Partner Blog | Security, growth, and trust: Introducing the FY26 Security solution plays
With cybersecurity threats becoming more frequent and complex, one question underpins every conversation we have with our Microsoft partners and customers: how do we keep our data and systems safe while driving innovation? That’s the challenge we’ve committed to tackling with the Secure Future Initiative (SFI), and it’s why we recently introduced SFI patterns and practices to support partners and customers as they turn their security learnings into action. As part of our commitment, we’ve been consistently reinforcing our AI-first security platform—which spans identity, threat protection, data security, and compliance—so our customers can safely and confidently innovate with AI. And our partners play a critical role in customer success. With over a million customers already using Microsoft Security solutions, there’s a significant opportunity for Microsoft partners like you to further differentiate your business and grow. Our extensive threat intelligence gives us visibility into more than 84 trillion security signals daily, as well as a deeper understanding of the evolving threat landscape and how our solutions can better protect customers. Add in your proven capabilities, plus those of our 15,000 partners with specialized security expertise, 3 and we’re more prepared than ever to secure our future together. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Cloud & AI Platforms series part 1: Capturing the market opportunity
Across industries, organizations are racing to modernize, unify data, and embrace AI. At the center of this transformation are Microsoft partners, guiding customers through disruption and redefining what’s possible. With more than 150 million developers building on GitHub, 13 million apps running on Azure, and over 70,000 organizations innovating with Azure AI Foundry, the ecosystem is creating new ways to reimagine business processes and deliver AI-powered outcomes. This momentum is reshaping entire markets. AI adoption is expanding margins, sparking new waves of customer investment, and opening opportunities of unprecedented scale: a projected $777 billion SME market by FY26 (Microsoft, based on IDC research), a $592 billion enterprise market driving large-scale cloud and AI adoption, and a $311 billion SMB opportunity representing nearly all global businesses. Businesses that seize this opportunity are becoming Frontier Firms: organizations embedding AI into every layer of their operations. They aren’t just streamlining—they are reinventing customer engagement, enriching employee experiences, securing their infrastructure, and accelerating innovation. Continue reading herePartner Blog | How systems integrators are scaling innovation with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents
Imagine a workplace where AI agents don’t just support your team, they transform how tasks get done, unlocking new levels of creativity, speed, and impact. That future isn’t on the horizon, it’s here. According to Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index Annual Report, nearly half of leaders say their companies are already using agents to fully automate workflows or processes across departments and functions. This shift is not just about efficiency, it’s about reimagining how work gets done using the latest AI innovations, and our systems integrator (SI) partners are leading the charge. Across industries, SIs are introducing intelligent agents that streamline operations, boost productivity, and create entirely new customer experiences. These aren’t experiments; they’re high-impact solutions delivering measurable results. And behind many of them are Microsoft 365 Copilot, agentic AI, and a deep partnership with Microsoft. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Drive impact in the era of agentic AI with new benefits and resources in FY26
As we kick off a new fiscal year, we’re renewing our commitment to enabling partners to lead in the era of agentic AI. Your role as a trusted advisor has never been more vital, and the opportunities ahead have never been greater. At MCAPS Start for Partners, we shared how the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program is evolving to accelerate growth, expand AI-powered solutions, and position you to meet changing customer needs with confidence. From expanded benefits and new Solutions Partner designations and specializations to refreshed partner benefits packages, expanded incentives, AI-enhanced tools, and streamlined skilling, we’re delivering more ways than ever for partners to build, market, and sell with impact. Unlock new AI-powered benefits in FY26 Beginning in February 2026, we will roll out new and enhanced benefits designed to reflect partner feedback and enable further growth—starting with Microsoft AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Build in-demand capabilities with Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy
