Congratulations to the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards winners and finalists  - Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

Congratulations to the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards winners and finalists 

partner of the year awards purple and orange winners scarf

Ahead of Microsoft Inspire 2021, I’m honored to announce our Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards winners and finalists. This year’s entries demonstrated how partner innovations can bring Microsoft technology to life, to meaningfully impact the lives of people around the world. We’re hosting Microsoft Inspire 2021 virtually from July 14-15, where we will celebrate exemplary achievements from across our global partner ecosystem.

Since the last Microsoft Inspire, we’ve seen how students, workers, and businesses across the globe have adapted to new ways of operating. Organizations of all types are rapidly evolving and adopting innovative technologies to meet customers’ emerging needs. The way in which many businesses and industries operate has changed through this push for digital transformation—and our partners have been with them for every step of their journeys.

Our partners have shown amazing agility and creativity in building solutions based on Microsoft technology across the intelligent cloud to edge, all while adapting to these changes themselves. We have seen partners not only exceed existing customer expectations, but also contribute to their communities in offering creative solutions that help solve challenges for customers, communities, and the environment.

To recognize the resiliency and continued dedication to changemaking through innovations based on Microsoft technology, this year we created a new category of awards, Social Impact, which includes awards for Community Response, Inclusion Changemaker, and—new this year—Sustainability Changemaker. This Social Impact category highlights partners that are driving digital transformation to make a difference and help customers solve challenges across these areas. More information on all categories is available here. We couldn’t be more optimistic to see the passion, creativity, and impact of partners through these efforts.

There were more than 4,400 nominations for this year’s Partner of the Year Awards – across 130 countries and 56 categories. Altogether, they were an inspiring reflection of the impact our partners enable through the innovative technology portfolio that they continue to build. Every year, it’s a challenge to determine the strongest entries, when so many enable success and truly make a difference for our mutual customers. It’s a compelling reminder that partners support our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more—which is one of the many reasons why we come together and celebrate this group every year.

Congratulations to this year’s winners and finalists, and to all of our partners who have demonstrated exceptional expertise, dedication to their customers, and care for our world through a year of change. We are excited to virtually gather as a community to recognize and celebrate your achievements from the past year, and to see what’s in store as we move ahead together.    

Author

  • Rodney Clark
    Former Microsoft Channel Chief

    As Microsoft Channel Chief, Rodney Clark led the team responsible for the Microsoft services partner business, as well as cross-partner strategy and outcomes through the Microsoft Partner Network. The team's focus is driving digital transformation and building capability through all partner channels, programs and motions – critical in setting the go-forward strategy for our partner ecosystem, and continuing to accelerate growth with partners and customers. Prior to this, Rodney served as the Corporate Vice President of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Mixed Reality Sales business, responsible for building intelligent systems and mixed reality capability through sales and go-to-market execution, with partners and customers. Throughout his career at Microsoft, over 20 years, he has had the opportunity to lead multi-billion-dollar businesses and accelerate transformation, develop new channels and markets, drive M&A initiatives and run international organizations.