Microsoft goes live with its new Cloud Partner Program

Microsoft’s new Cloud Partner Program has gone live (MCPP). The program aims to better align partners’ go-to-market motion with the way customers buy Microsoft products today.

The program was announced in March this year, marking a shift in partnership strategy towards a cloud-first approach with Azure taking centre-stage. Microsoft has unveiled two qualifying levels to better understand a partner’s capabilities including a solutions partner level that is designated based on a partner’s capability score (PCS), which can be achieved on the basis of their certifications, added customers, successful deployments and overall growth.

The legacy silver and gold competency badges are no longer valid and are replaced with six new ‘Solutions Partner’ designations namely data and AI (Azure), infrastructure (Azure), digital and app innovation (Azure), business applications, modern work, and security. These are now available to all partners.

Partners will continue to receive legacy benefits until their next anniversary date, at which time partners do have the option of maintaining their old benefits aligned to their gold or silver status. Partners that qualify as solutions partners, however, will get the opportunity to switch to the new benefits.

For achieving a solutions partner designation, partners will need to earn a PCS of at least 70 points out of an available 100 points across the four measurement areas. Partners that have already met the requirements for a designation through legacy benefits will receive it immediately. Partners that meet the requirements but don’t have legacy benefits will receive the designation after paying the fee.