Building secure multi-tenant applications with Microsoft Entra ID: A guide for ISVs
In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) face the significant challenge of developing secure, multi-tenant applications that seamlessly integrate with their customers' existing infrastructure. Microsoft Entra ID offers a robust solution for managing user identities, providing ISVs with tools to enhance security and streamline the user authentication process. In this blog post, we'll explore key security strategies for ISVs and provide additional resources to help you get started. Context As the demand for SaaS applications grows, ISVs must ensure their applications are not only functional but also secure. Multi-tenant applications, which serve multiple customers from a single instance, present unique security challenges. One of the primary concerns is managing user identities securely across different tenants. Microsoft Entra ID addresses these challenges by offering a comprehensive identity management platform that simplifies authentication and authorization while enhancing security. Figure 1 – Single Sign On for seamless user experience Key Security Strategies for ISVs Utilize Microsoft Entra ID for Identity Management Microsoft Entra ID provides a secure, scalable identity management solution that handles user authentication, authorization, and access management. By leveraging Entra ID, ISVs can avoid the complexities and risks associated with building their own identity systems. Adopt Standard Protocols A well-maintained library like MSAL should be the first choice instead of implementing a protocol. Microsoft Entra ID supports industry-standard protocols like OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, which facilitate secure authentication and authorization. As the last and most expensive choice, ISVs can implement a protocol but must ensure they stay up to date with the protocol. Design for Data Separation In a multi-tenant environment, it is crucial to maintain data separation between tenants to prevent unauthorized access. ISVs should implement robust authorization models and leverage Entra ID's capabilities to ensure data integrity and confidentiality. Become a Verified App Publisher To build trust with customers, ISVs can become verified app publishers. This process involves joining the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and undergoing a vetting process, assuring customers of the application's authenticity and security. Take action: Set up your multitenant identity today For ISVs looking to deepen their understanding of Microsoft Entra ID and its capabilities, here are some valuable resources: Microsoft Entra ID Documentation – Explore comprehensive guides and tutorials on implementing Entra ID in your applications. Microsoft Identity Platform Developer Guide – Learn how to integrate authentication and authorization into applications. aka.ms/UpcomingIDLOBDev - Curated content for Microsoft Identity platform training workshops By adopting these strategies and utilizing the resources provided, ISVs can build secure, scalable, and efficient multi-tenant applications that meet the growing demands of their customers. Embracing Microsoft Entra ID not only enhances security but also simplifies the development process, allowing ISVs to focus on delivering innovative solutions. Want to learn more: 📅 Join our ISV Security sessions to stay updated on the latest best practices 🔗 Subscribe to Azure Security Updates for continuous learning 📞 Connect with your Microsoft account representative for tailored security guidance Let’s work together to build a more secure digital future. 🚀The Marketplace Partner Digest | February 2025
Welcome to the monthly partner release notes for the Microsoft commercial marketplace! The marketplace is central to how we help you reach more customers, simplify sales, and unlock growth. Dive into this month’s roundup of announcements and updates to stay informed about the latest marketplace developments. Don’t miss an update! Subscribe to the “Partner Digest” label to get notified whenever a new Marketplace Partner Digest hits the community blog. Check out this community post for how-to guidance on configuring your settings. 🌟Partner Resources We’ve curated best-in-class resources to help you get the most out of the Microsoft commercial marketplace. Explore helpful resources, blogs, and much more below: The latest marketplace announcements, blogs, on-demand webinars, and more Capturing the marketplace opportunity: part one of a series by selling path – This is the first in a four-part monthly blog series offering tips and strategies to maximize your marketplace go-to-market success. ISVs: Maximize your momentum with the new, improved App Advisor – We recently launched an improved experience of App Advisor to the US market. Check out what’s new and use App Advisor today. Designing secure and resilient ISV applications – Explore key security strategies to help you build trusted, resilient applications that protect customers and drive long-term success. Replicate your apps to Azure: A multicloud advantage for ISVs – This blog, the first in a series, outlines the advantages of replicating your existing AWS apps to Azure, helping you reach more customers and expand your business through the marketplace. Embracing the multicloud advantage: a guide to replicating your app from AWS to Azure – Once you understand the advantages, use this technical guide to understand how to move your app to Azure and ensure a smooth transition. New GitHub Copilot benefit for ISV Success Expanded Package – Announcing a new ISV Success Expanded Package benefit that can take your development projects to the next level. Not part of ISV Success yet? Join now! Mastering the Marketplace (MTM) webinars Whether you’re new to the marketplace or focused on growing sales, our Mastering the Marketplace webinars cover a broad range of business and technical session topics to help accelerate your marketplace success. Check out these upcoming webinars, register, and mark your calendars. All times are listed in Pacific Time. March 4 at 9 am: ISVs – Learn how to use the multiparty private offers campaign in a box March 5 at 9 am: Creating your first offer in Partner Center March 10 at 9 am: ISV to CSP private offers – experience walkthrough March 12 at 9 am: Unlocking sales through the marketplace For the