Our partners and customers are constantly innovating to keep pace with rapid market shifts and technological advancements. As part of this accelerated journey, they often face challenges such as sprawling systems, siloed teams, and technical debt. To address these issues, a unified platform is essential.

With Microsoft’s investment in Azure Arc, we believe Azure is the solution. Azure Arc crosses the boundaries of hybrid, multicloud, edge, and IoT, offering the next level of modularity, integration, and simplicity through the adaptive cloud approach.

The adaptive cloud approach

The adaptive cloud approach unifies siloed teams, distributed sites, and sprawling systems into a single operations, security, application, and data model. This enables organizations to leverage cloud-native and AI technologies across hybrid, multicloud, edge, and IoT environments. By shifting from a reactive posture to proactive evolution, businesses can anticipate and act upon changes in market trends, customer needs, and technological advancements ahead of time, optimizing resource usage and mitigating risks before they manifest.

The momentum we have with Azure Arc is building, with hundreds of partners and thousands of customers in the Americas leveraging it as a profitable path from SPLA. For example, Microsoft partner Rackspace has successfully implemented the adaptive cloud approach, resulting in significant savings of $40 million in total cost of ownership. Read more about the Rackspace success story.

Why now—upcoming SPLA price increase

Microsoft has released price changes for the Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program. As part of the announcement, licensing prices are changing for the following products, effective January 1, 2025.

Get started—explore modernization paths from SPLA with the adaptive cloud

We’re here to help you maximize the value of your investment and continue to be the bridge to secure AI innovation for your customers.

We encourage you to reach out to the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) team to explore how the adaptive cloud can benefit your organization. The DCO team is ready to assist you in navigating this transition from SPLA and exploring paths as a Cloud Solution Provider or Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA). Here is a summary of the paths you can consider:

We appreciate your continued partnership and look forward to helping you achieve new heights with the adaptive cloud.

Additional resources

• Tune in to the Hybrid Cloud Partners podcast.
• Learn more about how to innovate on an adaptive cloud.
• Visit Arc Jumpstart to try Azure Arc.
• Read the blog Advancing hybrid cloud to adaptive cloud with Azure.

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

We kicked off FY25 with the launch of No Slides Attached: AI Stories with Microsoft Partners, an exciting new podcast designed for partners who want to learn from the inspiring stories of their peers. Now, by popular demand, we’re back with Season 2!

Season 1 focused on how our Microsoft Copilots are already transforming businesses. In Season 2, we’re building on that momentum, diving even deeper into AI innovation across industries.

What’s new in Season 2

Season 2 features in-depth conversations with some of the brilliant minds behind AI transformations across key industries—from financial services to education, healthcare, retail, and more. Join hosts Helane Cohen and Fede Pacheco as they showcase the success that Microsoft Partner of the Year winners and finalists have found and ask them questions like:

1. What is a milestone achieved in this industry that seemed impossible just a few years ago?
2. What is something that hasn’t been solved yet, but they expect to see happen in the near future?
3. What is the role of Security in this industry?
4. What advice do they have for anyone looking to innovate in this industry?

Take a break

Need a breather from all the emails, meetings, and presentations? Connect on the go to get invaluable insights from industry experts and their inspiring stories. Whether you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve or searching for practical AI solutions, you won’t want to miss these latest episodes.

Subscribe today to listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts:

YouTube* | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | RSS

*With closed captions in Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Season 2 episodes

The first two episodes of our second season are available now, with new episodes coming out every two weeks:

We hope you enjoy listening to No Slides Attached: AI Stories with Microsoft Partners and are as excited as we are by what’s happening in the world of AI and industry innovation. Look for updates in our weekly Top Stories blog as new episodes are released and, if you haven’t already, subscribe today!

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

In the Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Partners podcast, we explore the latest opportunities for you to enhance your profitability and prepare for the future with AI. New episodes are now available in all podcast platforms and share the stories of Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) partners scaling profitably and the innovative hybrid cloud solutions behind them.

Rackspace Technology is a trusted Microsoft partner and a leading driver of Azure Arc. Read their story here and listen to this recent episode of the Hybrid Cloud Partners podcast to learn how they will save $40M in the next three years with their hybrid cloud implementation of Azure Arc.

Rackspace partners with Microsoft to reduce costs and provide more value to customers

Rackspace has been an innovator and leader in the technology services industry for more than two decades. The latest innovations in hybrid cloud led to a partnership with Microsoft around Azure Arc, transforming how they help customers, both in the security space and in managing their workloads running Windows Server and SQL Server.

“This is the perfect world for Arc. It allows us to have a single pane of glass, to be able to manage and secure our customers’ workloads. It’s a bridge to hybrid computing.” —Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist

When Rackspace started looking into transitioning from their SPLA SQL Server to Arc-enabled SQL, they realized the potential to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) was massive—an estimated $40 million over the next three years. Along with the financial benefit to Rackspace, Arc would enable their customers to manage, through a single pane of glass, their day-to-day business more cost-effectively and provide improved billing economics.

