Get ready for the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards: Nominations open June 1
From innovative solutions to high-impact services, the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize and celebrate partner success in delivering meaningful customer outcomes across solution areas, industries, and regions. They’re an opportunity to highlight the exceptional work partners deliver and the many ways you’re driving Frontier Transformation—turning AI ambition into measurable, high-impact business outcomes for customers. If your organization has delivered transformative solutions on Microsoft platforms over the past year, now’s the time to begin shaping your strongest submission. The nomination window for the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards opens June 1, 2026, and closes July 7, 2026. Winners will be announced in November 2026, timed to celebrate with the global partner ecosystem at Microsoft Ignite. Review the 2026 award guidelines and resources linked at the end of this blog to begin preparing your organization’s submission early. What’s new for 2026 Across the ecosystem, partners continue to advance what’s possible for customers. Some are building innovative solutions and IP. Others are delivering high-impact services that modernize operations, strengthen security, and accelerate adoption at scale using Microsoft technology. The Partner of the Year Awards recognize these achievements and celebrate the breadth of partner innovation, execution, and customer impact. Award categories highlight how partners are delivering customer outcomes across solution areas and industries. The awards also recognize partners worldwide through the Country and Region Partner of the Year Awards, reflecting the global reach and local impact of partner delivery. New awards for 2026 include: Frontier Transformation: Recognizes partners who innovate with Microsoft AI, spanning Copilot, Foundry, and agent-based solutions, to deliver end-to-end customer transformation and create value through scalable, real-world business impact. Commercial Device Channel: Recognizes partners who deliver exceptional impact across commercial device sales motions, driving customer transformation through Copilot+ PCs, AI-powered devices, Windows 11, Surface, and OEM portfolios. In addition to updated category awards, a regional award tier recognizes partner impact across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia regions. Why nominations matter A strong nomination does more than compete for an award; it helps you clearly articulate your value to customers and Microsoft. By capturing your strongest work, you sharpen how you tell the story, from the customer challenge through the solution, delivery, and outcomes you achieved together. Finalists and winners gain broader recognition with Microsoft and customers. That recognition can increase credibility with customers, create stronger visibility with Microsoft field teams, and ultimately translate into expanded business opportunities. How to build a strong submission The winning submissions rarely come together at the last minute. Use the time before the nomination window opens to align your story, validate the details, and establish a simple internal process so your team can execute quickly once nominations open. Choose the category where your story is strongest and most differentiated. Start by reviewing the guidelines, which include details on each award. Focus on one flagship customer story or solution motion that clearly demonstrates what’s different about your approach and why it mattered to the customer. Document measurable outcomes and results. Strong nominations are grounded in specific proof points, so the key elements of your story should include: The customer scenario and the stakes. What you delivered and how it was deployed. How you used Microsoft technology to drive outcomes. Evidence of results, adoption, and business impact (as permitted and approved for sharing). Start the process for customer reference approvals early so you don’t lose time later. Treat your nomination like a small release. Assign a single owner, identify contributors (delivery, engineering, marketing, customer success), and set internal milestones that land well ahead of the July 7 submission deadline. Build in time for review so your submission is crisp, consistent, and complete. As you prepare your submission, use the following resources to plan, validate, and submit with confidence: Review the submission guidelines. Understand the official rules. Explore the awards overview. Check out the FAQ. Visit the awards website. Review the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards guidelines and resources now to begin shaping your strongest submission ahead of the nomination window opening on June 1. Read this article on the Microsoft Partner BlogPartner Blog | Unlock the cloud benefits in your partner benefits package with a streamlined activation experience
Your Microsoft partner benefits are not just resources. They are the tools that let you build capability inside your own organization first. When you use Azure credits, Copilot seats, security suites, and other cloud benefits internally, you gain real operational experience you can apply to customer conversations. You move from describing value to showing outcomes. Microsoft is continuing to modernize how you activate and manage these benefits in Partner Center, with a more secure, guided redemption experience aligned to your offer anniversary date and the billing account used for purchase. This update is designed to make benefits redemption clearer and easier to manage at scale, especially for organizations working across multiple tenants. Additionally, we’ve aligned the expiration date for each benefit to the date your offer was purchased—not the date a benefit was first redeemed. Benefit expiration dates now align to your package membership end date, providing a more consistent renewal experience between offer membership and benefits availability. What’s changing in benefits redemption Seat-based cloud benefits move to a guided, keyless $0 checkout If you previously redeemed seat-based cloud benefits using manual 5×5 product keys, that experience is changing. In the modernized flow, redemption starts in Partner Center and finishes with an integrated $0 checkout in the Microsoft 365 admin center. There is no copying, pasting, or storing license keys. At a high level, the updated flow looks like this: In Partner Center, select the cloud benefit and choose Redeem. Follow the guided experience into the Microsoft 365 admin center checkout. Complete the $0 purchase to provision the benefit into the billing account used to purchase your Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offering. Because the redemption is keyless, you no longer need to track keys for future use. The