complete MTM schedule, visit aka.ms/MTMwebinars. Customer office hours Strategic cloud planning with the marketplace: Invite your customers to office hours on March 13 at 8:30 AM PST. This session will focus on maximizing tech investments with the marketplace, offering strategies on how to holistically plan your Microsoft Cloud investments, and your software vendors need to get a consumption-based view of your portfolio for smarter decision-making. We'll also provide an overview of Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACCs) and the opportunities for the marketplace to help you make the most out of your contract. Register here. Channel partner office hours Multiparty private offer adoption framework: During our channel partner office hours on February 27 at 8:30 am PST, Marketplace Services Partner Lead Darren Sharpe will walk through the four steps to build a successful practice, remove friction, and grow your sales. Register here. New marketplace assets and ask the experts Q&A: Join us on March 27 at 8:30 am PST as we explore new marketing and product assets designed to help influencers and decision-makers better understand the Microsoft commercial marketplace. We’ll also discuss how to use the Modern Procurement Playbook to navigate the procurement process when closing your marketplace deals. Register here and submit your questions in advance when registering. Pre-submitted questions will be addressed in the Q&A portion at the end of the event. Co-Sell with confidence: A two-part webinar series Guest speakers from Rubrik and Tackle have teamed up for a two-part webinar series to help you build, operationalize, and scale a strong co-sell strategy with Microsoft. During these sessions, you’ll learn strategies, best practices, and practical steps to operationalize and scale your co-sell efforts. Click here to register to watch the session recordings. ⏰Recent & Upcoming Events Azure Marketplace Primer – What is it, why should I use it, and is it secure? Invite your customers to discover how Azure Marketplace can transform your business by providing access to a vast array of cloud solutions and services. This event will offer valuable insights into leveraging Azure Marketplace to accelerate your digital transformation, drive innovation, and save costs. We will deep dive into the benefits from a procurement, Azure commitment and cloud engineering team standpoint while having complete access and management control. Share with your customers and register here for the next session on Thursday, February 27 from 10:00 to 11:00 am PST. Microsoft ISV AI Envisioning Day Register for the Microsoft ISV AI Envisioning Day on March 5 from 10:00 to 11:00 am PST to learn how to identify and prioritize use cases for AI solutions. Gain insights from industry-related use cases on envisioning frameworks and learn how to incorporate them into your application development planning process. Microsoft Build 2025 Mark your calendars! Microsoft Build returns to Seattle on May 19 – 22, 2025. Visit the event page to sign up for registration notifications and to receive the most up-to-date information about the event. 💭 Share Your Feedback! We truly appreciate your feedback and want to ensure these Partner Release Notes deliver the information you need to succeed in the marketplace. If you have any feedback or suggestions on how we can continue to improve the content to best support you, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below! Thank you!Unlocking the power of co-sell: what to expect in the upcoming webinar series with Rubrik and Tackle
For ISVs, partnering with cloud providers is a powerful growth engine, opening doors to new customers, expanding market reach, and driving revenue. Co-selling is a key lever in this partnership, enabling ISVs to align with cloud providers like Microsoft to accelerate growth, strengthen relationships, and close larger deals. However, developing a successful co-sell practice doesn’t just happen overnight—it requires strategic alignment, scalable resources, and a deep understanding of partner incentives. To help you navigate this journey, Rubrik and Tackle are teaming up for a two-part webinar series designed to help you build, operationalize, and scale a strong co-sell strategy with Microsoft. In these sessions, you’ll learn how to: Develop a scalable co-sell strategy aligned with Microsoft’s goals Streamline your co-sell motion with workflows, CRM alignment, and deal-sharing strategies Strengthen relationships with Microsoft sellers and aligning with Azure’s consumption goals Led by Rubrik Head of Global Cloud Alliances Jasmine Kronk and Tackle’s co-sell experts, this webinar series will equip you with the tools and knowledge you need to co-sell with confidence. Here’s a preview of what you’ll learn in each session: Session 1: Building a Winning Strategy to Accelerate Growth with Microsoft Date: February 24, 2025 at 9:30 am PST To successfully co-sell with Microsoft, ISVs need a clear strategy that aligns with Microsoft’s priorities, streamlines collaboration, and maximizes growth opportunities. In this session, experts will share key insights on how to operationalize co-sell, build strategic relationships, and leverage marketplace to accelerate revenue. Here are the top takeaways from this session to help you build a winning a winning co-sell strategy: Use Co-Sell as a strategic GTM motion. Co-selling with Microsoft is not just a checkbox activity; it's a fundamental go-to-market (GTM) strategy that can drive growth, increase deal sizes, and accelerate sales cycles. ISV should leverage co-sell partnerships to shorten sales cycles and close larger deals. Understand the value proposition. To succeed in the Microsoft ecosystem, ISVs must clearly define their unique value proposition. Aligning your solution with Microsoft’s priorities, like driving Azure consumption, creates mutual benefits and strengthens co-sell opportunities. Operationalize co-sell for scale. Streamlining internal processes is key to scaling co-sell efforts. This includes integrating CRM systems, defining deal-sharing criteria, and maintaining a structured approach to pipeline management. Regularly sharing deal updates, tracking performance metrics, and ensuring cross-team alignment helps optimize efficiency and collaboration. Measuring key indicators, such as deals won and revenue impact, ensures ongoing success. Build