Use Partner Center to apply for specializations and check their status

Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin

This article describes how to use Partner Center to:

  • Apply for a specialization.
  • Complete the required steps and validations for a specialization, including specializations that require an audit or customer references.
  • Track your progress toward attaining a specialization.

To learn more about the benefits of specializations and the requirements to attain them, see Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program specializations.

Use Partner Center to apply for specializations and track your progress

Much of the process for applying for a specialization is available at Membership > Specializations in Partner Center.

Note

Only users with the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin user role for their organization's Microsoft partner account have access to the Membership > Specializations section.

Access the specializations area and track your status

To access specializations and track your status, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center as a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin and select Membership.
  2. Select Specializations and then select the area you're interested in:
    • Azure
    • Modern work
    • Security
    • Business applications
  3. Requirements differ for each specialization, go through the following list for specific details. To check your performance for each specialization, sign in to Partner Center, and go to the respective specialization page.
AI Platform on Microsoft Azure (formerly known as AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure)

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in any one of two solution areas: Data & AI or Digital & App Innovation

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must complete the following performance requirements:
      • Your organization must show a total of $15,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) from the eligible Strategic Pillars of Azure AI platform services in the last three months.
      • Eligible strategic pillars: 3rd Party (3P) GPU, Rest of Azure AI, Azure OpenAI AND
      • Your organization must have at least three unique customers contributing to Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) in the last three months from eligible strategic pillars of Azure AI platform services. For more information, see Advanced specializations.

    Eligible strategic pillars: 3P GPU, Rest of Azure AI, Azure OpenAI

  • For example, if a partner gets two customers in the first two months and then adds a new customer in month three, while accumulating an ACR of $15,000 in last three months, they meet the defined requirement. For more information on the services included in the above Eligible strategic pillars, see Azure consumption revenue fields.

  • Eligible Association Types: Digital Partner of Record (DPOR), Partner Admin Link (PAL), Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). Government subscriptions (for example, Fairfax) associated by way of PAL aren't valid.

    Note

    Azure AI Studio can't fulfill the ACR requirements but is an eligible piece of evidence when you apply for the audit.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Here are the Strategic Pillars and their corresponding Sub Strategic Pillar workloads.
      • AI Infra - Azure Machine Learning, MaaS, other AI Infra
      • Azure AI Services - Anomaly Detector, Bot Service, Content Moderator, Content Safety, Document Intelligence, Health Bot, Health Insights, Immersive Reader, Language, Metrics Advisor, Personalizer, Phi, Search, Speech, Translator, Video Analyzer, Video Indexer, Vision
      • Azure OpenAI - Azure OpenAI

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Your organization must have at least three (3) certified individuals who have earned at least one of the following certifications:
    These individuals must collectively cover the following two certification groups:

    At least one individual must hold either:

    At least one individual must hold:

    • Azure AI Engineer Associate OR Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate

      • Azure Data Scientist Associate retired on June 1, 2026. Certifications earned before this date remain valid for one year from the certification date.

      • Azure AI Engineer Associate retired on June 30, 2026. Certifications earned before this date remain valid for one year from the certification date.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Analytics on Microsoft Azure

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Data & AI (Azure) solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a total of $15,000 of Azure consumed revenue (ACR) in the trailing three-month period from eligible strategic pillars.
    • Your organization must have at least three unique customers contributing to ACR in the trailing three-month period.
    • Eligible strategic pillars: Azure Databricks, Fabric F SKU, Rest of Analytics
    • Eligible association types: DPOR, PAL, CSP
    • Government subscriptions, such as Fairfax, associated through PAL aren't valid.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Strategic Pillar = Azure Databricks, Fabric F SKU, or Rest of Analytics

  • Skilling requirements:

    You can have a combination of the same or different individuals to meet the certification requirements.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

AI Apps on Microsoft Azure (formerly known as Build AI Apps with Microsoft Azure)

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation for either Data & AI (Azure) or Digital & App Innovation (Azure)

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must complete all of the following performance requirements:
      • Your organization must show a total of $15,000* Azure consumed revenue (ACR) from Microsoft Foundry and underlying AI services in the last three months, measured through the following strategic pillars: Rest of Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, and/or 3P GPU
      • Your organization must show a total of $15,000 ACR from Azure Application Platform services (AKS, ACA, ARO, App Service, Logic Apps, APIM, Functions, Managed Redis) and GitHub products in the last three months, measured through the following strategic pillars: App Platform Services, Container Services, Serverless and Supporting App Services, Integration Services, Developer Services and Platform, and/or GitHub Copilot
      • Your organization must show a total of $15,000 ACR from Azure Data Platform services (Cosmos DB, SQL DB Hyperscale, Azure SQL Core, MySQL PaaS, PostgreSQL PaaS, Fabric F SKU) in the last three months, measured through the following strategic pillars: Modern DB, MySQL and PostgreSQL PaaS, Azure SQL QL PaaS, Azure SQL Core, and/or Fabric F SKU
      • Your organization must have at least three unique customers contributing to ACR in the last three months from the following eligible strategic pillars and association types.
        Strategic pillars: Rest of Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, 3P GPU, Modern DB, MySQL and PostgreSQL PaaS, Azure SQL Core, App Platform Services, Container Services, Serverless and Supporting App Services, Integration Services, Fabric F SKU, Developer Services and Platform, and/or GitHub Copilot
        Association types:Digital Partner of Record (DPOR),Partner Admin Link (PAL), and Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner

    The services included in all of the above eligible strategic pillars are listed in Azure consumption revenue fields.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Here are the Strategic Pillars and their corresponding Sub Strategic Pillar workloads:
      • 3P GPU - Azure Machine Learning, Other AI Infra
      • App Platform Services - Azure App Service, Azure Spring Cloud
      • Azure OpenAI - Azure OpenAI
      • Azure SQL Core - SQL DB, SQL DB MI, SQL on IaaS, SQL on IaaS VM
      • Container Services - AKS, ARO, Container Instances, Container Registry, Service Fabric
      • Developer Services and Platform - App Center, Azure DevOps, Azure Lab Services, Azure Load Testing, GitHub Platform, Microsoft Dev Box, Mobile Services, Trusted Signing
      • Fabric F SKU - Compute Pool, Copilot and AI, Data Warehousing Core, DE and DS, Fabric, Fabric Data Integration, FabricDb, OneLake, OneLake Storage, Power BI, Real Time Intelligence
      • GitHub Copilot - GitHub Copilot
      • Integration Services - API Management, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
      • Modern DBs - Cosmos DB, SQL DB Hyperscale
      • MySQL and PostgreSQL PaaS - MySQL, PostgreSQL
      • Rest of Azure AI - 1P MaaS, Anomaly Detector, Azure Machine Learning, Bot Service, Content Moderator, Content Safety, Content Understanding, Document Intelligence, Health Bot, Health Insights, Immersive Reader, Language, MaaS, Metrics Advisor, Other AI Infra, Personalizer, Phi, Search, Speech, Translator, Video Analyzer, Video Indexer, Vision, XCR-AI
      • Serverless and Supporting App Services - App Configuration, Azure Communication Services, Azure Container Apps, Functions, Redis on Azure, SignalR, Web PubSub, XCR

  • Skilling requirements:

* Azure Developer Associate retires on July 31, 2026. If you complete it before retirement, it remains valid for one year.

# Azure AI Engineer Associate retired on June 30, 2026. If you complete it before retirement, it remains valid for one year.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A
  • Audit or customer references: Audit required
Agentic DevOps with Microsoft Azure and GitHub (formerly known as Accelerate Developer Productivity with Microsoft Azure)
  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation for Digital & App Innovation
  • Performance requirements:
    • Your company must show a total of $30,000of Azure consumed revenue (ACR) in the last three months from the eligible sub strategic pillars: Azure DevOps, GitHub Copilot, GitHub Platform, and/or Microsoft Dev Box.
    • Your company must have at least three unique customers contributing to ACR in the last three months from the following eligible sub strategic pillars: Azure DevOps, GitHub Copilot, GitHub Platform, and/or Microsoft Dev Box.

For both of the above performance requirements, your ACR must be attributed through the following association types:Digital Partner of Record (DPOR),Partner Admin Link (PAL), and/or Cloud Solution Provider (CSP).

  • Skilling requirements:
    • Three or more individuals from your organization must pass the DevOps Engineer Expert certification exam.
  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A
  • Audit or customer references: Audit required.
Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure with Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in any one of three solution areas: Data & AI, Digital & App Innovation, or Infrastructure

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must show a total of $1,500 of ACR* from Azure Stack HCI from at least two customers from the previous three months.
    • Azure Stack HCI ACR is determined through Service Level 2 as Azure Stack HCI.

    * ACR can be achieved through DPOR, PAL, and CSP. Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL association.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Azure Stack HCI ACR: Service Level 2 = Azure Stack HCI

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Infra and Database Migration to Microsoft Azure

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in any one of two solution areas: Data & AI or Infrastructure

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must show customers migrating to Azure and meet the following requirements:

      Infra ACR:

      Your company must show a total of at least $30,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) from Windows Server Virtual Machine (VM) in the previous three (3) months from at least three (3) customers.

      OR

      Your company must show a total of at least $15,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) from Linux Virtual Machines (VM) in the previous three (3) months from at least three (3) customers.

      AND

      Database ACR:

      Your company must also show a total of at least $9,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) from SQL Managed Instance (MI), SQL Database (DB), SQL VM in the previous three (3) months from at least three (3) customers, and at least $3,000 of that total must come from SQL MI or SQL DB.

      OR

      Your company must also show a total of $4,500 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) in the previous three (3) months from at least three (3) customers from any, or a combination of, these databases:

      • Azure Database (DB) for MariaDB
      • Azure DB for MySQL
      • Azure DB for PostgreSQL
      • Azure Cosmos DB

      Eligible Association Type: Digital Partner of Record, Partner Admin Link and CSP Tier1, CSP Tier 2 Infra and Database Migration to Microsoft Azure is determined through Learn more.

