Partner Blog | What's new for Microsoft partners: January 2026 edition
Your voice continues to shape how the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program evolves. In this update, we’re bringing together the announcements, investments, and resources that matter most to partners right now. From the innovations unveiled at Microsoft Ignite to updates across benefits, Azure, AI business solutions, Marketplace, security, and skilling, this edition is designed to build capability, accelerate execution, and drive meaningful customer impact as AI becomes central to every workload. What follows highlights our focus and areas of partner opportunity, grounded in feedback from across the ecosystem and aligned to how customers are evolving their cloud and AI strategies. Spotlight Microsoft Ignite Microsoft Ignite marked an important evolution for the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, introducing new investments for partners to lead as Frontier Firms, translating their own AI experience into customer impact. Read Nicole Dezen’s blog for a partner-focused recap of Microsoft Ignite 2025, bringing together the announcements that matter most across AI, cloud platforms, security, and developer tools. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Azure updates for partners: December 2025
At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we explored what it means for organizations to move into the era of Frontier transformation. This shift is focused on embedding AI across every part of the business to improve decision-making, increase speed, and create new value. Organizations leading in AI make it foundational. They rethink processes and integrate new technologies from the start to improve efficiency. For partners, this move toward Frontier represents a significant opportunity to lead customers into this new era. By building AI-powered solutions, connecting data for intelligent insights, and deploying Microsoft Azure’s cloud-ready platforms, partners can deliver value faster and scale confidently through the Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft Ignite came with a significant number of announcements, so I’ve gathered the Azure updates that matter most for partners. These are the capabilities that can strengthen your ability to deliver intelligent solutions, drive operational efficiency, and differentiate your product or service in the market. You can also explore how partners are turning momentum into action, access highlights, and grab practical guidance from my Microsoft Ignite session. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Preparing for the next stage of partner skilling in 2026
As 2025 draws to a close, we are seeing the impact of focus and follow-through across the partner ecosystem. This year, partners made skilling a deliberate priority. Across solution areas, teams deepened technical capability, strengthened sales readiness, and brought innovation into real customer engagements. That intent is translating into more confident delivery, faster time to value, and practices built to operate in an AI-driven market. Our November skilling update outlined the latest resources, bootcamps, and learning paths available to partners. As we look ahead to 2026, this moment is about turning those investments into a scalable skilling foundation that supports consistent delivery, drives customer outcomes, and positions your organization to grow as demand for AI, cloud, security, and data solutions continues to accelerate. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Lead SMBs into the AI frontier with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business
In today’s fast-changing digital landscape, the Microsoft partner ecosystem is the catalyst for building Frontier Firms that lead with AI, embrace innovation, and deliver transformative outcomes for enterprise customers. To illustrate this, the Enterprise Partner Solutions (EPS) Asia Regional Leadership Team (RLT) has launched a new series called Frontier Forward: Asia Edition focused on how partners are creating impactful solutions across Asia. About the Frontier Forward series By interviewing executives from key partner organizations, we spotlight successful joint initiatives and tangible results that matter to enterprise customers. Follow along to learn how partners have developed strategies that accelerate transformation and create customer value. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Powering growth through benefits that drive real impact
Partner benefits packages sit at the center of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. These packages are bundled offerings designed for partners, and they include discounted licenses on the Microsoft products you already use to run your business, along with one-on-one personalized support, developer tools, and additional resources. The three-tiered packages feature increasingly robust offerings to meet your business in any stage of growth, whether you’re building new practices, scaling services, or expanding into AI-led opportunities. As customer needs evolve and AI continues to shape growth, we are expanding the package offerings in February 2026 with additional Microsoft Copilot licenses, expanded security benefits, and an on-demand AI partner marketing resource to drive demand together. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Building an AI app and agent factory with Microsoft Foundry
AI is shaping how we live and work. Its potential feels limitless, constrained only by what we can imagine. According to the Microsoft Work Trend Index, 82% of leaders say they’re confident that they’ll use digital labor to expand workforce capacity in the next 12–18 months. AI is emerging as a clear differentiator, fueling creativity, accelerating productivity, and unlocking breakthrough innovation. For organizations delivering AI-powered solutions and services, this is your moment to lead. The demand is shifting from pilot projects to AI transformations at scale, and Microsoft partners who can deliver AI apps and agents at scale will define the future of this dynamic market. According to a survey by IDC, partners with mature Microsoft AI practices outperform others in overall gross margin, 36% vs. 30%. Continue reading hereSecure migration starts with trusted cloud and AI expertise