relationships with Microsoft stakeholders. Establishing a network of advocates within Microsoft is critical for driving future co-sell opportunities. By building trust and understanding, you can create an environment where Microsoft reps actively refer and promote your solutions to customers, ultimately generating more leads and sales. Leverage marketplace as a growth engine – Combining co-sell efforts with marketplace sales streamlines procurement for customers, improves accessibility, and accelerates revenue generation. Session 2: How to Operationalize and Scale Your Co-Sell Motion with Microsoft Date: February 26, 2025 at 9:30 am PST To scale their co-sell motion, ISVs need a structured approach that integrates co-selling into their overall GTM strategy, fosters alignment with Microsoft stakeholders, and prioritizes high-impact opportunities. In our second session, we share key strategies for operationalizing co-sell, from creating scalable resources to building cross-functional support. Here are the top takeaways to help you drive repeatable success and accelerate growth: Co-sell as a strategic element: Co-selling should be treated as a fundamental part of your go-to-market strategy, not just a one-off tactic. It’s about embedding co-sell into your broader sales approach to drive sustained growth. A strategic co-sell motion can accelerate sales cycles, increase deal sizes, and create longer-term partnerships. By making co-sell a core component of your GTM plan, you ensure it aligns with your broader business objectives and supports scalable growth over time. Align product-market fit: For co-sell success, your product must seamlessly integrate within your partner’s ecosystem and address critical customer pain points. It’s not just about having a solution that works technically, but one that directly ties into your partner's goals and creates clear value for the customer. This ensures both parties can demonstrate the solution’s unique value, which not only drives immediate sales but fosters repeatable success and strengthens your co-sell partnership. Understand mutual incentives: Co-selling is most effective when both parties benefit. To maximize this, you need to understand your partner’s motivations—whether that’s driving Azure consumption, hitting specific adoption targets, or achieving quota goals. By aligning your co-sell strategy with these priorities, you create a win-win dynamic that fosters stronger collaboration and accelerates the deal process. Recognizing and addressing your partner’s evolving incentives ensures that both sides remain motivated to drive deals forward. Create scalable co-sell resources: To sustain and scale co-selling efforts, it’s critical to build reusable resources and processes. This includes developing playbooks, one-pagers, email templates, and other assets that can be quickly deployed across teams and regions. With these resources, sales teams spend less time creating new materials and more time engaging meaningfully with partners. Scalable resources streamline operations, maintain consistency, and support seamless collaboration, which ultimately drives more efficient and impactful co-selling motions. Prioritize high-value accounts: Rather than spreading your co-sell efforts across a broad spectrum of clients, it’s more effective to focus on high-value accounts. Start by identifying where your ideal customer profiles overlap with your partner’s customer base, and build upon these existing synergies. This focused approach allows you to dedicate time and resources to deals with the highest potential for revenue growth. It reduces wasted effort on low-impact accounts and increases your chances of closing more significant, higher-value deals with your partner. Join us to master co-selling Whether you’re just getting started with co-sell or you’re looking to optimize existing efforts, these sessions will provide actionable insights you can immediately apply to your strategy. Register now to secure your spot and take your co-sell strategy to the next level!The future of CIAM: How Transmit Security and Microsoft are reshaping passkey adoption and security
In this guest blog post, Ravit Aviv, Director of Technology Alliances at Transmit Security, discusses the layers of customer identity and access management (CIAM) protection that are essential for optimizing passkey security and customer experience and how you can reap the rewards with Mosaic by Transmit Security and Azure AD B2C or Entra External ID.Growing on the marketplace through Azure sponsorship and multiparty private offers
In this installment, I had the opportunity to chat with Ben Goodman about Silverfort’s journey and their partner success story. About Ben: Ben Goodman - Head of Alliances and Corporate Development, has over 25 years of sales, design, and implementation of advanced information technology. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ [JR]: Tell us about Silverfort. What inspired the founding? What products and services do you offer? [BG]: Silverfort, established in 2016 by cybersecurity experts Hed Kovetz, Yaron Kassner, and Matan Fattal—alumni of the Israeli Defense Forces' elite Unit 8200—addresses a vital gap in identity security. Drawing from their extensive experience, they recognized that traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) tools are insufficient in protecting against identity-based threats across diverse environments. This realization led to the development of Silverfort’s Unified Identity Protection platform, which ensures secure authentication for all users, resources, and protocols across both on-premises and multi-cloud environments. The platform extends modern identity security controls, like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), to previously unprotected assets such as legacy applications, file shares, non-human identities, and industrial/medical systems. Its innovative technology layers identity protection over existing authentication protocols without modifying or installing anything on these systems. Silverfort consolidates identity security across siloed cloud and on-premises solutions, delivering consistent protection and preventing attacks leveraging compromised credentials—responsible for 82% of data breaches. Additionally, it helps organizations meet regulatory and cyber insurance requirements, making it an essential solution for businesses