benefit is activated through the connected flow, and then you can assign licenses to users as needed. Azure credits move to direct deposit into your Billing Profile Redemption of Azure bulk credits, including credits for GitHub Enterprise and GitHub Copilot Enterprise, is also being modernized. The legacy experience required assigning a user in Partner Center and sharing an activation link, which then created a new Azure subscription for that user. In the modernized experience, partners redeem credits through a direct deposit into an eligible Billing Profile from within Partner Center. No user assignment is required. When credits are deposited to a Billing Profile, existing and new subscriptions under that profile can use the credits. Plan for more readiness requirements, including the appropriate Partner Center role and access to the Billing Profile selected for deposit, by reviewing Microsoft Learn. This shift is operational in nature—it is not a change to the Azure benefits you currently have as part of your benefits offerings. This modernization is designed to streamline benefits redemption and simplify how you manage these offerings at scale. Benefits are tied to the MCA billing account used for purchase In the modernized experience, benefits are bound to the Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) billing account used to purchase the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offering. That creates clearer tenant guardrails and streamlines administration because redemption is to tenants associated with the same MCA billing account. If you manage multiple tenants, the organizing principle becomes the billing account boundary. To use benefits across multiple tenants, associate those tenants with the same MCA billing account using “associated billing tenants” in Azure. We highly recommend you review the Microsoft Learn documentation which provides more details regarding the changes. Expiration aligns to your offer anniversary date Benefit expiration is being aligned to the membership offer end date, rather than varying based on when a specific benefit was redeemed. This creates a more consistent renewal experience between offer membership and benefits availability, and reduces the number of expiration dates you need to track. Example: If you purchase a partner benefits package on June 1, 2026, and redeem a benefit later in the year (for instance, on September 1, 2026), that benefit will still expire on June 1, 2027, aligned to the anniversary of your purchase. For detailed guidance on managing billing, review the Microsoft Learn articles for Azure and the Microsoft 365 admin center. The best way to avoid disruption of cloud benefit availability is to renew your benefits offer within the renewal window. Continue reading here
Making it easier to identify Windows protected print mode compatible devices
As the Windows print ecosystem continues transitioning away from legacy driver‑based architectures, Windows Protected Print Mode (WPP) helps improve system security by enforcing use of the Windows modern print stack and introducing additional security features. To increase transparency for users and support industry readiness for modern print environments, Windows is introducing a new compatibility icon that can be found in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners: This icon appears next to each installed printer that supports Windows protected print mode, which requires IPP capabilities. To provide the best experience for customers using Windows protected print mode, printer manufacturers can create Print Support Apps (PSAs) to replicate driver customization features.Partner Blog | Driving channel velocity in an AI-first world: Microsoft Marketplace at Channel Partners Conference
The recent Channel Partners Conference & Expo brought together thousands of channel leaders, technology providers, and ecosystem partners to explore what’s next for the channel—and how partners can accelerate growth in a market being rapidly reshaped by AI. With an audience deeply focused on differentiation, scale, and customer value, the conference highlighted how cloud, AI, and modern commerce models are redefining the partner opportunity. Microsoft Marketplace participated as a Platinum sponsor, reflecting the central role the channel plays as customers move AI from experimentation into production. As partners guide strategy, deployment, and outcomes, Marketplace provides the commercial foundation—connecting partners, software companies, and customers through flexible, channel-led sales models that scale. “Microsoft Marketplace gives enterprise and SMC customers a direct path to procure Devicie against their Microsoft commitments, while our channel-led sales motion extends our reach through the trusted partner relationships that help customers achieve better device management outcomes.” Connor O’Reilly, Channel Sales Manager, Devicie Continue reading herePartner Blog | Frontier Transformation starts here: Save the date for MCAPS Start for Partners
Customers are moving toward Frontier Transformation, and they are looking to Microsoft partners to turn AI from isolated experimentation into a repeatable operating capability embedded into how work gets done. Value does not scale automatically, but complexity does. Partners who win in FY27 will be the ones who can operationalize AI with intelligence grounded in real work and trust built in from day one, including security, governance, and responsible AI. MCAPS Start for Partners is built to give you early clarity on what Microsoft will prioritize in FY27 so you can translate strategy into execution. It is the annual moment to align with Microsoft priorities at the start of the fiscal year so that you begin on the same page around investments and go-to-market motions that will shape customer conversations throughout the year. Save the date to join us virtually on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, to align on what is changing, what is net-new, and where Microsoft will focus. You will hear directly from Microsoft leaders and leave with practical next steps you can activate with your teams in the first weeks of FY27 across co-sell engagement, Microsoft Marketplace motions, incentives, and skilling. Registration opens in May. Download the calendar invite now to save the date for the event. The shift partners are observing: Frontier Transformation moves from pilots to operating capability Across industries, customers are pushing for outcomes, not pilots. They want solutions that can be operationalized, governed, and scaled across business units. Expectations are also rising around security, compliance, and responsible AI as AI moves closer to core business processes. For partners, this is a clear signal. Differentiation increasingly comes from repeatable delivery models, strong governance, and responsible AI practices built into your approach from day one. Customers want confidence that AI is not just deployed but is also managed, secured, and monitored in ways that stand up to real-world use. Starting FY27 aligned to Microsoft priorities can sharpen your focus, guide where you invest, and accelerate your ability to engage customers with a clear execution model. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Strengthen partner operations with platform updates
