Welcome to part 1 of this month’s Azure Partner Community blog series.
- Register for the January 21 Azure Partner Community call
- Join the Azure Partners group on Yammer
- Sign up for the Azure Partner email newsletter
by Frank Campise
US Partner Technology Strategist for Microsoft Azure
Several months ago, I published a 3-part blog post series about Microsoft Azure benefits for partners, providing a comprehensive look at options for obtaining Microsoft Azure and detailing the Internal Use Rights benefit that’s available to Microsoft Action Pack subscribers and competency partners. These posts proved useful for both my colleagues and for the US Partner Community, and helped many partners better understand and utilize their benefits.
Since these posts were published, there have been changes to Azure partner benefits that reflect the rapidly evolving and growing role that cloud technology plays today, as well as partner feedback. These changes were part of several changes announced at WPC 2015, and are detailed in a blog post by Gavriella Schuster, General Manager, Worldwide Partner Group.
We’ve updated the original posts with current information and links. In this post, I’ll summarize the changes. Look for posts soon from my colleagues, Nick Johnson and Jonathan Gardner, with suggestions for creative ways you can use your Azure benefits to get up to speed on new features as well as demo environments.
Azure internal use benefit changes
Benefits for MPN members with a competency have increased, so you can increase your team’s Azure expertise and readiness. Partners with the Cloud Platform competency are now able to use their benefits to set up more complex scenarios.
Here are the key changes:
- Partners with a silver or gold competency now receive the Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscription, replacing the Premium subscription. Each individual subscription includes $150/month usage, up from $100/month.
- Partners with the Application Development competency now receive the Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscription, replacing the Premium subscription. Each individual subscription includes $150/month usage, up from $100/month.
- Partners with the Application Lifecycle Management competency now receive Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscription, replacing the Ultimate subscription. Each individual subscription includes $150/month usage, up from $100/month.
- The Cloud Platform, Cloud CRM, and Cloud Productivity competencies added more MSDN subscription benefits. For silver, the partner receives an additional 5 Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscriptions; for gold, the partner receives an additional 25 Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN subscriptions. Each individual subscription includes $150/month usage, up from $100/month.
- The Azure annual bulk credit for partners with the Cloud Platform competency increased to $6,000 for silver and $12,000 for gold.
This chart illustrates how the above changes affect the partner benefit. These scenarios are detailed in part 2 of my original blog series.
Scenario | Previous benefit | Current benefit |
Scenario 1: Partner with one gold competency | $1,100 per month | $1,600 per month |
Scenario 2: Partner with one Azure-related gold competency | $3,600 per month | $5,350 per month |
Scenario 3: Partner with Gold Cloud Platform Competency | $1,600 per month | $5,350 per month |
Scenario 4: Partner with mix of gold and silver competencies | $4,850 per month | $7,600 per month |
Read the updated Azure benefits posts
I’ve refreshed the information and links in the original posts so that you have access to the latest information.
- Part 1: Overview of programs that help partners get their hands on Microsoft Azure
- Part 2: Microsoft competency benefits – Internal Use Rights and MSDN benefits
- Part 3: An introduction to Microsoft Azure support benefits available to competency partners