worldwide. [JR]: Can you tell us a bit about the application(s) you have available on the marketplace? How does it work? [BG]: The Silverfort Unified Identity Protection Platform enables enterprises to gain real-time protection against identity-based attacks that utilize compromised credentials to access enterprise on-prem or cloud resources without requiring any agents or proxies. It is integrated with Defender, Copilot for Security, Entra ID, Sentinel and Teams and natively integrates with all existing IAM solutions, to extend secure access controls such as Risk-Based Authentication and MFA across all on-prem and cloud environments. This includes assets that could never have been protected in this manner before, such as homegrown/legacy applications, IT infrastructure, file systems, command-line tools, machine-to-machine access, and more. Silverfort continuously monitors all access attempts by users and service accounts, and analyses risks in real-time using an AI-based engine to enforce adaptive access policies. [JR]: How has Microsoft supported you along your journey? [BG]: Silverfort has been involved with several Microsoft programs like ISV Success, Marketplace Rewards, Microsoft for Start-Ups Pegasus Program, and MISA, which have all played a part in our journey thus far. As an active partner in the Microsoft co-sell Program, Microsoft's partnership has been immensely helpful and continues to play a key role in our company's success. From working together to producing enterprise joint customers, to providing constructive feedback on our product, we are thrilled with the ongoing support we have received in the co-Sell program. Silverfort is also part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Alliance (MISA), which has allowed the company to gain visibility with customers as well as within Microsoft. By being part of MISA, Silverfort is participating in events and ‘go-to-market' activities together with Microsoft. [JR]: How does your organization align its business to enable positive impact for your customers and communities? [BG]: Silverfort is a horizontal solution that applies to many industries and verticals. Our focused industries are Manufacturing, Telecom, Healthcare, Financial Services, Local Government, Oil & Gas. Silverfort is dedicated to promoting effective identity security across diverse verticals, ensuring that organizations of all sizes can protect their environments from identity-based attacks. Our platform provides comprehensive security solutions that address the unique needs of each industry, helping customers to strengthen their overall security posture. By securing sensitive systems and identities, Silverfort enables businesses to operate securely and confidently in today's complex identity threat landscape, allowing them to build trust and resilience across their ecosystems. [JR]: What are you most proud of in your journey building/leading your organization? What’s next for you? [BG]: We take immense pride in several key achievements throughout our journey. We are particularly proud of developing an innovative platform that unifies identity protection, addressing critical security gaps across diverse systems and environments to combat identity-based threats. Another source of pride is the collaborative and positive company culture that we have built across our company. Inspired by our CEO's experiences living on a kibbutz, Silverfort's DNA emphasizes teamwork, transparency, and mutual support among employees. Additionally, we take great satisfaction in establishing Silverfort as a leader in the identity security market, providing seamless and effective protection for businesses across various industries. Looking to the future, we plan to focus on enhancing our existing products and expanding the platform’s capabilities to provide comprehensive and end-to-end identity security. [JR]: What Microsoft programs or benefits have you leveraged to help grow sales of your application(s) on the marketplace? [BG]: The Azure Sponsorship credits available through Marketplace Rewards has enabled us to secure large deals by helping customers make purchases through the Azure Marketplace and apply the credits as a rebate toward their Silverfort purchase. [JR]: Channel Partners (e.g VAR’s) are an important part of the ecosystem - how have you used Microsoft programs or benefits to unlock opportunities with Channel Partners and grow Marketplace sales at the same time? [BG]: The combination of Azure sponsorship and MPO (multiparty private offers) has allowed us to collaborate with channel partners and agree to move transactions for their deals to transact via the marketplace. We can use Azure sponsorship offers to minimize margin erosion when coming to the pointy end of negotiations with the end-customers procurement teams. Where MPO isn’t available in countries, especially across APAC, Silverfort has come up with an interim mechanism to recompense Channel Partners for their margin for deals that are done directly in the marketplace. We look forward to Microsoft accelerating the rollout of the MPO program more broadly so that it becomes easier to work with channel partners to unlock new opportunities and land bigger sales via the marketplace. [JR]: What has contributed to your marketplace success? [BG]: Microsoft’s monthly P2B (propensity to buy) rating has allowed us to leverage customer’s MACC agreements to position the purchase of Silverfort. The individual guest tech blog has allowed us to showcase Silverfort and where we fit into the industry and how we help customers to have a more secure environment. The Azure Marketplace feature & Solution spotlight has increased the awareness of Silverfort as a whole. [JR]: Azure sponsorship credits can be earned via participation in ISV Success and/or Marketplace Rewards. These credits can be used in a variety of ways such as being used as a deal sweetener to help close more deals with customers. How have you used these credits? [BG]: We have a strategic initiative using Azure credits to close large deals through the marketplace. They have helped us close some of our biggest deals of the year. We have our sellers tell the end-customer (or the channel partner as the case may be), that we are offering the end-customer 10% of the ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) as a rebate for them to buy through the Azure Marketplace, instead of buying