New Microsoft Partner Program Investments Include Millions For Security, Azure, Copilot

'Microsoft achieves reach, scale and success because of you,’ says Nicole Dezen, Microsoft chief partner officer.

Microsoft plans more than $150 million in pre-sales and post-sales investments for its Azure Innovate offering, an incremental $90 million “to accelerate security growth” with partners and a tenfold increase to its Copilot partner investment as part of a new fiscal year of partner incentives to win the battle for artificial intelligence supremacy.

The money, detailed in a company blog post Thursday, is part of a series of benefits and incentives revealed for the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant’s partner program as it readies its 400,000-strong ecosystem to deliver and execute AI projects.

“Microsoft achieves reach, scale and success because of you,” Nicole Dezen, Microsoft chief partner officer and corporate vice president of the Global Partner Solutions (GPS) organization, told partners Wednesday during the digital MCAPS Start for Partners event.

Microsoft FY25

Microsoft’s 2025 fiscal year started July 1. MCAPS Start for Partners – named for the internal Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions group – was held this year instead of the partner-focused Microsoft Inspire event.

Phil Walker, CEO of Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Microsoft partner Network Solutions Provider, told CRN in an interview that he is doubling down on his AI expertise to deliver to his clients products and services to increase productivity and innovation.

“With tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, we’re positioned to help organizations harness the transformative power of AI across their operations,” he said.

In Microsoft’s new fiscal year, Walker plans to leverage AI to build comprehensive business operating systems that can learn, adapt and evolve with client needs. He’s even hired a data scientist to help meet the AI moment.

“By harnessing the power of AI, we plan to automate complex processes, provide deep personalization and offer predictive insights that will empower businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions and stay ahead in a competitive landscape,” Walker said.

Along with the $150 million for Azure Innovate – launched in 2023 to help partners and customers infuse AI into applications, experiences, advanced analytics and custom cloud-native app building – Microsoft said Thursday that it will increase by 50 percent this fiscal year its investments for the Azure Migrate and Modernize offering

Migrate and Modernize comes with curated resources and help around migrating and modernizing on-premises infrastructure and data to Azure.

Both Azure Innovate and Azure Migrate and Modernize have helped simplify adoption of Microsoft’s cloud offering and deliver customer transformations, according to Microsoft, which said that more than 12,000 projects were delivered through the two offerings.

Microsoft also revealed that it will increase incentives for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners in areas including Microsoft 365 E3, E5 and Business Premium packages. Under the new investments, CSP partners can earn up to $120,000 for M365 E3 workloads per customer, according to the vendor.

On Copilot, Microsoft’s name for generative AI virtual assistant tools in various products or designed for various job roles, Microsoft said

$90M Security Investment

As for the $90 million in incremental security investments, Microsoft said that it will continue threat protection assessments and bring back data security assessments.

The vendor will continue Azure Migrate and Modernize with Defender for Cloud Attach offering – which gives partners 15 percent for delivering secure migration projects – and Microsoft Sentinel Migrate and Modernize, a partner-led program meant to help accelerate and simplify customer migration and modernization projects to Microsoft Sentinel workload.

With Sentinel Migrate and Modernize, partners can make upwards of $35,000 on customer projects of $125,000 to $250,000 a year in planned incremental Sentinel consumption – considered by Microsoft a medium-sized engagement.

Partners can make upwards of $50,000 on what Microsoft deems large engagements, which are between $250,000 and $500,000 a year in planned incremental Sentinel consumption, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft also said it is adding incremental investments for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners for Microsoft 365 E5 (ME5) licenses and boosting “strategic cybersecurity investments” – but the vendor did not specify any dollar amounts or percent increases.

More Updates

Microsoft plans to add and update more than 20 new product licenses for Microsoft Copilot, Defender for Endpoint, GitHub and more into multiple benefits packages in the coming months, according to the vendor.

The vendor will hold 12 more in-person AI Partner Training Days this year. In a show of partner engagement with these training programs, Microsoft revealed that it has trained more than 818,000 people on Azure, Copilot and Fabric since launching AI workshops and boot camps in 2023.

Microsoft pledged “continued significant increases in our incentives” for partners that work with small, medium and corporate (SMC) customers, but the vendor did not break out specific dollar amounts or percentages.

In the Thursday blog post, the vendor told partners about a new Azure Essentials hub with guidance, resources and tooling to help customers deploy and optimize cloud and AI investments.

Azure Essentials supports the Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate programs with best practices, reference architectures and skilling resources, according to Microsoft. Partners can use Azure Essentials to access content and enablement to deliver differentiated products and services on core scenarios across Microsoft Azure plays, resilience, security and more.

And Microsoft pointed to its recently announced provisioned throughput units (PTU) purchase option for Azure OpenAI as an opportunity for partners through the customer self-service and CSP models. Microsoft added a shorter, 30-day reservation commitment option for PTUs as well, according to the vendor.

During the MCAPS Start for Partners event, Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella gave pre-recorded statements praising the vendor’s partners.

“Microsoft has always been a partner-led company. And we are counting on you to help our mutual customers adapt and thrive in this age of AI,” Nadella said. “It's partners like yourselves that are ensuring the benefits of these technologies and platforms reach every country, industry, company and individual.”

Nadella continued: “Around the world, you're helping make small businesses more productive, nonprofits more effective, multinationals more competitive, governments more efficient and improving health outcomes and educational outcomes everywhere. Thank you for embodying that excellence that makes this partner ecosystem so unique.”