      You can have the same three customers meeting the requirement for Infra and DB Migration to Azure or they could be different.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Windows Server Virtual Machine (VM) ACR:
    • ACR Adjustment Type = N/A, Compute Core SW = Core,
    • Compute OS = WINDOWS THEN Compute OS Attribute = WINDOWS, UNKNOWN, or Compute OS = LINUX THEN Compute OS Attribute = WINDOWS-AHUB
    • Service Level 2= Cloud Services, Container Instances, Container Registry, Specialized Compute, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machines Licenses
    • Linux Virtual Machines (VM) ACR:
      • Option 1:
        • ACR Adjustment Type= N/A, Service Level 2 = Virtual Machines, Compute OS= Linux, Compute OS Attribute = Non-Windows, UNKNOWN, Windows
        • Service Level 4 = All EXCEPT Cloud Services MS Series, Virtual Machines MS Series, Virtual Machines MS Series Windows, Virtual Machines MSv2 Series, Virtual Machines MSv2 Series Windows, MS Series Dedicated Host, MSv2 Series Dedicated Host
      • Option 2:
        • Only require filters on Service Level 4; other fields like Compute OS/Compute OS Attributes aren't required
        • Service Level 4 = Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with HA, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Basic, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for HPC Priority, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for HPC Standard, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Priority, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Standard
    • SQL DB, MI & VM ACR:
      • SQL Database (DB) ACR: Service Group 3 = SQLDB
      • SQL Managed Instance (MI) ACR: Service Group 3 = SQL DB MI
      • SQL VM ACR: Service Group 3 = SQL on IaaS, SQL on IaaS VM
    • Azure DB & Cosmos ACR:
      • Azure Database (DB) for MariaDB ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases and Service Level 2 = Azure Database for MariaDB
      • Azure DB for MySQL ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases and Service Level 2 = Azure Database for MySQL and MySQL Database on Azure
      • Azure DB for PostgreSQL ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases and Service Level 2 = Azure Database for PostgreSQL
      • Azure COSMOS DB ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases Level 2 = Azure Cosmos DB

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

App Modernization on Microsoft Azure

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in any one of two solution areas: Data & AI or Digital & App Innovation

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a total of $15,000 of Azure consumed revenue (ACR) in the trailing three-month period from eligible strategic pillars.
    • Eligible strategic pillars: App Platform Services, Container Services, Developer Services and Platform, GitHub Copilot, Integration Services, Serverless and Supporting Services
    • Eligible association types: DPOR, PAL, CSP
    • Government subscriptions, such as Fairfax, associated through PAL aren't valid.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

  • Strategic pillar: App Platform Services, Container Services, Developer Services and Platform, GitHub Copilot, Integration Services, or Serverless and Supporting Services

  • Skilling requirements:

    You can have a combination of the same or different individuals to meet the certification requirements.

    * The Azure Developer Associate certification's retirement date is July 31, 2026. If completed before retirement, it remains valid for one year.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Infrastructure solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must show an average of at least $2,500 of Azure Virtual Desktop ACR in the previous three months from at least three customers (aggregated from across your customers).
    • Azure Virtual Desktop ACR is determined through Service Influencer as NATIVE WVD.
    • Your organization should achieve ACR through DPOR, PAL, and CSP. Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop ACR: Service Influencer = NATIVE WVD

  • Skilling requirements:

    You can have a combination of the same individuals or different individuals to meet the certification requirement.

    *The Azure Security Engineer Associate certification's retirement date is August 31, 2026. If completed before retirement, it remains valid for one year.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Microsoft Azure VMware Solution

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Infrastructure solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must show a total of $30,000 of ACR* from Azure VMware Solutions (AVS) from at least one customer from the previous three months.
    • Azure VMware Solutions (AVS) is determined through Service Level 4 - Azure VMware Solution, Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple, Azure VMware Solution by Virtustream, Specialized Compute Azure VMware Solution

    * ACR can be achieved through DPOR, PAL, and CSP. Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL association.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • ACR: Service Level 4 in any of the following:
      • Azure VMware Solution
      • Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple
      • Azure VMware Solution by Virtustream
      • Specialized Compute Azure VMware Solution

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Networking Services in Microsoft Azure

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Infrastructure solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must show a total of $30,000 of ACR* from Networking from at least three customers from the previous three months.

    Networking ACR is determined through Service Group 2 as Networking.

