Microsoft Program Announcements
Sentinel 50-GB tier promo extended
We’ve extended the Microsoft Sentinel 50 GB commitment tier promotion, giving partners more time to drive adoption.
- Announcement date: June 26, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: All partners
Guidance on Marketplace Rewards Azure sponsorship use cases
Marketplace Rewards partners can use Azure sponsorships to support customer deployments and no-cost trials of Marketplace offers.
- Announcement date: June 25, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Marketplace Rewards partners using Azure sponsorships for customer deployments or no-cost trial offers in Microsoft Marketplace.
New Check Inventory by Resource Type API available—Check Inventory API retiring September 25, 2026
A new Check Inventory by Resource Type API is now available. The existing Check Inventory API will be retired on September 25, 2026.
- Date: June 23, 2026
- Workspace: APIs
- Impacted audience: All partners using Partner Center APIs for inventory checks.
A new Check Inventory by Resource Type API is now available, enabling partners to check inventory for catalog items filtered by a specific resource type. This API replaces the existing Check Inventory API, which will be retired on September 25, 2026.
Updated Microsoft Partner Agreement takes effect December 1, 2026
Preview the updated Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA) in Partner Center.
- Date: June 17, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners.
Your updated Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA) is now available in Partner Center.
Every technical update, delivered right to your inbox
Stay ahead of API changes, compliance requirements, and security updates with clear technical guidance.
- Date: June 11, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Developers, compliance leads, admins, and other partners in technical roles.
Get the latest technical updates and detailed implementation guidance designed to keep your operations running smoothly.
Monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program update
What’s new for Solutions Partner designations, specialisations, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offerings and benefits.
- Date: June 10, 2026
- Workspace: Membership
- Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.
This month’s updates continue to enhance partner differentiation and readiness across high-demand solution areas. Key changes include specialisation updates that integrate AI capabilities, revised skilling and performance requirements, and streamlined qualification frameworks to support partner growth and agility.
MFA enforcement for Partner Center APIs
Multifactor authentication (MFA) enforcement for Partner Center APIs: Take action immediately.
- Date: June 8, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Partners using app+user authentication for Partner Center API integrations.
Microsoft implemented progressive enforcement of multifactor authentication (MFA) across all Partner Center app+user APIs via incremental traffic exposure. This builds on the MFA requirements already enforced for the Partner Center portal and extends the same level of protection to API-based access.
Build in-demand capabilities at Microsoft AI Skills Fest
Free digital skilling event for Microsoft partners, June 8–12.
- Date: June 4, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: All partners.
Register for Microsoft AI Skills Fest, a free digital skilling event taking place June 8–12. Build in-demand AI skills, explore practical training, and discover new ways to strengthen customer solutions and support business growth. Plus, to fast-track completion of the Frontier Transformation Engineer badge, join the Frontier Transformation Engineer Summit on June 9. This live, expert-led skilling experience covers Microsoft Agent Factory at scale, organisational readiness, and AI agent development. Solution engineers and architects building AI agents across the Frontier stack—including Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Agent 365—can validate their expertise with the Frontier Transformation Engineer badge.
Update to benefits renewal window coming
Renewal window for benefits to begin 30 days earlier.
- Date: July 14, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: If you manage benefits renewals in Partner Center, this change affects how you plan renewal timing and track benefit end dates.
Starting in early 2027, your renewal window starts 30 days before the anniversary date (AD) of your benefits offering.
Introducing Copilot in 30
Explore Copilot in 30, a scalable framework to acquire new Microsoft 365 Copilot customers in just 30 days.
- Date: July 14, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: CSP authorised partners (global admin, billing admin roles) who support SMB customers with fewer than 300 employees.
Microsoft is introducing Copilot in 30, a new Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner-led trial offering designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to get hands-on experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business and explore use cases across their organisation through a structured 30-day experience.
New Windows 365 Promotions CSP promotions - Save up to 25% for new and existing subscribers
Unlock new growth with Windows 365 CSP promotions. New and existing subscribers can now save up to 25% on Windows 365 editions.
- Date: July 1, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners
Details
We’re excited to launch new Windows 365 promotions designed to help you accelerate customer conversations and drive demand in a cost‑conscious market.
Starting July 1, partners can unlock up to 25% savings across Windows 365 editions – giving you a powerful way to lower the barrier to entry and expand Cloud PC adoption with both new and existing customers.
FY27 promotions for Microsoft 365 and Copilot
Take advantage of FY27 Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) promotions for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot to accelerate deals and AI adoption.
- Date: July 1, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: CSP indirect partners, CSP direct bill partners, Scaled Solution Providers (SSPs), CSP distributors.