direct or through a VAR alone. We encourage using multiparty private offers or just a straight Azure Marketplace purchase - then once the deal gets closed, we issue the 10% Azure credits to the customer (up to $100K). [JR]: Cloud marketplaces are increasingly relying on resellers - with this in mind how do Azure sponsorship credits play a part in your Channel Partner ecosystem? [BG]: We collaborate with channel partners (e.g. VAR’s) on the opportunities they bring us to position transacting via the Marketplace under MPO. Where MPO isn’t available, we also discuss an interim mechanism we have to recompense the channel partner for their margin if the deal is transacted via Marketplace. This interim approach, until MPO becomes available in that country, is especially important to use in countries that are strong channel partner-centric environments While both the above points empower Silverfort, Microsoft, and channel partners to continue sell collaboratively, and so that channel partners are not cut out the loop - the Azure sponsorship credits are a useful a mechanism to help incentivize a channel partner to look at the transacting the deal via the marketplace (with or without MPO). It allows us to jointly agree on positioning and using the Azure credits as a bargaining chip in deal-making negotiations with end-customers procurement, to minimize margin erosion – thereby helping Silverfort, Microsoft, and channel partners to unlock new opportunities and land bigger sales, and for them to be done via the marketplace. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Join the marketplace community today! Just click "join" on the upper right corner of our marketplace community page. You can also subscribe to the community to stay updated on the latest stories of how these inspiring leaders carved their career paths, what lessons they learned along the way, and more. Resources: Join ISV Success Join the marketplace community Learn more about Marketplace RewardsPexip’s success tip: lead with marketplace-first sales
One company’s advice for how ISVs can find success through the Microsoft commercial marketplace: Lead with it! That’s what Anders Løkke, VP Product Marketing & Strategy at Pexip, shared during a recent interview at Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago. Pexip, a Norway-based video technology company, was recognized as one of the marketplace Partner of the Year Award finalists in 2024 for their marketplace adoption. In the Microsoft Ignite interview, Anders talked about how Pexip has found success by leading with marketplace-first sales and engaging with customers early in the sales cycle about the benefits of buying through the marketplace. “I would give advice to other partners wanting to get into it: start by leading with marketplace,” he said. “Don’t bring it in in the late end of a sale. Lead with the marketplace transactional capabilities and possibilities because it will benefit both you and the customer.” Anders, who is a marketplace community member, also talked about marketplace as a “strategic move” for Pexip that allows them to reach customers where they are. “It’s more about being able to serve the customer where the customer wants to buy. As I said, their procurement behavior changes, and we see [the marketplace] greatly reduces the cost of procurement, it simplifies their vendor management, asset management, everything,” he said. Because of the marketplace, Pexip can sell to customers where they don’t have a presence. Their offers are also Azure benefit eligible, so customers with Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACCs) can use those commitments towards Pexip solutions and maximize discounts on their Azure infrastructure. Hear more of Pexip's story in the full interview available on the Microsoft Ignite website or on YouTube. Find Pexip’s solutions on Azure Marketplace. Learn about the benefits of marketplace for ISVs. More about Anders from his Microsoft Ignite speaker biography: "Anders, Vice President of Product Marketing and Strategy at Pexip, holds over 25 years of experience in the IT and AV industries. He has been leading Pexip’s Microsoft alliance GTM efforts for over eight years, collaborating closely with Microsoft at both field and corporate levels. Additionally, for more than five years, Anders has spearheaded the initiative to enable Pexip’s digital B2B sales strategy, facilitating the company’s sales through the Azure Commercial Marketplace. Pexip is recognized as a top-tier ISV partner and was a finalist in the 2024 Global Partner of the Year awards in the Commercial Marketplace category."Activating channel opportunities through the Microsoft commercial marketplace
Microsoft commercial marketplace supports partners in addressing customers’ cloud needs through various deal-making scenarios. In the Ignite session titled “Activating the Channel Opportunity Through the Marketplace,” Alison Buggia, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft; Jason Rook, Senior Director of Product Marketing for the Commercial Marketplace at Microsoft; and Rob Phillips, Senior Director of Microsoft Sales at Presidio, explore how to activate the ecosystem with partner-to-partner selling opportunities. They share valuable insights into leveraging the Microsoft commercial marketplace to drive business growth. Key Points: Microsoft commercial marketplace is experiencing significant growth, with over 100% year-over-year growth in marketplace-billed sales, a 43% growth in the number of ISV solutions that are IP co-sell eligible, and 110% growth in customer cloud commitment spend. This indicates a robust and expanding platform that offers substantial opportunities for partners. There are three primary ways to unlock this growth and sell through private offers: CSP private offers, multiparty private offers, and professional services private offers. Each of these offers unique benefits and can be tailored to different business models and customer needs. Benefits: CSP Private Offers: CSP Private offers allow channel selling at scale. They help partners unlock scale, maintain customer billing relationships, and provide comprehensive solutions. This allows ISVs to work with partners in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program and resell their products through them to reach more customers. It also allows Cloud Solution Provider partners to leverage