    * ACR can be achieved through DPOR, PAL, and CSP. Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL association.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • SAP Workloads ACR: Service Level 4 in any of the following:
      • Cloud Services MS Series
      • Virtual Machines MS Series
      • Virtual Machines MS Series Windows
      • Virtual Machines MSv2 Series
      • Virtual Machines MSv2 Series Windows
      • MS Series Dedicated Host
      • MSv2 Series Dedicated Host
      • SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
      • SAP Cloud Platform Alert Notification
      • SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory - Kyma Runtime
      • SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite - Additional Messages
      • SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite - Standard Edition
      • SAP Cloud Platform Transport Management
      • SAP Edge Services
      • SAP Embrace API Management
      • SAP Embrace Application Logging
      • SAP Embrace Application Runtime
      • SAP Embrace Bandwidth
      • SAP Embrace Business Application Studio
      • SAP Embrace Business Rules
      • SAP Embrace Cloud Integration
      • SAP Embrace Credential Store
      • SAP Embrace Custom Domain
      • SAP Embrace Data Intelligence
      • SAP Embrace Enterprise Messaging
      • SAP Embrace Extension Factory
      • SAP Embrace HANA Cloud
      • SAP Embrace Identity Authentication
      • SAP Embrace Job Scheduler
      • SAP Embrace MACC
      • SAP Embrace Mobile Services
      • SAP Embrace Object Store Service
      • SAP Embrace Open Connectors
      • SAP Embrace Portal
      • SAP Embrace Process Visibility
      • SAP Embrace Web Analytics
      • SAP Embrace Workflow
      • SAP HANA Service
      • SAP Web IDE

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: Your company must have at least one managed service or consulting service offer under the Networking category published on Microsoft Marketplace.

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

SAP on Microsoft Azure

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Infrastructure solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must show a total of $7,500 of ACR* (aggregated from all Azure workloads) from the last three months, aggregated from at least three customers.

    Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL association.

    * ACR can be achieved through DPOR, PAL, and CSP. Learn more about Azure ACR.

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Adoption and Change Management (retired)

Important

The Adoption and Change Management specialization is retired. New enrollments and renewals are no longer accepted, and customer reference submissions are closed. If you're currently enrolled, your specialization remains active until your anniversary date, after which it lapses and isn't renewed. Adoption and change management capabilities are now evaluated within product-aligned specializations, such as the Copilot specialization. There's no replacement specialization, and partners aren't automatically enrolled into another specialization.

Calling for Microsoft Teams

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Modern Work solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum growth of 1,000 Teams Phone enabled users in a TTM period.

    Enabled users: Users with a Teams Phone license and a telephone number assigned to them (using either a first-party calling plan or third-party calling plan) so that they're able to make and receive PSTN calls. Partners should use the TeamsPhoneEnabledUsers workload (previously referred to as TeamsPhoneSystem) to claim and track their contribution.

  • Skilling requirements:

    AND

    * The retirement date for this assessment is June 15, 2026. Any completion on or before that date is valid through June 15, 2027.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Customer references required

Custom Solutions for Microsoft Teams

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Modern Work solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum of 1,000 Microsoft Teams Apps MAU growth in TTM period (CPOR data).
    • Teams Apps MAU is apps/solutions that are developed by partners using pro dev tools, Power Platform, or MS-provided templates, integrated through embedding, extension, or a Graph API calls (Teams Apps) (Coming soon Teams Apps with/or Teams App ID)

    MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR.

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Customer references required

Meetings and Meeting Rooms for Microsoft Teams

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Modern Work solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum of 5,000 MAU growth of Microsoft Teams Meetings in a TTM period.

    MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR.

  • Skilling requirements:

    AND

    * The retirement date for this assessment is June 15, 2026. Any completion on or before that date is valid through June 15, 2027.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Customer references required

Modernize Endpoints

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Modern Work solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum of 5,000 MAU growth of Microsoft Intune in a TTM period.

    MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR.

  • Skilling requirements:

    You can have a combination of the same individuals or different individuals meet the exam requirements.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Customer references required

Secure AI Productivity (formerly known as Teamwork Deployment)

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in both the Modern Work and Security solution areas

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum of 2,500 Monthly Active Usage (MAU) growth on three out of eight eligible Microsoft 365 workload services in a trailing twelve-month period. The 2,500 MAU growth should be demonstrated at each workload level.
      • At least one of the workloads meeting required growth must come from the productivity workloads: Exchange Online, Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online.
      • At least one of the workloads meeting required growth must come from the identity, security and management workloads: Defender for Endpoint, Entra ID P1, Intune, Microsoft Purview Information Protection.
    • Associate a minimum of five new customer tenants with your organization from any of the eight workloads in a trailing twelve-month period.

    Eligible workloads: Defender for Endpoint, Entra ID P1, Exchange Online, Intune, Microsoft Purview Information Protection, Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online

    MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR, CSP Tier 1, or CSP Tier 2.

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Customer references required

Microsoft 365 Copilot

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in any one of three solution areas: Modern Work, Business Applications, or Security

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must meet the following performance requirements:

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum of 1000 Monthly Active Usage (MAU) growth in the following eligible workloads in a trailing twelve-month period. AND

    • Your organization must achieve a minimum of 5 net customer growth in the following eligible workloads in a trailing twelve-month period. An eligible customer must have at least 5 MAU

    • Eligible Workloads: Microsoft 365 Copilot

    • Eligible Association Types: CPOR, CSP Tier 1, CSP Tier 2

    • MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR.

