoft Marketplace. The six new features make it easier to stay focused, move faster, and scale smarter with apps and agents. Whether you are in the planning, building, or publishing phase of your journey, the new features are designed to meet you where you are, offering curated guidance and actionable insights. Learn how the updates can help you today. Build smarter, publish faster: Here’s what’s new in App AdvisorBuild smarter, publish faster: Here’s what’s new in App Advisor
App Advisor just got a major upgrade - and it’s changing the game for software development companies building apps and agents for the Microsoft Marketplace. Since its MVP launch in January 2024, App Advisor has helped thousands of partners like you streamline their journey. 💬 What partners are saying App Advisor isn’t just a tool - it’s a game-changer. Here’s what partners have shared about their experience: “I appreciate that App Advisor curates the content for the partner since the amount of data available is just so vast. It does a great job of curating for them based on their goals.” Frank Valdivieso, President & CEO, Gryphon Consulting ⚡What’s new? Smarter focus, faster execution, and scalable growth Now, with six new features launched in the US (and global availability coming soon), App Advisor is making it easier than ever to stay focused, move faster, and scale smarter with apps and agents. Here’s what’s new: 🛠️ In-app marketplace offer creation Start your marketplace journey directly within App Advisor - no context switching required. You can now initiate offer creation for popular offer types without leaving the platform. Not signed up to publish - no problem! App Advisor can get you signed up and on your way to creating your offer. 🚀 Tailored recommendations by marketplace offer type Confidently align your app with the right marketplace offer and pricing model using our interactive wizard. Get personalized recommendations based on your app profile and program membership - and fast-track publishing to launch sooner. 📁 Multi-project save with Partner Center linking Advance multiple apps and agents from a single, centralized experience. Save guidance across projects and link each to its Partner Center offer for seamless continuity. 🎯 Membership-based guidance Receive personalized guidance based on your ISV Success or Marketplace Rewards membership. App Advisor adapts its recommendations to help you make faster, smarter decisions. ✅ ISV Success sign-up integration Sign up for ISV Success and resume your workflow without disruption. Unlock benefits like cloud credits, technical consults, and go-to-market resources - all without breaking your build flow. 🎥 Embedded video playback Explore how to build, publish, and grow your apps and agents with step-by-step video guidance. Watch demos and guidance videos directly within App Advisor. Stay in flow with seamless, distraction-free learning, all while keeping the AI-powered assistant visible and ready to help. Ready to accelerate your marketplace success? Dive into App Advisor today to build, publish, and sell transactable offers with clarity, speed, and confidence. Make sure you check out the new Microsoft Marketplace - the single destination to find, try, and buy AI apps, tools, and agents. Read the blog to learn more. Ready to level up with App Advisor? Watch this quick video and unlock what’s next!Zero Trust for Software Development Companies: what “good” looks like in practice
Threats keep accelerating in speed, scale, and sophistication. Microsoft is tracking a sharp rise in daily attacks and password-spray attempts, which is exactly why software development companies need a Zero Trust foundation that assumes breach and limits blast radius by default. The session’s companion deck lays out a crisp, do-first list for software development companies that build and operate multi-tenant apps. I have folded those specifics into this updated post. Start from identity and tenancy If your multi-tenant SaaS lives on Microsoft Entra ID, treat the app’s home tenant like production infrastructure, not a convenience sandbox. Create a dedicated “app tenant” that is locked down, automated, and free of day-to-day human use. Avoid hosting customer-facing multi-tenant app registrations in your corporate tenant where guests, everyday collaboration tools, and broader policies compete with your need for strict controls. Two resources to get your footing fast are the Zero Trust Workshop and the Entra Security guidance. They frame the exact checks below and help you sequence work across identity, device, data, and workload layers. The essential checks most software development companies miss Global admin and subscription access. Global Administrators should not have standing access to Azure subscriptions. Require just-in-time elevation so high-impact operations create signals, slow attacker velocity, and route through observable control points. App creation and lifecycle. Do not allow anyone to create applications or service principals. Restrict that right to a small, audited group, then continuously prune inactive apps, especially those with high Microsoft Graph privileges. Attackers hide behind service principals and