“Coming to us for not just our SPLA licensing but also for extended support is a huge value to our customers. They’re able to access and see in real time what their utilization is. It leads to better visibility or observability, as we like to say, which at the end of the day is what all customers want.” —Zachary Symm, Product Manager for Managed Public Cloud

Empowering partners and customers in a hybrid world

Rackspace plays a critical role in the hybrid world. Their ability to support customers in their data center and in Azure enables customers to utilize resources where it matters most. Azure Arc empowers customers to get the services they need in a more manageable and efficient way. The shift, says Symm, “opens up AI, it opens up security like Sentinel, it opens up licensing, it opens up as Microsoft evolves all these future services that they can now consume. It’s a massive transformation journey for the customer to be able to utilize all those benefits.”

Rackspace worked with the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) team to successfully make the move to Azure Arc.

Looking ahead, Rackspace plans to continue growing their partnership with Microsoft as they continue to build out new capabilities and provide managed services on Azure and across their datacenters with Azure Arc. In Azure Arc, they now have a single management tool that reduces complexity and security risks while providing greater benefits to their customers.

Says Symm, “The ability to use all the new services from Azure and transport the scalability, the portability, all of those things, into the on-premises or multi-cloud world is a massive opportunity for all MSPs.”

Next steps

Learn more about this story in the latest episode of the Hybrid Cloud Partners podcast.

Subscribe today to listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts:

YouTube* | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | RSS

*With closed captions in Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

For exclusive resources and to become part of the Microsoft DCO community, visit dco.microsoft.com.

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

On July 10, we launched an exciting new podcast series crafted for Microsoft partners who are eager to gain insights, learnings, and inspiration from industry leaders and peers.

Why tune in?

No Slides Attached features meaningful conversations that combine the expertise of Microsoft leaders and inspiring stories from our partners.

• Explore the latest technologies. Season 1 is all about Microsoft Copilot—your everyday AI companion.
• Listen to success stories directly from other Microsoft partners.
• Join the conversation through our LinkedIn Community.

Take a break

Need a breather from all the emails, meetings, and presentations? Our hosts, Helane Cohen and Fede Pacheco, will look to connect with you on the go.

Subscribe today to listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts:

YouTube* | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | RSS

*With closed captions in Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Season 1 is out now. Season 2 is coming soon! 

The first two episodes of our inaugural season are available, with new episodes coming out every two weeks:

We hope you enjoy listening to No Slides Attached: AI Stories with Microsoft Partners and are as inspired as we are by these success stories from your peers. Look for updates in our weekly Top Stories blog as new episodes are released, and subscribe today!

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

Microsoft partners are facing rising or unpredictable costs due to changes in the market. If your cost model has been impacted and your profits are eroding, moving to the cloud with Microsoft Azure offers the best path to modernize and benefit from cloud-native capabilities.

Along with migrating directly to Azure, there are two other options for partners to consider when faced with rising or unpredictable costs:

• Azure VMware Solution (AVS) works best when your customer wants to stay on VMware with more predictable costs, offering the ability to lock in prices with up to five years with reserved instances.
• Azure Stack HCI works best when your customer wants to stay on premises and virtualize workloads to run cloud-native apps.

If you want to evaluate these options and how they fit your organization’s needs and capabilities, reach out to the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) team.

Azure VMware Solution: Move your VMware virtual machines to Azure “as is”

Azure VMware Solution (AVS) allows you to run your VMware workloads natively on Azure. AVS integrates with Azure so you can take advantage of the full range of Azure services while maintaining your existing VMware workloads. You’ll also get peace of mind with long-term pricing protection of five-year reserved instances (must be contracted and deployed by June 30, 2024).

Organizations can complete full migrations rapidly as the pivot to AVS allows you to remain on the VMware platform. Read this customer story detailing how Kier Group, a leading UK infrastructure services, construction, and property group, quickly realized the power of the cloud with AVS.

Learn more

• • DEMO: Discover the Potential of Azure VMware Solution (AVS)
  • Continued innovation with Azure VMware Solution | Microsoft Azure Blog
  • Azure VMware Solution Landing Zone Review Assessment – Microsoft Community Hub
  • Introduction – Azure VMware Solution | Microsoft Learn
  • Azure VMware Solution Documentation Hub – Azure VMware Solution | Microsoft Learn

Azure Stack HCI: Virtualize workloads and run cloud-native apps on premises

Refreshing and consolidating aging virtualization hosts with Azure Stack HCI can improve scalability and make your environment easier to manage and secure. It’s also an opportunity to retire legacy SAN storage to reduce footprint and total cost of ownership. Operations and systems administration are simplified with unified tools and interfaces and a single point of support.

