Microsoft Partner Chief Talks AI, NCE, Security, New Designations

What are some important takeaways from Microsoft’s 2023 State Of The Partner Ecosystem? 

The thing I really wanted people to take away from the event is the big investments that we have made and are continuing to make in the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program and certainly AI. … We launched the new cloud partner program six months ago.

And it’s really designed to simplify our partners’ ability to go to market with us, to help them differentiate themselves in the market.

And it brings everything for the partners under a single umbrella of the entire partner life cycle—everything from on-boarding, skilling, go-to-market and co-selling. And so it’s been really, really exciting not just to see the transformation, but also we have a very rich road map ahead. So I’m super excited about that.

The other big one … it’s incredible to see the series of announcements we’re making around AI. For me personally, I’m incredibly inspired and excited about the opportunities that this creates for our partners.

I will share with you that this is the No. 1 topic with partners right now. They’re excited. You can see the wheels turning. They’re quite motivated and inspired to bring this capability to our joint customers. … There’s so much goodness coming, too. … We talked about this as a new era. And it really does feel like a new era. It’s a fantastic time to be in this business.