  • Skilling requirements:

    *Prepare security and compliance to support Microsoft 365 Copilot is retired on 30th June 2026. If completed before retirement, it is valid for 1 year.

    #Create agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio is retired on 8th July 2026. If completed before retirement, it is valid for 1 year.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Cloud Security

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Security solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your organization must demonstrate $200,000 of ACR* from Hybrid Environment XDR and Network Security in a TTM period.

    Hybrid Environment XDR and Network Security ACR are determined through the Service Level 4 list.

    * ACR can be achieved through DPOR, PAL, and CSP. Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL association.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Hybrid Environment XDR

    • Network Security ACR - Service Level 4 in any of the following:

      • Microsoft Defender for SQL
      • Microsoft Defender for Container Registries
      • Microsoft Defender for Kubernetes
      • Microsoft Defender for Storage
      • Application Gateway WAF v2
      • WAF Application Gateway
      • Azure Active Directory B2C*
      • Microsoft Entra Domain Services
      • Microsoft Entra External ID
      • Azure Bastion
      • Azure DDOS Protection
      • Azure Firewall
      • Azure Firewall Manager
      • Azure Front Door Service
      • Microsoft Defender for IoT - Agentless
      • Microsoft Defender for IoT - Managed IoT
      • Azure Dedicated HSM
      • Key Vault
      • Network Watcher
      • Microsoft Defender for App Service
      • Microsoft Defender for Servers
      • Microsoft Sentinel

      * Effective May 1, 2025, Azure AD B2C will no longer be available to purchase for new customers. To learn more, please see Is Azure AD B2C still available to purchase? in our FAQ.

  • Skilling requirements:

    You can have a combination of the same individuals or different individuals to meet the certification requirement.

    *The Azure Security Engineer Associate certification's retirement date is August 31, 2026. If completed before retirement, it will remain valid for one year.

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Identity and Access Management

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Security solution area

  • Performance requirements:

    • Your company must achieve a minimum of 2,000 Monthly Active Usage (MAU) growth of Entra ID Premium (P1 and/or P2) in a trailing twelve-month period.

      MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR.

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Data Security (formerly known as Information Protection and Governance)
Threat Protection

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Security solution area

  • Performance:

    • Your company must achieve a minimum of 1,000 MAU growth of Microsoft Defender for Identity or Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (MDCA) in a TTM period. or
    • Your company must demonstrate $100,000 ACR from Microsoft Sentinel in a TTM period.

    MAU is calculated on a rolling 28-day basis and represents the unique number of users taking an intentional action on a specific service. Your company should achieve MAU through CPOR.

    Your organization should achieve the Azure consumption revenue through DPOR association to a customer, or as the CSP direct-bill partner or CSP indirect reseller for a customer or by using the PAL. Offer types Trial, Benefits programs, Support, and Internal are excluded. Government subscriptions (such as Fairfax) aren't eligible for ACR via PAL association.

  • Azure Consumption Revenue filters:

    • Microsoft Sentinel ACR: Service Level 4 = Sentinel

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace: N/A

  • Audit or customer references: Audit required

Agentic Business Solutions

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in any one of three solution areas: Digital & App Innovation, Business Applications, or Modern Work

  • Performance:

    • Your organization must meet one of the following pathways:
      • Pathway one: Two unique customers as new deployments, including at least one customer using Power Automate with a flow in production and one customer using a Power Apps application with at least five users in production. The eligible association type is PAL.
      • Pathway two: Two new customer deployments of Copilot Studio with at least $10,000 trailing 12-month revenue each (nonrecurring). Eligible association types are CPOR, CSP Tier 1, and CSP Tier 2.

  • Skilling requirements:

    You can have a combination of the same or different individuals to meet the certification requirements.

    * The Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate certification retires on August 31, 2026. If completed before retirement, it remains valid for one year.

    ** The Power Automate RPA Developer Associate certification retired on June 30, 2026. If completed before retirement, it remains valid for one year.

  • Microsoft Marketplace:

  • Audit or customer references: N/A

Finance
Sales
Service
Small and Midsize Business Management

  • Eligibility: Active Solutions Partner designation in the Business Applications solution area

  • Performance:

  • Your company must have at least 15 new Business Central deployments with five or more monthly active users in the TTM.

  • Your company must have the deployments with a monthly active user growth of at least 15% in the TTM. Your company must have a baseline of at least 50 monthly active users across their entire customer base 12 months ago.

    *Eligible Association Types: DPOR, CPOR OSU, PAL, CSP Tier1, CSP Tier2

    Monthly active users are counted at the production tenant level and summed up across only the paid subscriptions under the tenant.

    Partners are associated to tenants at the subscription level and are mapped to the Dynamics 365 Business Central product. All partners associated to any paid subscription under a tenant get credit for all the monthly active users summed up across all paid subscriptions under that tenant.