Customers expect a seamless experience when they buy, renew, and manage cloud services through you. For Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners, that experience depends on the operational readiness behind the scenes: secure access, resilient APIs, accurate billing and reconciliation, and subscription lifecycle flows that set the right expectations. This quarterly operational briefing is designed to give your technical teams a clear, actionable view of the latest platform, security, and API updates so you can protect revenue continuity, reduce operational friction, and stay ahead of enforcement milestones. It also highlights where platform readiness can unlock new growth opportunities, especially for partners investing in advanced workloads and specializations. The updates below fall into two categories: changes already in effect that you should validate now, and high-impact milestones arriving soon that require immediate engineering and operations attention. Where deadlines are fixed, assume urgency. Small gaps can turn into avoidable disruption when enforcement begins. Continue reading herePartner Blog | April skilling update: Preparing for what’s next
Move your customers from AI interest to execution by tapping into skilling opportunities designed to strengthen delivery readiness and sharpen sales execution. This month's skilling focus is about going beyond AI pilots to deliver real outcomes, securely and across teams. In May and June, Microsoft is delivering high-impact, in-person learning opportunities that can scale readiness across your broader team through role-based learning journeys, equipping you to drive AI-powered solutions and exceed customer expectations. The in-person skilling difference In-person skilling creates a different kind of readiness. You get face-to-face time with experts, hands-on practice, and peer-to-peer pattern sharing that is hard to replicate through self-paced content alone. The result is faster capability build, clearer delivery expectations, and better alignment between technical teams and sellers. For many partners, the winning approach is a blend: In-person learning to build depth, practice real scenarios, and tighten delivery quality in Agentic AI in Copilot Studio, app modernization, sovereign cloud conversations, and AI-powered analytics in Microsoft Fabric. On-demand skilling to scale knowledge across your broader team and reinforce learning over time across topics like Microsoft Fabric IQ, agentic AI, Microsoft Defender XDR, and Microsoft Agent 365. Continue reading herePartner Blog | What's new for Microsoft partners: April 2026 edition
Your voice continues to shape how the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program evolves. This update brings together the announcements, investments, and resources that matter most to partners right now, so you can prioritize where to focus, what to skill, and which motions to scale as AI becomes central to every workload. What follows highlights areas of partner opportunity, grounded in feedback from across the ecosystem and aligned to how customers are evolving their cloud and AI strategies. Spotlight Leading Frontier Firm transformation with Microsoft 365 E7: The partner opportunity On March 9, 2026, we introduced Microsoft 365 E7 and announced general availability of Microsoft 365 E7 and Microsoft Agent 365 on May 1, 2026. For partners, the Microsoft Frontier Suite represents a services-led opportunity across the customer lifecycle, from AI advisory and solution design to agent deployment, governance, and ongoing optimization. Anchored in AI execution, security, and operational rigor, it supports repeatable monetization and positions partners to guide customers through Frontier Transformation with confidence. Continue reading highlights herePartner Blog | Accelerating Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migrations: New tooling, proven patterns, and partner opportunities inspired by Apollo Hospitals
Enterprises around the world are rethinking their data strategy. Oracle remains foundational for many mission-critical applications, but licensing pressure, modernization priorities, and the need for faster innovation are driving customers to standardize on open-source databases. PostgreSQL continues to rise as a leading alternative: cloud-ready, enterprise-grade, and well suited for large, latency-sensitive workloads. For partners, this shift represents one of the biggest modernization opportunities in the market. Customers are actively seeking migration expertise, repeatable methodologies, and end-to-end modernization services that reduce risk and accelerate time to value. They want an approach that is engineered, governed, and predictable. Microsoft has been making significant investments in predictability. Over the last year, we’ve made substantial engineering improvements to Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration tooling and guidance, including AI-assisted conversion and validation workflows designed to standardize more of the heavy lifting for partners. At the same time, customers are raising the bar on what “modern data” means. It is not only about moving to the cloud. It is about reducing latency, simplifying governance, and enabling real-time decisions at scale. Apollo Hospitals offers a useful example of what this looks like in practice and why foundational modernization, including PostgreSQL modernization, is moving up the priority list. Continue reading herePartner Blog | March skilling update: The pathway to capability
Partners are moving fast this year. New workloads. New buyer expectations. More roles involved in every AI deal and delivery. The common friction point isn’t motivation. It’s navigation. March’s skilling update focuses on simplifying how you discover the right learning and progress through it with confidence. Our model is simple: discover the right pathway, then build capability through role-aligned learning, labs, and readiness experiences. This month, the Microsoft Partner Skilling Catalog is the discovery layer. LevelUp is where you go deeper with on-demand learning that supports certification prep, Project Ready execution, and pathways focused on small and medium-sized business (SMB) opportunities. Together, they create a connected skilling ecosystem designed to accelerate readiness across sales, presales, and technical roles. Continue reading here