partnerships with ISVs and continue to serve customers through the Microsoft commercial marketplace. This is particularly beneficial for reaching a global customer base and leveraging existing partnerships. Multiparty Private Offers: Available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, multiparty private offers help partners leverage cloud commitments and maintain customer relationships, leading to larger deals. This is a significant opportunity for partners to access pre-committed cloud budgets and drive substantial sales. Professional Services Private Offers: Available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, selling professional services through the Microsoft commercial marketplace creates new selling opportunities, simplifies invoicing and payment for customers, and enables partners to offer complete solutions on a single platform. This streamlines the sales process and enhances customer satisfaction by providing a more seamless procurement experience. Marketplace Rewards Program: This program offers benefits like Azure Sponsorship, press release support, and customer case studies to help partners grow their marketplace business. These incentives can significantly boost your marketing efforts and enhance your visibility in the marketplace. Opportunities for Growth: The rapid growth of the marketplace presents a significant opportunity for partners to expand their customer base and increase sales. By leveraging private offers, you can reach more customers and simplify the sales process. Multiparty private offers provide a substantial growth opportunity by allowing partners to harness the entire power of the Microsoft ecosystem and drive larger deals. This can lead to increased revenue and stronger customer relationships. The Marketplace Rewards program provides additional incentives and support to help partners grow their business and achieve success. By participating in this program, you can access valuable resources and support to enhance your marketplace presence and drive sales. Actionable Steps for ISVs: Enroll in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program: This is the first step to becoming eligible for private offers and accessing the benefits of the marketplace. https://aka.ms/MAICPP Get Transactable: Publish an app that is transactable in the marketplace and complete the necessary steps in Partner Center. This will enable you to start selling through the marketplace and leverage the benefits of private offers. https://aka.ms/ISVSuccess Focus on Azure IP Co-Sell Incentivized Status: Achieving this status will unlock co-sell opportunities and allow you to leverage cloud commitments. Co-sell requirements - Partner Center | Microsoft Learn Educate and Equip Your Sales Teams and Your Channel Partners: Ensure your sales teams understand the benefits of the marketplace and how to promote it to customers. This will help drive sales and increase customer engagement. https://aka.ms/PartnerMPOCampaign Leverage Marketplace Rewards: Take advantage of the benefits offered by the Marketplace Rewards program to enhance your marketing efforts and grow your business. Manage marketplace rewards - Partner Center | Microsoft Learn Actionable Steps for Channel Partners: Enroll in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program: This is the first step to becoming eligible for private offers and accessing the benefits of the marketplace. https://aka.ms/MAICPP Enroll in Commercial Marketplace and Multiparty Private Offers: Channel partners must enroll in Microsoft commercial marketplace then complete a tax and payment profile in Microsoft Partner Center. Need help? contact channelready@microsoft.com https://aka.ms/MPO-channel-partner-onboarding Leverage Marketplace Rewards: Take advantage of the benefits offered by the Marketplace Rewards program to enhance your marketing efforts and grow your business. https://aka.ms/MarketplaceRewardsforChannelPartners Leveraging the growth opportunities presented in the Microsoft commercial marketplace, you can accelerate growth for your business and achieve success in the digital marketplace. You can watch the full Ignite session, “Activating the Channel Opportunity Through the Marketplace,” and learn more about driving growth through the marketplace.Steps to enable Azure Marketplace multiparty private offers in your channel business
With a world of fast-growing digital native software companies building in the cloud and with Azure Marketplace – it’s likely to be the customer that discovers the enterprise application of tomorrow, before they have a conversation with an ISV or a partner. Positioning yourself as the “SaaS ecosystem orchestrator” and managing multiparty private offers when it comes to enterprise contracting is therefore a must do activity for the next generation Microsoft channel partner. For channel organizations, you could start to see the Microsoft Azure Marketplace as a platform for modern partnering. At Microsoft Ignite Live in Chicago, I had the pleasure of presenting a comprehensive practice builder for Azure Marketplace multiparty private offers (MPO) in your channel business. This session was aimed at helping partners leverage the full potential of the Azure Marketplace to drive growth and innovation. Following the marketplace Summit in London, and the session at Ignite, the simple circular presentation of each of the stages of the Practice Builder became affectionately known as the “MPO donuts”! Below, I’ll walk you through the key steps and insights shared during the presentation. The Value of Multiparty Private Offers (MPO) Multiparty Private Offers (MPO) provide significant benefits to all parties involved: Channel Partners: MPOs allow channel partners to collaborate with ISVs and to create tailored solutions for customers. This collaboration enhances the value proposition, enables partners to tap into pre-committed cloud budgets, and drives significant business growth Customers: Customers benefit from purchasing solutions through their trusted channel partners, but with the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace as the mechanism of delivery. Together, the marketplace and the partner can deliver the perfect balance of agility and innovation with software, with good SaaS governance. This approach simplifies procurement, optimizes costs, and ensures that customers receive comprehensive support and services