  • Skilling requirements:

  • Microsoft Marketplace:

  • Audit or customer references: N/A

Supply Chain

Complete an audit or include customer references

To earn a specialization, you must earn an aligned Solutions Partner designation and fulfill other prerequisites unique to that specialization.

To earn some specializations, you must also:

Both tasks can be performed in Partner Center.

Specializations that don't require an audit or customer references

Specializations that don't require an audit or customer reference include:

  • Agentic Business Solutions
  • Small and Midsize Business Management
  • Sales
  • Service
  • Finance
  • Supply Chain

Specializations that require an audit with a third-party auditor

Specializations that require an audit from a third-party auditor include:

  • Analytics on Microsoft Azure

  • AI Apps on Microsoft Azure (formerly known as Build AI Apps with Microsoft Azure)

  • App Modernization on Microsoft Azure

  • Infra and Database migration to Microsoft Azure

  • Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop

  • AI Platform on Microsoft Azure (formerly known as AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure)

  • Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure with Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

  • Microsoft Azure VMware Solution

  • Agentic DevOps with Microsoft Azure and GitHub (formerly known as Accelerate Developer Productivity with Microsoft Azure)

  • Networking Services in Microsoft Azure

  • SAP on Microsoft Azure

  • Cloud Security

  • Identity and Access Management

  • Data Security

  • Threat Protection

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot

Complete an audit with a third-party auditor

In addition to fulfilling a specialization's prerequisites, you must pass a scheduled audit to earn some specializations.

To schedule an audit, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center as a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin and select Membership.
  2. Select Specializations, and then select Azure.
  3. Select the name of a specialization, for example, Modernization of Web Applications to Microsoft Azure.
    • The prerequisites for the specialization appear.
  4. Select Schedule audit.
    • The Schedule audit button isn't available, and your status is Not started until you meet all the prerequisites on the page.
    • After you meet all the prerequisites and complete the audit, your status changes to Active.

Note: The validity of the audit date might differ from the attainment date or the validity period of the current specialization status. This distinction is important when reviewing timelines for renewal or compliance.

Important: The audit completion date used to validate certain specialization requirements might not align with the attainment date or the validity period shown for your current specialization status in Partner Center. Always refer to the audit provider’s documentation for audit-specific timelines.

What should I do if the Audit is failed?

If your Audit is failed, you can re-initate the Audit after 7 days

Specializations that require customer references

In addition to fulfilling prerequisites, you must also provide customer references to earn some specializations.

Specializations that require customer references include:

  • Adoption and Change Management (retired – customer reference submissions are closed)
  • Calling for Microsoft Teams
  • Custom Solutions for Microsoft Teams
  • Meetings and Meeting Rooms for Microsoft Teams
  • Modernize Endpoints
  • Secure AI Productivity (formerly known as Teamwork Deployment)

Provide customer references

To provide customer references in Partner Center, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center as a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin and select Membership.
  2. Select Specializations, and then select an area you're interested in:
    • Modern work
    • Security
  3. Select the name of the specialization.
    • The prerequisites for the specialization appear. As an example, for the Meetings and Meeting Rooms for Microsoft Teams specialization, in addition to a Solutions Partner designation, certifications, and a performance requirement, you must also provide three customer references that demonstrate your ability to deploy and manage.
      • Until you meet all the prerequisites and provide customer references, your status is Not Started.
      • After you meet all the prerequisites and provide the required references, your status changes to Active.

Customer references – Frequently asked questions

1. What is a customer reference?

A customer reference is a short, structured summary of a real customer engagement that demonstrates a partner’s technical expertise, use of Microsoft technologies, and measurable business outcomes for a specific specialization. Customer references are used by Microsoft only for validation purposes and aren’t published unless both the partner and the customer explicitly agree.

2. Why are customer references required?

Customer references help Microsoft validate real customer success and ensure that partners earning specializations have demonstrated the required depth of experience and customer impact aligned to the specialization.

3. Which specializations require customer references?

Customer references are required for specific Modern Work and Security specializations.
Most Azure specializations require an audit instead of customer references.
The Partner Center specialization details page indicates whether customer references are required.

4. How many customer references are required?

Partners must submit three (3) customer references for each specialization that requires customer references. Each reference must represent a separate customer engagement.

5. What makes a customer reference valid?

A valid customer reference must meet all the following criteria:

  • Be from a named, real customer

  • Be based on an engagement from the last 24 months

  • Align clearly to the specific specialization

  • Include customer contact information for validation

  • Describe the partner solution, Microsoft technologies used, and business outcomes

  • Be completed using the official Microsoft customer reference template

  • Be submitted in English

Workshop‑only or training‑only engagements don’t qualify.

6. What template must I use to submit customer references?

Partners must use the official Customer Reference Template provided by Microsoft in PowerPoint format. The template is available in "Customer references" tab of that specialization

  • One slide is required per customer reference

  • Additional slides may be included if more detail is required

Only submissions using this template are accepted.