With Azure Stack HCI you can:

• • Run containerized, cloud-native, and virtualized workloads—including Azure Virtual Desktop—side by side on premises.
  • Deploy and manage container-based apps anywhere and simplify operations with Azure Kubernetes Service for Azure Stack HCI.
  • Share a GPU device with multiple virtual machines to reduce total cost of ownership and simplify AI deployment at the edge.
  • Reduce complexity and cost by extending the functionality of Azure Migrate to move workloads to Azure Stack HCI.
  • Monitor, update, and secure Azure Stack HCI infrastructure, including fleets of locations, directly from the Azure portal.

Learn more

• • Podcast episode: Unlock Your Datacenter with Azure Stack HCI for Cost Savings & On-Prem Cloud Integration
  • Azure Stack HCI catalog
  • Azure Stack HCI solution overview – Azure Stack HCI | Microsoft Learn
  • Azure Stack HCI documentation | Microsoft Learn

Next steps

Azure VMware Solution and Azure Stack HCI are great options to help you navigate the current market changes and find the best path forward for your business. If you’re ready to explore these solutions further, or a full modernization to Azure, get started by reaching out to the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) team.

Related posts

Maximize your cloud hosting strategy in 2024: Success stories from our partners | Microsoft

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

As a Microsoft partner, it’s always important to understand the options available and the actions you need to take to keep your customers’ mission-critical systems secure and compliant.

July 9, 2024, marks the end of support (EOS), for SQL Server 2014. The approaching EOS deadline provides an opportunity to assess your customers’ business needs and upgrade their IT infrastructure.

Flexibility for you and your customers with Extended Security Updates

SQL Server 2014 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) can help your customers stay secure while planning for the future. ESUs will provide up to three years of critical security updates along with continued access to technical support through existing support contracts. As of October 1, 2023, you can purchase ESUs as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) or Enterprise Agreement (EA) reseller. Watch this demo on Purchasing Extended Security Updates (ESU) with Azure Arc for your Windows and SQL Server.

Guide your customers on the best path forward

This is a great time to discuss with your customers their options. Together, you can evaluate the best path forward for securing their legacy end-of-support workloads.

The Microsoft Datacenter Optimization team can offer guidance on making the best decision for your customers and your business. If you have any questions or need any assistance, reach out to the DCO team.

And make sure your customers don’t miss out on these important security updates:

Related posts

Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 end of support: Keep your customers secure

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

The Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) team is dedicated to helping partners enhance their on-premises business and reap the benefits of the cloud. By joining the DCO program, you can gain access to a wealth of incentives, resources, and personalized guidance tailored to your unique business and technology needs as a Cloud hosting provider. With the support of a team of Azure experts, you can develop a customized strategy that meets your specific needs and helps you drive incremental revenue growth.

Here are two recent success stories showcasing partners who have transformed their business by shifting their strategy and making Azure part of their revenue streams.

Partner success stories

Protocall realizes 45% cost savings with migration to Microsoft Azure environment designed and managed by Atmosera

Protocall Services (Protocall) is a national provider of telephonic crisis services and digital tools for behavioral health, with a mission to help people in need. To improve the reliability, security, and scalability of its infrastructure, Protocall embarked on a multistage cloud migration. On-premises and colocated systems no longer provided the performance or agility Protocall needed, so they reached out to Microsoft partner Atmosera to design and manage a new environment based on Microsoft Azure.

“One of the benefits of working with Atmosera is that all we focus on is Azure,” says Jon Thomsen, CEO of Atmosera. “It’s all we do, every day. We’re the experts.” However, this wasn’t always the case for Atmosera. In 2014, they embarked on a similar digital transformation journey than Protocol did a few years later. They evolved from a traditional datacenter and private cloud company to a modern and innovative service provider with Azure. Atmosera was one of the first partners to participate in the Microsoft Data Center Optimization (DCO) program, which it uses with customers like Protocall.

Protocall leaned on Atmosera’s experience with Azure services to design the architecture. “Having guidance around best practices for spinning up cloud infrastructure was really invaluable for us,” says Jérémie Bourque, Director of Software Engineering at Protocall. “If we hadn’t had Atmosera, we probably would have wasted a lot of time through experimentation and maybe have made poor choices.” Protocall’s migration has made it more agile and secure, with virtually 100 percent application infrastructure uptime. Many of Protocall’s business processes are now simpler, and Atmosera’s continuous management of the Azure environment allows Protocall to focus on its mission. Read the full customer story.

