Upcoming IT Management and Security in the AI Era events on Tech community!
We’re excited to invite you to IT Management and Security in the AI Era, on Thursday, February 26th, from 8:00AM to 10:30 AM Pacific. This digital event is designed to help IT and security professionals answer questions with clarity and confidence, grounded in the latest Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities and controls. What to expect IT Management and Security in the AI Era brings together insights, demos, and deep dives from Microsoft experts, giving you a practical understanding of how to prepare your environments for Copilot and agents while managing risks responsibly. Topics covered include: Built-in protections in the Copilot platform that help proactively safeguard your organization Practical ways to reduce exposure to common attack vectors in an increasingly AI-driven digital workplace Technical guidance for protecting sensitive data while maintaining productivity Best practices for managing AI agents and controlling costs Measurement, analytics, and usage insights to understand adoption and business impact Guidance on enabling users and assessing the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents across your organization Continue reading and register here!Partner Blog | Expanded partner benefits are now available: What’s new in February 2026
Expanded partner benefits are now available across the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. These updates reflect continued investment in the tools, resources, and support partners rely on to build, differentiate, and grow, and they incorporate feedback we hear consistently across the ecosystem. If you read our January post about planning ahead for the February refresh, this is the follow-up: the new benefits are now rolling out, and partners with eligible offers will find them in Partner Center as they become available. What’s new You’ll find a range of meaningful additions designed to empower you to move faster with AI, support security needs, and improve go-to-market execution. Highlights include: Copilot additions in select offers: The FY26 refresh introduces new Copilot-related benefits across parts of the program, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Dragon Copilot (per user) in select partner offers where available. Security benefits expansion: Security-focused benefits have been broadened, including additions such as Microsoft Defender Suite, Microsoft Entra Suite, and Microsoft Intune Suite in select offerings. Azure credit updates: Azure benefits are being updated across multiple offers, including new additions and increases in value for certain cloud benefits. These credits are designed to support solution development, testing, and expansion of your practice. Go-to-market resources: As partners continue to access marketing benefits and resources through the program, Microsoft is simplifying discovery and execution—so you can bring campaigns to market with less friction. Continue reading hereDrive Microsoft 365 renewals and upgrades ahead of pricing and packaging updates
We recently announced that in 2026, we’re expanding the availability of security and management capabilities to the commercial Microsoft 365 suites. Along with these added features, there will also be a global price update to these suites across all purchasing channels effective July 1, 2026. As a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner, this is a key moment for you to drive renewals and upgrades before July 1, 2026. Learn more about the pricing updates, as well as the promotions, offers, and go-to-market resources you can use to support your customer conversations. Learn more here Join the conversation by following the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners discussion board where both direct bill and indirect resellers collaborate, troubleshoot, and stay informed on the latest developments in the CSP ecosystem.Partner Blog | Securing the future: How Microsoft partners are powering AI-ready organizations
The world of agentic AI is evolving quickly. According to the Microsoft 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report, 82% of leaders say they’re confident they’ll use AI agents as digital team members to expand workforce capacity in the next 12 to 18 months. That pace of innovation introduces new challenges. As the AI landscape grows, so does the threat surface. This shift creates a critical opportunity for Microsoft partners: to lead with security as the foundation of every AI transformation. By doing so, you enable customers to innovate responsibly and position your organization at the center of lasting trust and growth. In recognition of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, this blog post explores how you can build a stronger security practice and empower your customers to innovate safely, backed by Microsoft partner resources, incentives, and solutions. Security is the foundation of innovation Innovation without strong security isn’t sustainable. The average cost of a data breach now exceeds $4.4 million globally, and beyond the financial cost, weak security erodes trust. As Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Strategy Group, noted in this year’s Work Trend Index, “As multi-agent systems redefine the workplace, the challenge will be to integrate and manage them securely and effectively.” When partners lead with security, they unlock real business outcomes. Organizations using Microsoft Security Copilot are already seeing tangible results, including a 17% reduction17% reduction in breaches and up to 60% in cost savings. Our own Customer Zero journey at Microsoft reinforces that security and innovation go hand in hand. When security is embedded into every layer of AI transformation, it strengthens the relationship between IT and engineering. It enables teams to co-develop solutions and deliver innovation faster while reducing risk. As a Microsoft partner, you play an essential role in helping customers build secure foundations for AI transformation. We’re committed to supporting you with playbooks, tools, and incentives you need to turn security expertise into customer outcomes. Accelerate secure AI transformation at every stage Partners who lead with security become trusted guides for their customers. Through the Microsoft Security Customer Win Formula, you can access practical resources mapped to each stage of the customer journey—from early discovery to long-term management—and position yourself as a strategic resource your customers can turn to as their business needs and challenges evolve. 1. Build trust as Customer Zero Differentiate your practice by attaining a Solutions Partner designation for Security, and further validate your expertise through certifications and specializations. Plus, achieving an MXDR verification signals to customers that you have the skills to safeguard their AI and cloud environments. Continue expanding your capabilities through the Partner Skilling Hub, where you’ll find self-paced learning paths and instructor-led training to stay current in a constantly evolving threat landscape. 2. Develop an informed pipeline with customer insights Effective security transformation starts with listening. Leverage Microsoft intelligent propensity tools to identify customers ready for secure AI adoption: SPARK: Intelligent data models that predict customer propensity for Microsoft solutions CloudAscent: AI-powered targeting for small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers Microsoft 365 Lighthouse: ML-driven recommendations for customer acquisition, retention, and growth You can also accelerate demand generation with ready-to-launch, customizable campaigns in a box tailored for Security solution plays. Partners using these campaigns are already generating high-quality leads and engaging decision-makers faster. Explore the Partner Marketing Tool Guidance for more information. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Unifying the data platform for real-time insights