7. How do I submit customer references?

To submit customer references:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center as a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin

  2. Go to Membership > Specializations

  3. Select the relevant specialization

  4. Upload the completed customer reference PowerPoint file

  5. Submit the application

8. How long does it take for customer references to be reviewed?

Customer references are typically reviewed within 1–2 weeks after submission. Microsoft may contact the customer directly to validate the information provided.

9. How do customer references work for renewal?

Customer references are validated every other year during specialization renewal:

  • First renewal year: No new customer references are required

  • Second renewal year: Customer references must be submitted and approved

This alternating validation pattern continues for subsequent renewal cycles. Partner Center indicates when customer references are required.

10. What should I do if my customer references are rejected?

If your customer references are rejected, you can submit the customer references again after six months

How Azure consumption revenue is calculated for each specialization

Partner-to-customer associations include:

  • DPOR association with a customer
  • CSP direct-bill partner or CSP indirect reseller for a customer
  • PAL association with a customer

Not counted toward the specialization is Azure consumption revenue (ACR) from subscriptions to the following types of offers:

  • Trial
  • Benefits programs
  • Support
  • Internal

Azure consumption revenue fields

Field name Field description
Service Level 1 Highest level at which Azure services are bundled. See Directory of Azure Cloud service.
Service Level 2 Second-highest level Azure Services based, for example Pricing overview - How Azure pricing works
Service Level 3 Third-highest level Azure Services based, for example Pricing - Linux virtual machines
Service Level 4 Fourth-highest level Azure Services based, for example Pricing - Linux virtual machines
Super StrategicPillar (also called Service Group 2) Grouping of Azure services according to a service subcategory
StrategicPillar Grouping of Azure services according to a Service category
SubStrategicPillar (also called Service Group 3) Grouping of Azure services according to a service subcategory
Service Influencer Grouping of Azure services mapped to a specific consumption activity
Compute OS Compute Operating System
Compute Core Software Compute Core Software