CompuData grows 25% year over year, increases revenue by 250% by migrating from private cloud to Azure with Ingram Micro

IT solutions provider CompuData migrated its legacy infrastructure to Microsoft Azure, increasing its cloud revenue by 250% and making its growth sustainable while maintaining regulatory compliance. When CompuData found that maintaining a private cloud infrastructure was becoming too complex and costly as the company grew, it looked to Azure for scalability and efficiency. “Managing and maintaining a private datacenter as we scaled up was just not cost effective,” says Ed Guarrieri, Chief Operating Officer at CompuData. “For us to scale to the next level as a cloud solution provider, Azure would be the best way we’d be able to provide the right solutions for our customers.”

CompuData leveraged Microsoft’s DCO program to transition all its customers and applications to Azure. Michael Wirth, Category Acceleration Executive for Microsoft Azure at Ingram Micro, noted that “We connected CompuData with presales resources to redesign its solutions in Azure and supported it with funding for end-customer migration projects.” The company has achieved a 25% year-over-year growth rate while reducing overhead costs and needing fewer resources to manage its expanding workloads.

Now, CompuData has unlocked the scalability and efficiency to digitally transform its business and deliver cutting-edge, compliant cloud solutions. “We’re a customer service business,” says Guarrieri. “Customers care about uptime, security, reliability, and performance. We can deliver that better and more cost-effectively on Azure today.” Read the full customer story.

You can be the next success story

Atmosera and CompuData are just two examples of the many success stories of businesses that have optimized their datacenters and increased their revenue streams with Azure through the Microsoft Data Center Optimization (DCO) program. The DCO program helps businesses transform their legacy datacenter operations to a cloud-centric business model on Azure, enabling them to scale faster, reduce costs, and grow sustainably. We invite you to initiate a conversation with the DCO team to explore the best strategies that could benefit your business and your customers. Let’s discuss how your hosting strategy can benefit from the DCO program and make your business future-proof.

And check out this Microsoft Cloud Hosting Partners – YouTube podcast to learn more about how to optimize your datacenter strategy.

Related posts

Increase your profitability with Arc-enabled SQL Server | Microsoft

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

Partner Audience: Services partners
Relevant to: #ProgramOfferUpdate, #GoToMarket, #Azure

In the face of changing market conditions and pressure to accelerate growth while reducing costs, the ability for customers to do more with less is critical. While the cloud has long been the north star for realizing efficiencies and accelerating innovation, we understand that these benefits also need to happen outside of the cloud.

Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server allows customers to build new cloud-native applications on any infrastructure, in their on-premises environments, and across other public clouds. This enables customers to make the most of their legacy applications, with the flexibility to innovate quickly and save on costs.

Switch to pay-as-you-go (PAYG), a cloud billing model for all SQL workloads, and reduce your SPLA costs

If you’re a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) partner, offering SQL Server to customers and using the Core licensing model, keep reading to learn more on the cost-savings opportunity to follow! We’re excited to provide partners and customers with a new consumption-based, cloud billing model that provides flexibility to innovate quickly and save on costs versus SPLA. With pay-as-you-go billing on SQL Server, you can benefit from flexibility, improved cost efficiencies, and support for multicloud and hybrid deployments with consistent billing for your entire SQL environment, no matter where they reside. If you have customers on SPLA with SQL, shifting to Azure Arc for billing versus the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program can save up to 30%!¹

Bring Azure Innovation to SQL Servers anywhere

With Azure Arc, customers can unlock more robust functionalities:

• • Manage their entire SQL estate in the Azure portal and leverage SQL Best Practice Analyzer to automatically evaluate SQL Server environments for performance, scalability, and business continuity, all at no additional cost.
  • With Azure Arc, SQL Server customers will have Purview access policies readily available for those on-premises environments to centralize insights and governance across their entire data estate.
  • We also enabled Microsoft Defender for Cloud for SQL Server. Microsoft Defender enhances the security posture of a customer’s SQL Server environments, no matter where they reside. Your SQL Server 2022 customers will also be able to benefit from single sign-on (SSO) with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to secure identities.

Innovate anywhere with Azure Arc today

With Azure Arc, your SQL Server customers will be able to maximize the value of their investments with technology that allows them to do more with less.

To learn more and get started, reach out to the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) team today!

Additional resources

• • Podcast: Microsoft Cloud Hosting Partners
  • Webinar recording: Azure Arc Opportunity: Meeting customers where they’re at
  • Microsoft Learn: Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server
  • Billing model and how to Manage, secure, and govern your SQL Server estate from Azure
  • Pricing for SQL Server 2022 and the new pay-as-you go options
  • More about Azure Arc-enabled data services

Join the conversation

Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.

¹You can achieve up to 30 percent in incentive earning opportunities in CSP by combining Partner Earned Credit; Modern Commerce Incentive; New Customer Add Incentive. Eligibility rules apply. See https://partnerincentives.microsoft.com/ for more information on available incentives.