As the old saying goes, “Nothing remains constant except change itself.” Over the last year, we have witnessed how rapidly change can occur in both professional and personal spheres. As your partner, we want to ensure that your organization—and the full Microsoft Partner Network—is equipped to not only survive change, but to continually adapt and thrive. 

With companies across the globe working to stay ahead of the evolving landscape, data has become the lifeblood of modern organizations. Distilling raw information into actionable insights is now essential to operating almost any business, which is why we’ve been actively investing to provide access to innovative data management and analytics resources for partners that can help you and your customers remain on the cutting edge of your industries. For example, we recently launched the Partner Center Insights dashboard, which unlocks powerful reporting with a unified view of data across your Microsoft Partner Network organizational hierarchy. 

Adoption of Microsoft Azure has continued to increase rapidly—last quarter alone, Azure grew 47 percent year-over-year.

At the same time, digital transformation is actively shifting where data is stored, from on-premises data centers over to the cloud. Adoption of Microsoft Azure has continued to increase rapidly—last quarter alone, Azure grew 47 percent year-over-year. This mass migration to the cloud has been amplified by the widespread move to remote work, as many organizations seek to modernize aging on-premises systems and analytics capabilities. 

One of our top priorities is to ensure you’re prepared to meet the needs of your customers as they navigate these ongoing changes. Over the past few months, we’ve expanded the advanced specializations partners can earn to include Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop, Microsoft Threat Protection, and Microsoft Identity & Access Management. While these are all deeply valued capabilities for our partners to develop and showcase, it’s also critical for customers to understand the value that Azure provides and how your organization is uniquely positioned to help them unlock that value.  

With this in mind, I’m thrilled to share that Microsoft is now offering a new advanced specialization that partners with a gold Cloud Platform competency can earn to highlight their capabilities around analytics on Microsoft Azure. 

Advanced specialization— Analytics on Microsoft Azure 

Azure offers a differentiated range of analytics technologies that span the breadth of customers’ needs for advanced analytics and business intelligence. The Analytics on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization validates your organization’s deep expertise in planning and deploying Azure cloud analytics services, enabling customers to use the full breadth of their data assets to help build transformative and secure analytical solutions at enterprise scale. To earn an advanced specialization in this area, partners with an active gold Cloud Platform competency must meet a stringent set of requirements including performance criteria, certifications, and an independent third-party audit. 

To achieve an advanced specialization, you’ll need to commit time and resources, but doing so will help drive greater visibility for your organization on Azure.com, in customer searches, and the Microsoft partner directory, as customers look to identify partners with validated capability. 

Data-driven insights and cloud adoption will continue to gain prominence for organizations of all shapes and sizes, opening massive opportunity for your organization. Microsoft will also continue to invest in our partners, and we’ll share updates on additional advanced specializations and other developments on an ongoing basis. In the meantime, I encourage you to work toward earning an Analytics on Azure advanced specialization, so you’re better prepared to support your customers with their digital transformation journey.  

You can review a list of all advanced specializations currently offered for the Microsoft Partner Network here.