Every organization is looking for quicker insights, stronger security, and new ways to drive innovation with AI. The real challenge lies in connecting and preparing the data that makes those outcomes possible. Across industries, customers are realizing that data sprawl and disconnected systems limit what AI can do. To unlock the potential of their data and deliver real-time impact, they need a modern data foundation that’s integrated, governed, secure, and ready for AI. This post is part three of our Cloud and AI Platforms blog series, detailing how partners can accelerate customer transformation across the Microsoft Cloud. In part one, we looked at the market opportunity created by AI and cloud innovation. Part two focused on migration and modernization as the foundation for AI-powered growth. Now we turn to the next phase of that journey: building a unified data platform that connects every source, fuels intelligent applications, and drives measurable outcomes. Microsoft partners are at the center of this opportunity. By enabling customers to unify their data estate with solutions like Microsoft Fabric, Azure Databricks, and Microsoft Purview, partners are critical in helping organizations turn information into action and insight into innovation. Unify the data estate Bringing all data together across on-premises, cloud, and industry-specific sources is the first step toward intelligence at scale. With Microsoft Fabric and Azure Databricks, partners can create an open, lake-centric foundation that simplifies analytics and operational data for AI. Continue reading hereSign up for Microsoft Partner Incentives performance measurement reports
As part of a larger push to empower you to deliver exceptional business outcomes, we've introduced incentives performance measurement reports, available through email. Delivered during the first week of every month, these reports include presales and post-sales partner performance measurements and earning cap status so you can get essential insights into your engagements across hero investments. These hero investments include Azure Accelerate, AI Workforce: Microsoft 365 Copilot + Power Accelerate, Al Business Process, and Security Activities. Here’s what to expect: Performance requirements pausing policy: Starting on November 15, 2025,* partners who are not meeting performance requirements will be paused from nominating new claims. This applies only to new nominations; in-progress projects will not be affected. Further, partners who have reached their earning cap and have nominations paused will be notified when they are eligible to nominate projects again. Reactivation of nominations: Paused partners will be reviewed each Tuesday by Microsoft to determine if they meet performance thresholds. Those who meet thresholds will be notified by email within two business days after their review and reactivated within seven business days after their review. Earning cap reviews: Partners who are approaching their earning cap and are meeting performance benchmarks will be considered for an earning cap increase based on budget availability and quality of claims. Claim quality can be affected by factors such as accuracy of your activity reporting, number of duplicate claims, and how your investments are leveraged. Increased cap value: If you’re approved for an earning cap increase, you can expect up to 50% above the engagement’s initial cap. Earning cap extension approval is not guaranteed. Earning cap pausing: Partners who have reached their earning cap and did not receive a notification of an increased cap based on review will be paused from submitting new claims and will be notified. This pause applies only to new nominations; in-progress projects will remain unaffected. No partner action is required, and Microsoft will proactively review and communicate decisions about earning caps. Review the updated policy for partner performance measurements and earning caps (available November 1, 2025). Sign up now for monthly reports so you can fuel transformation with expertise and funding and drive faster time to value for your projects. Sign up for monthly reports today! *Starting December 1, 2025, Security Activities will issue monthly partner performance reports, and beginning January 1, 2026, partners not meeting requirements will be paused from nominating new claims.Partner Blog | Strengthening security and customer trust with technical and API changes
Staying ahead of evolving security standards and compliance requirements is about more than just protecting your organization. It also positions you to deepen customer trust, generate new business opportunities, and accelerate your ability to deliver high-value solutions, including AI transformation. To support that, we are introducing updates to Partner Center and across APIs your teams use every day. These changes are designed to keep you ahead of regulatory and technical requirements, reduce risk, and avoid disruption to your operations and customer transactions. We are also extending some effective dates for these updates to ensure you have the time to prepare. With these enhanced security standards in place, you can lead with confidence on the AI frontier and give your teams the tools they need to be prepared, protected, and positioned to stand out. Recent improvements to keep your business secure, compliant—and growing Over the last few months, we’ve released updates to strengthen security and streamline processes: Continue reading herePartner 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 | Critical API changes for Microsoft partners: Take action now to avoid business disruption
With trust as the foundation of our business at Microsoft, security and compliance are at the heart of everything we do. Our partners play a key role in strengthening customer trust and enhancing the security posture of our entire ecosystem. Comprehensive security also presents a significant opportunity for every partner to drive efficiency, grow their business, and reach more customers. To make this opportunity a reality, we’re committed to enhancing the partner experience by providing you with ongoing updates and resources to help keep your organization (and customers) safe. By ensuring our partners are capable and compliant, we can continue to improve the way our customers do business with us and drive meaningful outcomes—together. Continue reading here