Continuous learning is essential for organizations using cloud and AI technologies to maintain a competitive edge. To help Microsoft partners stay at the forefront of their industries, we are pleased to share the latest updates to our partner skilling initiatives. These changes are part of an ongoing effort to simplify and enhance the skilling process, ensuring that partners like you continue to deliver the innovative solutions customers need. Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy went worldwide June 1 As announced in March, Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy is a new, centralized skilling portal designed to help sales professionals in partner organizations boost their skills and position themselves as industry leaders. We built Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy as a unified hub that delivers a learning framework for partner skilling—simplifying the experience and providing clear, structured guidance across sales, pre-sales, and customer deployment cycles to help you close deals and drive revenue. Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy launched globally on June 1, 2025, with a learning journey for Security called "Microsoft Sales Titan: Threat Protection." Designed to promote Microsoft Threat Protection SKUs, this offering provides sales teams with on-demand training sessions focused on understanding and articulating the value of Microsoft 365 E5 Security licenses. With Sales Titan: Threat Protection, members of your sales team can improve their ability to close deals and earn Microsoft accredited badges—which demonstrate their learnings to both clients and Microsoft. You can also gain access to supporting resources that help drive confident, informed customer conversations. This self-serve learning journey is now available to partners globally. Sales Titan, the first module in the Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy, will eventually integrate into our new skilling platform, launching this July. This unified environment consolidates each of our skilling platforms into a single, easy-to-access location. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Driving business impact through skilling
Partners, this is your moment. AI is reshaping how we work at breakneck speed, and those who skill up will lead this transformation. As Nicole Dezen emphasized in her MCAPS Start for Partners 2025 recap, success in this era is rooted in clarity, consistency, and capability—and you. Skilling isn’t just a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program priority—it’s your competitive edge, empowering you to close readiness gaps and deliver customer outcomes in an AI-first world. This month, we’re spotlighting what’s new in partner skilling, how AI-powered enablement is driving measurable impact, and what steps you can take next to stay ahead. Partner Skilling Hub: What’s new and how to drive impact Whether you're onboarding new hires, deepening technical expertise, or preparing for the next wave of AI opportunity, the new Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub is your comprehensive resource for activating technical readiness and aligning learning with business outcomes. Since its launch, the Skilling Hub has evolved rapidly to meet the needs of partners on their readiness journeys. The latest updates include: Simplified navigation for faster discovery of content by solution area. AI-curated learning collections focused on Copilot, Security, and Industry Cloud priorities. New role-based pathways tailored for business decision-makers and pre-sales professionals, not just technical sellers. If you haven’t explored the Skilling Hub recently, now is the time to discover new features, enhanced filters, and guided journeys that connect training directly to pipeline outcomes. It’s more than a platform—it’s your partner for growth. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Limitless learning, one location: The Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub is here
This month, we kicked off our new fiscal year. On July 15, Microsoft hosted MCAPS Start for Partners, during which we unveiled our strategic priorities, key investments, enhancements to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, and new opportunities to scale your business. One of these opportunities, our new Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub, is available now in preview. The Skilling Hub is a unified platform that brings together all GPS partner skilling resources—Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy, LevelUp, GPS Skilling Hub, SureStep, AI Partner Training Days, and regional events—into one seamless experience. First announced in our June blog post, this streamlined platform is your new home base for training, certification prep, and continuous growth. One of the most exciting opportunities in the Skilling Hub is Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy. This centralized, global learning portal is designed to help partner sales professionals boost their skills and close more deals through structured, role-based training. Launched on June 1, 2025, its first module, “Sales Titan: Threat Protection,” focuses on Microsoft 365 E5 Security and offers on-demand training, certifications, and resources to support confident customer conversations. Built for you, shaped by your feedback The Skilling Hub isn’t just a new portal—it’s a partner-driven experience. As a partner-centered organization, we listened carefully to your feedback and shaped the platform around the capabilities and features that matter most to you. You gave us valuable insights about what would be most useful, including: A single access point for role-based learning. Easy-to-follow guidance that supports specialization and certification acquisition. A simplified interface for purposeful learning journeys. We plan to deliver all this and more. Continue reading hereOpenAI’s open‑source model: gpt‑oss on Azure AI Foundry and Windows AI Foundry