from their channel ecosystem ISVs: For ISVs, MPOs offer an opportunity to modernize their sales message and reach new markets. By delivering solutions through the Azure Marketplace and a Microsoft Channel partner, ISVs benefit from broader and better adoption of their technology, break out of traditional silos and access a better engaged customer base The Microsoft Marketplace “Channel Practice Builder” (MCPB) is a simple 4 stage methodology to help you build and grow your Azure Marketplace resell capability. In each of the 4 stages there are a number of requirements, with an action and recommendation. You can download and see all the individual stages of the full Channel Practice Builder at aka.ms/UKMPO. Here I’ll walk you through the 4 stages at a high level. Step 1: Foundation The first step in enabling MPOs is to establish a strong foundation. This involves understanding the Azure Marketplace ecosystem and the business process change requirements across various roles in your organization. It’s crucial to align your business strategy with the capabilities and opportunities provided by the marketplace. Understand the ecosystem: Familiarize yourself with the Azure Marketplace and the different types of private offers available. This knowledge will help you identify the best opportunities for your business Align business strategy: Ensure that your business strategy aligns with the capabilities of the Azure Marketplace, and make sure the process has an initial owner and executive sponsor. This alignment will enable you to leverage the marketplace effectively and drive growth Step 2: Enablement Next, focus on enablement. This step involves equipping your team with the necessary skills and knowledge to navigate the Azure Marketplace and starts to build out the cross functional operational best practice. Training sessions, workshops, and leveraging Microsoft’s extensive resources can be immensely beneficial. Ensure that your team is well-versed in creating and managing private offers. Training and workshops: Conduct training sessions and workshops to equip your team with the skills needed to create and manage MPOs. Microsoft provides a wealth of resources to support this training Best practices: A number of key steps to success are included in the enablement section, including building a “single source of truth”, ensuring your quote to private offer process is defined, and selecting Microsoft Marketplace first ISVs to partner with to drive this new seller motion. Step 3: Execution Execution is where the rubber meets the road. Here, you’ll start collaborating with ISV partners to build Go To Market (GTM) activity to drive the net new opportunity. This involves clear communication, defining roles and responsibilities, and ensuring that all parties are aligned with the customer’s needs. Utilize the tools and support provided by Microsoft to streamline this process. Collaborate with partners: Build your campaigns (and use the resources such as the Marketplace MPO “Campaign in a box” https://aka.ms/PartnerMPOCampaign), map your high propensity accounts, and look to agree steps for success across the business and those of your aligned ISV partners Utilize Microsoft tools: Make use of the tools and support provided by Microsoft to streamline the execution process. This includes leveraging the Azure Marketplace platform to manage transactions and offers Step 4: Growth Finally, focus on growth. Once your MPOs are up and running, continuously monitor and optimize the process to evolve your business practices and modernize your SaaS resell capability. Gather feedback from customers and partners to refine your offerings. Leverage analytics and insights to identify new opportunities and scale your business. Monitor and optimize: Continuously monitor the performance of your MPO sales and ops processes and make necessary adjustments to optimize them Gather feedback: Collect feedback from customers and partners to refine your offerings and ensure they meet the needs of the market Build dedicated resource teams: At this stage the most successful partners enhance the trust of their internal teams by having a dedicated Marketplace Sales lead, operational lead and even an ISV/Vendor alliances lead. Key Takeaways Collaboration is key: Building a successful channel practice to maximize the opportunity with cloud marketplaces relies on strong collaboration and clearly defined goals both internally and externally with your ISV partners. Establish clear communication channels and foster a collaborative culture. Leverage Microsoft resources: Microsoft provides a wealth of resources to support partners in creating and managing MPOs. Including Microsoft multiparty private offers and the “Mastering the Marketplace” assets at Private offers in Partner Center - Mastering the Marketplace Make full use of these tools to enhance your capabilities. Focus on customer needs: Always keep the customer at the center of your strategy. Customers are modernizing their application stacks and the Microsoft ecosystem (product and partner) is at the very heart of this. Channel partners have the opportunity to maximize their customer value by embracing a Microsoft Commercial Marketplace business strategy Conclusion Enabling Azure Marketplace multiparty private offers in your channel business can unlock significant growth opportunities. By following these steps and leveraging the resources available, you can create a compelling and highly efficient modern SaaS resell practice that drives customer success and business growth. You can view the full MPO Channel Adoption framework at aka.ms/UKMPO
Unlocking the power of Azure IoT with private PKI x509 certificates
In this guest blog post, Sukhyung Shin, Senior IoT Solutions Architect - Strategy, Keyfactor, discusses how Azure IoT Hub and IoT Hub DPS can employ public key infrastructure to ensure robust security for IoT devices and their communications.Sharing the value of marketplace with your customers: Reflections from Microsoft Ignite