Modernizing legacy IT environments and moving securely to the cloud are top priorities for customers today. With the cloud migration market projected to reach $1.03 trillion 1 by 2030, representing an approximate 28% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2 organizations everywhere seek to strengthen their digital foundations—and they expect migrations to be secure, efficient, and tied to business outcomes. This is where partners make the difference. Your expertise speeds transformation and empowers customers to realize the full value of Microsoft Azure. Why modernizing legacy IT environments is essential Modernization is critical across industries. As software and hardware reach end of support, the risk of disruption rises. Unsupported systems create security gaps and operational challenges because they no longer receive essential updates. Meanwhile, regulatory pressure is mounting. Regulations like the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and mandates in financial services and data management demand secure, up-to-date infrastructure to stay compliant and avoid costly penalties. Modernization isn’t just about reducing risk; it’s about seizing the moment of innovation. Modern platforms support AI, automation, and advanced data capabilities. Customers can move faster, operate more efficiently, and respond rapidly to new opportunities by updating legacy systems. Your expertise positions them competitively at the frontier of AI and intelligent operations. Continue reading hereThe Microsoft Marketplace opportunity for channel ecosystem
Microsoft estimates, based on IDC data, that the total addressable market (TAM) for small and medium enterprises will reach $777 billion by FY26—and is on track to surpass $1 trillion by 2030. This represents more than 400 million organizations worldwide with fewer than 3,000 employees. As organizations look to become AI-first, Microsoft partners play a critical role as trusted advisors in navigating this transformation. Microsoft Marketplace is the platform that scales AI-first transformation, connecting your solutions and offerings to millions of commercial customers. Building on the momentum from Microsoft Ignite and the recent announcement of the reimagined Microsoft Marketplace, we’re excited to introduce the general availability of resale enabled offers. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Build what’s next: Accelerating partner success with Microsoft skilling
This week at Microsoft Ignite, one message came through clearly: capability fuels growth. Across every industry and every role, partners investing in skilling are accelerating innovation, deepening customer trust, and driving measurable impact. Skilling is the new currency of the AI era. As organizations transform, partners are turning knowledge into action, advancing technical and business expertise to lead with confidence and drive customer outcomes. In the past year, more than 2.4 million partner learners have engaged in training across solution areas, and 1.7 million have completed AI-specific courses, a 66% increase year over year. Through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, we’re investing in resources that make learning simpler, more accessible, and more aligned to opportunity. From the centralized Partner Skilling Hub to Certification Weeks, in-person training events, LevelUp, and AI-focused bootcamps, partners can strengthen their technical depth, expand sales capability, and build the skills that turn potential into performance. Read the full list of partner announcements from Ignite in Nicole Dezen’s blog. Continue reading hereBuild and connect Microsoft Foundry agents to MongoDB Atlas with new native integrations
MongoDB Atlas is a leading document database that’s rapidly gaining traction among Azure customers due to various deep integrations available across Microsoft platforms. In Aug 2025, we announced the General Availability (GA) of native integration for MongoDB Atlas — a milestone that marked a new era for developers and enterprises building AI-powered applications on Azure. Alongside this, we introduced Semantic Kernel connectors and other integrations to further enhance the developer experience. At last year’s Ignite, we announced the Microsoft Foundry integration with MongoDB Atlas to enable developers to reference vector stores. At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we are announcing the availability of MongoDB Atlas as one of the supported tools in Microsoft Foundry Tool Catalog (preview), allowing agents to connect to live enterprise data and operational systems. With the support of MongoDB MCP Server in the agent building experience, developers can now build agents that leverage MongoDB for both vector search and database operations. This unlocks new possibilities for intelligent automation and contextual decision-making, empowering organizations to create agents that are not only smarter but also deeply integrated with their operational data. Build Agents in Microsoft Foundry and add MongoDB as a Tool The goal is for enterprises to build and deploy agents quickly that can connect to their MongoDB Atlas collections. Discover MongoDB MCP Server in the Microsoft Foundry Tool Catalog Start by browsing the Microsoft Foundry Tool Catalog (preview), which features a growing list of enterprise-ready tools. Search for MongoDB MCP Server to find the landing page. Deploy the MCP Server The local MCP Server can be deployed to Azure Container Apps by following the documentation. Once hosted, copy the remote endpoint for the MCP Server. Add the tool to your agent In Microsoft Foundry, click on create a new agent, provide agent instructions and then click on ‘Tools’ Provide the remote endpoint in the custom tool option to connect to MongoDB Atlas. That’s it! Your Agent is now ready to query your databases. Access more Microsoft Foundry features Agents built in Microsoft Foundry can access a wide range of monitoring and governance capabilities. Organizations can automatically enforce security, compliance, and operational best practices. Every agent-to-tool interaction is authenticated, authorized, and monitored at scale, with unified telemetry and logging available through Azure Monitor and Microsoft Foundry analytics. This gives IT teams full visibility and control, while developers can confidently build and deploy agents knowing that enterprise standards are enforced by default. What Can Agents Do with MongoDB Atlas? Contextual Retrieval: Agents can ground their reasoning in fresh, operational data from MongoDB Atlas, supporting vector search and RAG workflows. Autonomous Database Operations: Agents can go beyond simple queries to perform end-to-end data exploration and management including creation of projects, clusters and database users while adhering to enterprise-grade compliance and security standards. Conclusion The MongoDB MCP Server integration for Microsoft Foundry is a major milestone in enterprise AI enablement. By bridging powerful document and vector data capabilities with secure, governed agent workflows, organizations can unlock new levels of automation, intelligence, and operational agility. Try the integration today Learn more about MongoDB Atlas on Azure. Try out the free cluster today! Get started with MongoDB MCP Server Link to MongoDB Blog