abandoned migrations more often than you think. Redirect URIs. Keep reply URLs tight. Only use domains you control. Remove localhost and abandoned cloud sites to cut off token interception and code hijacking paths. Secrets and certificates. Prefer managed identity. If you must use credentials, do not use client secrets. If you must use certificates, keep expirations short and rotate regularly so any compromise has a short half-life. First-party service apps. Ensure Microsoft service applications in your tenant do not have customer-added credentials. Threat actors try to attach their own keys to first-party principals to inherit trusted access. Privileged identities. Keep admin accounts cloud-only to prevent an on-prem compromise from laddering into Entra, and register phishing-resistant methods for every privileged user. Keys or platform authenticators beat OTP fatigue every day of the week. How to roll this out without stalling the roadmap Adopt the workshop mindset. Run a lightweight Zero Trust assessment, pick the items above that are both high-impact and feasible in your environment, and bake them into your next few sprints. Treat security debt like product debt so you always reserve capacity for it. If you are modernizing a legacy app, use that cutover to move the registration to a dedicated app tenant, switch to managed identity, and clean your redirect URIs. The guidance below is what your team will reference as you go. Resources to take the next step Zero Trust Workshop: aka.ms/ztworkshop Entra Security guidance: aka.ms/entra/security If you only do one thing this week, carve out time to separate your app tenant from your corporate tenant, then enforce just-in-time privilege. Those two moves alone shrink your blast radius and make intrusions noisier and easier to catch.
Error when i try to test deploy our Azure application offer solution from marketplace
Hi All, We have published our azure app offer and recently went live successfully. But when i try to access it from marketplace and test the deploy as a customer by giving all the parameters, i got below error at the end. I have reviewed the templates and i dont see anything wrong. And all test passed with the azure testing tool. Please advice if you come across this error and help us in fixing this. Thank you.How Certified Software Designations accelerates Azure Marketplace success at Stibo Systems
🎉 Proud moment at Stibo Systems! We’ve officially earned the Microsoft Solutions Partner Designation with Certified Software status for our Master Data Management solution across Retail AI, Manufacturing AI, and Financial Services AI. Great to know that Microsoft recognizes the quality, security, and performance of our AI roadmap. The Certified Software badge is highly valuable for sales teams at Stibo Systems, our Alliance Partners and Microsoft sellers for several strategic reasons: --- 🔑 1. Builds Customer Trust The Certified Software designation signals that Stibo Systems solution meets Microsoft’s rigorous standards for security, performance, and interoperability. This credibility helps reduce buyer hesitation and accelerates decision-making. --- 🚀 2. Differentiates in a Crowded Market With many vendors offering similar solutions, the Solutions Partner status sets our offering apart. It shows that Stibo Systems is aligned with Microsoft’s strategic priorities, especially in AI and cloud innovation. --- 💼 3. Opens Co-Selling Opportunities Certified partners are eligible for Microsoft co-sell programs, where Microsoft sales teams actively promote our solution to their customers. This can expand our reach and shorten sales cycles. --- 🌍 4. Increases Visibility Certified solutions are featured in the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace, giving us exposure to a global audience. This can drive inbound leads and support international expansion. Learn more about how Stibo Systems boosts growth, deal size with Marketplace RewardsRegister for the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference!
Join us at the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference in Las Vegas, NV from March 30 - April 2, 2025! FabCon 2026 is landing in Atlanta, Georgia! Get all the details at aka.ms/fabcon. FabCon offers you the chance to learn the latest from Microsoft when it comes to Fabric product features and allows you and your teams to get hands-on with the product through workshops on March 30 and April 3. Throughout FabCon, there will be opportunities for you to connect with Microsoft executives, meet with customers, and connect with peers. On March 30, Microsoft will be hosting the FabCon Partner Pre-Day. This is a special day dedicated to our Microsoft partners and is free for registered FabCon attendees. Our Partner Pre-Day will feature keynotes by Wangui McKelvey on the opportunity for partners in data and analytics and Ashley Asdourian on the partner opportunity with Microsoft and afternoon breakouts for software company attendees including a session with our Microsoft VP and GM of Fabric OneLake and Fabric ISVs, Dipti Borkar. For questions about group discounts and partner referral programs, please contact the FabricPartnersTeam@microsoft.com