Azure consumption revenue filters for specialization

  • AI Platform on Microsoft Azure (formerly known as AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure)
    • Here are the Strategic Pillars and their corresponding Sub Strategic Pillar workloads:
      • AI Infra - Azure Machine Learning, MaaS, Other AI Infra
      • Azure AI Services - Anomaly Detector, Bot Service, Content Moderator, Content Safety, Document Intelligence, Health Bot, Health Insights, Immersive Reader, Language, Metrics Advisor, Personalizer, Phi, Search, Speech, Translator, Video Analyzer, Video Indexer, Vision
      • Azure OpenAI - Azure OpenAI
  • Analytics on Microsoft Azure
    • Strategic Pillar = Azure Databricks, Fabric F SKU, or Rest of Analytics
  • AI Apps on Microsoft Azure (formerly known as Build AI Apps with Microsoft Azure)
    • Here are the Strategic Pillars and their corresponding Sub Strategic Pillar workloads:
      • 3P GPU - Azure Machine Learning, Other AI Infra
      • App Platform Services - Azure App Service, Azure Spring Cloud
      • Azure OpenAI - Azure OpenAI
      • Azure SQL Core - SQL DB, SQL DB MI, SQL on IaaS, SQL on IaaS VM
      • Container Services - AKS, ARO, Container Instances, Container Registry, Service Fabric
      • Developer Services and Platform - App Center, Azure DevOps, Azure Lab Services, Azure Load Testing, GitHub Platform, Microsoft Dev Box, Mobile Services, Trusted Signing
      • Fabric F SKU - Compute Pool, Copilot and AI, Data Warehousing Core, DE and DS, Fabric, Fabric Data Integration, FabricDb, OneLake, OneLake Storage, Power BI, Real Time Intelligence
      • GitHub Copilot - GitHub Copilot
      • Integration Services - API Management, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
      • Modern DBs - Cosmos DB, SQL DB Hyperscale
      • MySQL and PostgreSQL PaaS - MySQL, PostgreSQL
      • Rest of Azure AI - 1P MaaS, Anomaly Detector, Azure Machine Learning, Bot Service, Content Moderator, Content Safety, Content Understanding, Document Intelligence, Health Bot, Health Insights, Immersive Reader, Language, MaaS, Metrics Advisor, Other AI Infra, Personalizer, Phi, Search, Speech, Translator, Video Analyzer, Video Indexer, Vision, XCR-AI
      • Serverless and Supporting App Services - App Configuration, Azure Communication Services, Azure Container Apps, Functions, Redis on Azure, SignalR, Web PubSub, XCR
  • Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure with Microsoft Azure Stack HCI
    • Azure Stack HCI ACR: Service Level 2 = Azure Stack HCI
  • Infra and Database migration to Microsoft Azure
    • Windows ACR:
      • ACR Adjustment Type = N/A, Compute Core SW = Core,
      • Compute OS = WINDOWS THEN Compute OS Attribute = WINDOWS, UNKNOWN, or Compute OS = LINUX THEN Compute OS Attribute = WINDOWS-AHUB
        • Service Level 2= Cloud Services, Container Instances, Container Registry, Specialized Compute, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machines Licenses
      • SQL Database (DB) ACR: Service Group 3 = SQLDB
      • SQL Managed Instance (MI) ACR: Service Group 3 = SQL DB MI
      • SQL VM ACR: Service Group 3 = SQL on IaaS, SQL on IaaS VM
    • Linux Virtual Machines (VM)ACR:
      • Option 1:
        • ACR Adjustment Type= N/A, Service Level 2 = Virtual Machines, Compute OS= Linux, Compute OS Attribute = Non-Windows, UNKNOWN, Windows
        • Service Level 4 = All EXCEPT Cloud Services MS Series, Virtual Machines MS Series, Virtual Machines MS Series Windows, Virtual Machines MSv2 Series, Virtual Machines MSv2 Series Windows, MS Series Dedicated Host, MSv2 Series Dedicated Host
      • Option 2: only require filters on Service Level 4. Other fields like Compute OS/Compute OS Attributes aren't required
        • Service Level 4 = Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with HA, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Basic, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for HPC Priority, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for HPC Standard, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Priority, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Standard
    • Azure Database (DB) for MariaDB ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases and Service Level 2 = Azure Database for MariaDB
    • Azure DB for MySql ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases and Service Level 2 = Azure Database for MySQL and MySQL Database on Azure
    • Azure DB for PostgreSQL ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases and Service Level 2 = Azure Database for PostgreSQL
    • Azure COSMOS DB ACR: Service Level 1 = Databases Level 2 = Azure Cosmos DB
  • App Modernization on Microsoft Azure
    • Strategic Pillar = App Platform Services, Container Services, Developer Services and Platform, GitHub Copilot, Integration Services, or Serverless and Supporting Services
  • Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop
    • Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop ACR: Service Influencer = NATIVE WVD
  • Microsoft Azure VMware Solution
    • Azure VMware Solutions (AVS) ACR: Service Level 4 in any of the following:
      • Azure VMware Solution
      • Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple
      • Azure VMware Solution by Virtustream
      • Specialized Compute Azure VMware Solution
  • SAP on Microsoft Azure
    • SAP Workloads ACR: Service Level 4 in any of the following:
      • Cloud Services MS Series
      • Virtual Machines MS Series
      • Virtual Machines MS Series Windows
      • Virtual Machines MSv2 Series
      • Virtual Machines MSv2 Series Windows
      • MS Series Dedicated Host
      • MSv2 Series Dedicated Host
      • SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
      • SAP Cloud Platform Alert Notification
      • SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory - Kyma Runtime
      • SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite - Additional Messages
      • SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite - Standard Edition
      • SAP Cloud Platform Transport Management
      • SAP Edge Services
      • SAP Embrace API Management
      • SAP Embrace Application Logging
      • SAP Embrace Application Runtime
      • SAP Embrace Bandwidth
      • SAP Embrace Business Application Studio
      • SAP Embrace Business Rules
      • SAP Embrace Cloud Integration
      • SAP Embrace Credential Store
      • SAP Embrace Custom Domain
      • SAP Embrace Data Intelligence
      • SAP Embrace Enterprise Messaging
      • SAP Embrace Extension Factory
      • SAP Embrace HANA Cloud
      • SAP Embrace Identity Authentication
      • SAP Embrace Job Scheduler
      • SAP Embrace MACC
      • SAP Embrace Mobile Services
      • SAP Embrace Object Store Service
      • SAP Embrace Open Connectors
      • SAP Embrace Portal
      • SAP Embrace Process Visibility
      • SAP Embrace Web Analytics
      • SAP Embrace Workflow
      • SAP HANA Service
      • SAP Web IDE
  • Cloud Security
    • Hybrid Environment XDR
    • Network Security ACR: Service Level 4 in any of the following:
      • Microsoft Defender for SQL
      • Microsoft Defender for container registries
      • Microsoft Defender for Kubernetes
      • Microsoft Defender for Storage
      • Application Gateway WAF v2
      • WAF Application Gateway
      • Azure Active Directory B2C
      • Microsoft Entra Domain Services
      • Microsoft Entra External ID
      • Azure Bastion
      • Azure DDOS Protection
      • Azure Firewall
      • Azure Firewall Manager
      • Azure Front Door Service
      • Microsoft Defender for IoT - Agentless
      • Microsoft Defender for IoT - Managed IoT
      • Azure Dedicated HSM
      • Key Vault
      • Network Watcher
      • Microsoft Defender for App Service
      • Microsoft Defender for servers
      • Sentinel
  • Threat Protection
    • Microsoft Sentinel ACR: Service Level 4 = Sentinel

Data freshness

Performance is typically refreshed by the 20th of every month. However, there might be more minor data refreshes throughout the month.

Skilling subcategories are typically refreshed within 10 days after certification is complete.

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