To kick off FY27 and maintain the momentum we’ve built in FY26, we’re extending select CSP promotions for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot and introducing new Copilot promotions. Together, these create an even more compelling set of offers to accelerate AI adoption and grow every deal.
Now available: Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot SKUs
Turn durable pricing into a predictable renewal engine for SMB customers.
- Date: July 1, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: All partners selling Microsoft 365 to SMB customers, including those driving new customer acquisition, renewals, and upsell scenarios.
The wait is over—your most effective small and medium-sized business (SMB) AI motion just got simpler and more scalable.
As of July 1, 2026, the Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot SKUs, previewed in the June 1 price list, are now generally available. These new SKUs turn a successful promotional motion into a permanent, predictable offer you can build your business around.
Explore MCAPS Start for Partners sessions
Join us on July 22 for the sessions, strategies, and playbooks to execute from day one—across AI, security, cloud, and beyond.
- Date: July 1, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: All partners.
Whether you’re building AI-powered solutions, expanding managed services, or scaling your security practice, this year’s sessions at MCAPS Start for Partners give you the clarity and tools to start FY27 strong.
Azure promotions now available in sandbox
Start preparing for Azure consumptive promotions and per-user promotional targeting.
- Date: July 8, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: CSP partners transacting Azure consumption-based services and per-user (seat-based) offers
As a reminder, two new promotion capabilities are coming in FY27:
- Azure consumptive promotions: Percentage-off promotional discounts on Azure consumption-based services—spanning pay-as-you-go usage, Reserved Instances, and pre-purchase plans—creating new motions to scale Azure consumption and expansion.
- Per-user promotions: Microsoft can now target offers by seat count with greater precision, so you can build stronger motions to acquire customers and grow at scale.
Access the sandbox and Microsoft Learn documentation to begin API adoption for Azure promotional capability. No action is required to adopt per-user promotional capabilities.
Offers are subject to eligibility, terms, and conditions.
Cloud Accelerate Factory expands
More partners can now use Cloud Accelerate Factory to deliver faster, more competitive customer engagements.
- Date: July 8, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Partners with eligible Azure specialisations, plus partners participating in select Security and other specialisation engagements.
Speed wins deals. And now, more partners have access to a faster way to deliver. Cloud Accelerate Factory is a benefit that provides partners with zero-cost, Microsoft-led deployment assistance across 30+ Azure services, helping accelerate delivery using proven best practices. This enables partners to reduce delivery costs and timelines while focusing their expertise on higher-value, differentiated solutions that drive greater customer impact.
Annual local currency pricing updates for Commercial Cloud
Starting in FY27, Microsoft is moving to annual local currency pricing updates for Commercial Cloud services every January.
- Date: July 8, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: All Partner Center partners purchasing or managing Commercial Cloud subscriptions that use local currency pricing, including CSP direct bill, indirect provider, and indirect reseller partners.
Beginning this fiscal year (July 1, 2026), Microsoft will transition to annual local currency pricing updates every January for its Commercial Cloud services, providing customers with greater pricing predictability while continuing to account for sustained fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. The next local currency update will be effective January 1, 2027, and occur annually on this date, except in limited exceptional circumstances. Notifications with guidance on the upcoming year’s pricing updates will be issued in advance every November.
New access to move customers from EA to CSP
Expanded access to the EA-to-CSP for Azure tool helps partners transition customers to drive recurring revenue.
- Date: July 7, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience:Partners with a Solutions Partner designation for Azure and a CSP direct bill authorisation, as well as partners who hold a Frontier Distributor designation.
Partners helping customers move from AI experimentation to real, scaled impact know that the commercial foundation matters as much as the technology itself. That’s why Microsoft is expanding access to the EA to CSP for Azure tool beyond Azure Expert MSP enrollment and partners with a Frontier Distributor designation.
DLP in Defender for Cloud Apps deprecation
DLP in Defender for Cloud Apps will be deprecated on January 6, 2027. Microsoft Purview will become the unified home for data security and compliance.
- Date: July 6, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: CSP partners, SI / advisory partners, Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program members.
The Data Loss Prevention (DLP) file policy capabilities within Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps will be deprecated on January 6, 2027. After this date, all file policies configured in Defender for Cloud Apps will no longer be supported or enforced.
Specialisation skilling updates
Several Microsoft specialisation certifications are retiring and being replaced by new AI-focused criteria.
- Announcement date: June 30, 2026
- Workspace: General
- Impacted audience: Partners earning/renewing Business Apps or Data & AI designation – or AI Apps, AI Platform, Finance, Intelligent Automation, Low Code, Sales, Service, or Supply Chain specialisations.