Microsoft is committed to giving people opportunities to continue upgrading their technical and sales skills to stay current with ever-evolving technology and earn certifications. We kicked off our partner training in January with Microsoft Azure Cloud Week for Partners, where learners could improve their role-based knowledge.

Those who missed this event are invited to attend our second upcoming Azure Cloud Week for Partners on March 14-18. This modular five-day virtual training experience focuses on Microsoft Azure fundamentals surrounding data engineering, AI, security, and solutions development. The event also includes training for pre-sales and sales professionals who want to learn about emphasizing a business-first sales model.

Learn relevant, role-based skills for Azure

Azure Cloud Week for Partners offers a focused chance for sales and technical professionals to learn the skills most useful to their work—or to the work they aspire to do. The technical skills gap is predicted to persist, with 76 percent of IT decision-makers saying last year they have critical skills gaps on their teams—a figure which has soared by 145 percent since 2016. Learning new tech skills and earning certifications can boost people’s career paths, but they also fill real needs in the industry as technology evolves.

During Azure Cloud Week for Partners, we will cover 10 different sales and tech tracks, several of those cover specifics related to four main areas of cloud computing with the Azure platform.

1. AI: Azure includes a portfolio of AI services designed for developers and data specialists to help simplify the construction and deployment of your own AI solutions. Azure AI also offers models to enable high-quality computer vision, speech, and decision-making capabilities. 
2. Data: A prime advantage of the Azure cloud is its ability to manage and store data. It’s essential learners understand the basic data architecture of Azure and how Azure handles various types of data workloads, including big data, using a variety of tools and applications. 
3. Security: Azure provides partners with a wide choice of configurable security options, along with the ability to customize security to meet the unique requirements of your organization’s deployments.
4. IT infrastructure: Azure offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to help our partners and customers deploy infrastructure solutions which manage and store data, oversee data access and security, and run essential computer functions.

Our training sessions include discussion of real-world projects and business solutions related to these and other technical areas rather than abstract hypotheticals. Accumulating knowledge with the goal of passing role-based certification exams is a priority for many learners, but we know our partners also need employees who have the skills and practical mindset needed to be project ready.

Sales-oriented and tech tracks allow for cross-training

Many people found the first 2022 Azure Cloud Week to be helpful. In addition to offering tech-oriented training sessions, this upcoming Azure Cloud Week includes a sales-oriented track. We want to equip our partner sellers for compelling conversations with their customers, so these learning sessions for pre-sales and sales professionals teaches a business-first sales strategy. The content is based on these Azure collections within the Partner Sales Acceleration Program (PSAP) and defined Microsoft sales plays.

While the sales-oriented sessions are aimed at sales-related professionals, they are open to anyone who might want to add sales knowledge to their technical skills on Microsoft products. Additionally, the technical trainings include a few role-based certification tracks not offered at the previous Azure Cloud Week for Partners. Those include:

• AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions. This course and the certification exam are designed to help partners accomplish technical tasks related to designing the identity, governance, and monitoring solutions, as well as designing data storage solutions, business continuity solutions, and infrastructure solutions.
• DP-203 Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure. This advanced role-based track helps our partners gain specialist capabilities, specifically related to integrating, transforming, and consolidating data from various structured and unstructured data systems into a suitable structure for building analytics solutions.
• DP-300 Administering Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure. This advanced role-based track aims to help data management specialists and administrators who manage databases built with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure Data Services.

The other tracks available during Azure Cloud Week for Partners cover the necessary basics about the Azure platform, developing solutions, security, and engineering:

Launch your training journey

Register now and take advantage of this next training Azure Cloud Week for Partners event. We encourage attendance by learners at a wide variety of levels, from those starting out who need to know the basics of Microsoft Azure to those in advanced roles, such as business analysts, IT administrators, or functional and technical consultants. 

Participants can choose from instructor-led courses, on-demand labs, and Q&A sessions during the hours that best fit into their busy schedules. Each day will offer two live training sessions with start times optimized for locations around the globe. In addition, all sessions are recorded for on-demand playback for up to 30 days after the event, with a variety of closed caption language options available. 

Because our sessions focus on the most important aspects of certification exam curriculum, we also recommend using our library of self-study content to complement what is covered. We offer always-on training via Microsoft Learn and our Virtual Training Series, which offers webinars and units to prepare participants for certification exams and more.

Sign up for additional Microsoft Cloud Week for Partner events

The first several cloud weeks we’ve hosted so far this year have trained thousands of our partners and their employees, and we hope to pass along knowledge to many more in the coming months. Learn more about and register for the other upcoming Microsoft Cloud Week for Partners events, which include Azure, Security, and Business Applications.