Open-weight models give customer decision makers control and flexibility - no black boxes, fewer trade-offs, and more options across deployment, compliance, and cost. With OpenAI’s gpt-oss open-weight models on Azure AI Foundry, you can: Fine-tune and distill the models using your own data and deploy with confidence. Mix open and proprietary models to match task-specific needs. Spin up inference endpoints using gpt oss in the cloud with just a few CLI commands. And Foundry Local makes gpt‑oss-20b usable on a high-performance Windows PC – enabling use-cases in offline settings, buildings in a secure network, or running at the edge. Check out more here!Partner Blog | New fiscal year, new partner investments: Drive profitability with updated benefits
Microsoft partners bring the deep expertise and innovation needed to deliver transformative solutions to their customers—and we are committed to helping you stay at the forefront of AI transformation. That’s why we continue to invest in product innovation, support, and a broad set of partner benefits. At MCAPS Start for Partners, our annual digital sales readiness event, we announced several exciting updates to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, including an evolution of solution areas, enhancements to benefits and incentives, and a more partner-centered skilling experience. We have consolidated our six solution areas into three new commercial solution areas based on customer demand. This streamlined approach will not only make it easier for partners to align their capabilities with the market but will also enable Microsoft to focus FY26 investment in these areas. Here is how the six solution areas have been consolidated: Business Applications and Modern Work have combined to form AI Business Solutions. Read the FY26 playbook to learn what this means for you. All three Azure solution areas (Data & AI, Digital & App Innovation, and Infrastructure) have combined to form Cloud & AI Platforms. Explore the FY26 playbook for more information. Security will remain its own commercial solution area. Dive into the FY26 playbook to learn what to expect. These new commercial solution areas are in market now, and changes to Solutions Partner designations and specializations will follow later in FY26. No immediate action is required. We’ll share updates in the coming months to ensure you’re ready to take advantage of this opportunity. Refreshing benefits, designations, and specializations Strengthen your cloud and AI practice through benefits that are purpose-built to meet your needs. Our refreshed benefits offerings follow partners through every element of the partner journey: from creating your solutions, to going to market, to differentiating your organization in the marketplace. Compare our offerings and review the below updates, which are planned for February 2026: Azure credits for Copilot Studio Additional seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot Updated benefits within partner benefits packages (Launch, Success Core, and Success Expanded), ISV Success packages (Core, Expanded, and Advanced), Solutions Partner designations, and specializations We’re also introducing four new Solutions Partner designations later in FY26. These designations, which will help you differentiate your business in the Microsoft marketplace, include: Continue reading herePartner Blog | MCAPS Start for Partners: Accelerating growth and innovation together
Earlier this year, Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary—a journey powered by our partners from day one. As we begin the new fiscal year, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your bold innovation, trusted collaboration, and customer obsession. FY25 was one of the most transformative years in our history, and you made it possible. At MCAPS Start for Partners, we outlined the next chapter of opportunity powered by AI: customizable agents, copilots, and a new class of AI-first organizations we call Frontier Firms. These are next-generation organizations that blend AI-powered solutions with human leadership to operate with agility, scale, and value creation. These firms are not just adopting AI; they are redesigning their business models, workflows, and cultures around it. FY26 priorities and solution areas As we look ahead to FY26, our focus is on translating this AI-powered vision into actionable priorities for our partners. To do this, we have made the decision to evolve our go-to-market approach around three solution areas, a strategic shift grounded in what customers are asking for and what’s resonating most in the market. AI Business Solutions: Scale Copilot across every device and role and drive strong execution in Microsoft 365 and D365. Cloud & AI Platforms: Lead with Frontier AI innovations and accelerate cloud migrations and modernization. Security: Strengthen and secure the cyber foundation. Continue reading here