Cloud marketplaces are the future of B2B commerce, making it easier for organizations to get the solutions they need. At Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago, the Microsoft commercial marketplace team shared with customers how to unlock the value of the marketplace in the era of AI and updates on the latest marketplace capabilities that help them spend smarter and move faster. Here’s a recap of the customer breakout session, “More than a storefront: unlocking value through the marketplace,” now available on the Ignite website and YouTube, to help you share with your customers why they should purchase your solution through the marketplace. Why cloud marketplaces now? Cloud marketplaces are growing at an unprecedented rate as more organizations than ever are reliant on the cloud. SaaS spending is expected to reach $232B 1 , which is coupled with the increasing investment in AI. McKinsey estimates that 67% of organizations will invest more in AI over the next three years 2 . It’s critical that organizations have a seamless and centralized way to procure and manage these solutions so they can scale and achieve meaningful business value. Yet far too many investments are suboptimized. Zylo reported that license waste was the top challenge for IT professionals 3 . The Microsoft commercial marketplace is one catalog of partner solutions published by software companies and vetted by Microsoft. It’s discoverable through our storefronts (Azure Marketplace and AppSource), within our products like Teams and Azure Portal, and through our group of 35K+ Microsoft sellers worldwide. At the core, the marketplace helps customers simplify B2B commerce by streamlining their entire procurement process. It also enables them to buy how they want to buy – whether that’s directly online, through their preferred channel partner, or with their Microsoft account team. With 95% of the Fortune 500 running on Azure 4 , many of these organizations already use the marketplace. But it’s not just the enterprise that’s finding value. We see customers of every size and from every industry finding success. What’s new in the marketplace? The marketplace helps customers buy with confidence by trying solutions before they buy and knowing solutions are pre-configured to seamlessly deploy and run on Microsoft technology. It helps them increase efficiency by simplifying their vendor onboarding and having partner solutions billed directly to their Azure invoice. It also helps them spend smarter by maximizing cloud investments because the marketplace counts 100% of Azure benefit eligible purchases towards a customer’s consumption commitment. Here are three new features to look for in the marketplace: Multiparty private offer (MPO) expansion- MPO is now available in the US, UK, and Canada. This allows customers to bring their preferred channel partner to the marketplace to procure solutions on their behalf. This capability will expand soon to customers in additional geographies. Professional services- Customers can now transact professional services alongside software solutions in the US, UK, and Canada. Professional services could be vendor assistance with implementation, employee training, or consulting support. Now, these purchases can be included in a customer’s single Azure invoice, further simplifying invoicing. Flexible billing- Soon the marketplace will support flexible billing, or the ability to align charges with a budget cycle or consumption needs. This helps to ensure uninterrupted invoicing cycles with adaptable contract terms or automatic transitions. Look for this capability in early 2025. The power of marketplace for AI transformation Microsoft is the number one provider of AI services in the world, and the marketplace is part of how we extend AI innovation by connecting customers to the solutions they need. AI solutions are the most purchased category by net new customers 4 . We’ve seen a 163% increase in AI offers listed by our software partners and a 7X increase in customers visiting AI and machine learning offer pages on our storefronts 4 . This has translated to a 387% increase in customers purchasing AI offers 4 . This momentum is driven by the benefits customers get by going through the marketplace, including free trials and proof-of-concept options to ensure that solutions align with their needs before committing. Customers also save time by deploying directly from Azure in a secure environment. With the marketplace, customers can get cutting edge AI technologies that help them build with generative AI and models-as-a-service. They can also extend copilot capabilities through connectors and agents or build their own copilots. In addition to Microsoft’s own AI tools for developers, organizations can find a breadth of offerings from leading AI companies like Aisera, Cohere, LangChain, and Pinecone. There are also many SaaS applications powered by AI that are helping customers experience AI transformation in any number of scenarios from marketing and human resources to operations and supply chain. To see how a customer would leverage the marketplace to build a custom copilot for business users at a manufacturing company, check out this demo from the Ignite stage. AI has also been built into the marketplace to improve the customer experience. Our new AI-powered solution discovery is now available in Azure Portal, helping customers intuitively find solutions with natural language. The search result not only returns solutions but also suggests relevant Microsoft technical documentation to help customers make informed decisions. Customer success story We love showcasing how our customers are finding success through the marketplace. TP (Teleperformance) is a multinational company which offers business services for organizations in 100 countries around the world. Watch the video to see how TP has simplified their cloud portfolio management, unlocked discounts on their Azure infrastructure, and increased time-to-market by streamlining procurement processes. The Ignite session includes an interview with Jatin Suri, Global SVP, Cloud Center of Excellence, who goes into more detail about why the marketplace is key to TP’s procurement strategy. Resources for your customers Learn more: Azure.com/Marketplace Download the eBook: aka.ms/MarketplaceQuickGuide Talk to experts: aka.ms/MarketplaceCustomerOfficeHours Check out the video collection: aka.ms/MPCustomerVideos Get documentation: aka.ms/MarketplaceCustomerDocs 1 Custify , The Future of SaaS: Top Trends and Predictions in 2024 and Beyond, July 12, 2024 . 2 McKinsey Global Survey, The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value, May 30, 2024 . 3 Zylo , Unchecked SaaS Sprawl Leads to an Average of $18M in License Waste Annually 4 Microsoft internal data
