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Use Partner Center to apply for specializations and check their status

  • Article

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 what's required to attain them, see Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program specializations.

Prerequisites for specializations

To qualify for a specialization, you must first fulfill certain prerequisites, such as earning a Solutions Partner designation in a related area. Then you can apply for the specialization in Partner Center and complete the required steps and Microsoft validations.

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. Select the name of a specialization to see requirements and steps, your status, and links to further steps and resources.
    • You can return to the Membership > Specializations area of Partner Center to check your progress toward attaining an advanced specialization.
    • After you complete all the requirements for a specialization, you can check to see if your status changed to Active for the specialization you chose. Active status automatically enables an advanced specialization tag on your business profile. This profile is visible to all customers trying to find a solution provider.

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:

  • Microsoft Low Code Application Development
  • Small and Midsize Business Management
  • Sales
  • Service
  • Finance
  • Supply Chain
  • Intelligent Automation
  • Business Intelligence

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
  • Build and Modernize AI Apps with Microsoft Azure
  • Data Warehouse Migration to Microsoft Azure
  • Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure
  • Infra and Database migration to Microsoft Azure
  • Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop
  • Migrate Enterprise Applications to Microsoft Azure
  • AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure
  • Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure with Microsoft Azure Stack HCI
  • Microsoft Azure VMware Solution
  • Accelerate Developer Productivity with Microsoft Azure (formerly known as DevOps with GitHub on Microsoft Azure)
  • Networking Services in Microsoft Azure
  • SAP on Microsoft Azure

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.

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
  • Calling for Microsoft Teams
  • Custom Solutions for Microsoft Teams
  • Meetings and Meeting Rooms for Microsoft Teams
  • Modernize Endpoints
  • Teamwork Deployment
  • Identity and Access Management
  • Threat Protection
  • Information Protection and Governance
  • Cloud Security

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.

How Azure consumption revenue is calculated for each specialization

Partner-to-customer associations include:

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
Service Group 2 Grouping of Azure services according to a service category
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 and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure
    • AI ACR: Service Group 3 in any of the following:
      • Anomaly Detector
      • Document Intelligence
      • Immersive Reader
      • Metrics Advisor
      • Video Indexer
      • Bot Service
      • Health Bot
      • Azure Machine Learning
      • Search
      • Azure OpenAI
      • Content Moderator
      • Content Safety
      • Health Insights
      • Language
      • Personalizer
      • Speech
      • Translator
      • Vision
  • Analytics on Microsoft Azure
    • Azure Synapse Analytics ACR: Service Level 2 = Azure Synapse Analytics
    • Data Lake ACR: Service Group 3 = Azure Data Lake
    • Databricks ACR: Service Group3 = Databricks
    • Azure Data Factory ACR: Service Level 2 = Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Factory v2
    • Microsoft Fabric ACR: Service Level 2 = Microsoft Fabric
  • Build and Modernize AI Apps with Microsoft Azure
    • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) ACR: Service Group3 = AKS
    • Azure RedHat OpenShift ACR: Service Group 3 = ARO
    • Azure Spring Apps ACR: Service Group3 = Azure Spring cloud
    • Azure Cosmos DB: Service Group 3 = Cosmos DB
    • Azure Database for PostgreSQL: Service Group 3 = PGSQL
    • Azure Cognitive Services: Service Group 3 = Cognitive Services
    • Azure Machine Learning: Service Group 3 = Azure Machine Learning
    • Azure OpenAI service: Service Group 3 = Applied AI Services
  • Data Warehouse Migration to Microsoft Azure
    • Azure Synapse Analytics ACR: Service Level 2 = Azure Synapse Analytics
    • Azure Databricks ACR: Service Group 3 = Azure Databricks
    • Microsoft Fabric ACR: Service Level 2 = Microsoft Fabric
  • 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
  • Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure
    • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) ACR: Service Influencer = AKS, AKS-Engine
    • Azure RedHat OpenShift ACR: Service Group 3 = ARO, Service Level 2 = All except "Unknown"
  • 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
  • Migrate Enterprise Apps to Microsoft Azure
    • Azure App Service ACR:
      • Service Level 1 = Compute
      • Service Level 2 = Azure App Service
    • Azure Spring Cloud ACR:
      • ACR Adjustment Type = N/A
      • Service Group 2 = Digital and App Innovation
      • Service Group 3 = Azure Spring Cloud
      • Service Level 2 = All except "Unknown"
  • 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:
      • Azure Defender for SQL
      • Azure Defender for container registries
      • Azure Defender for Kubernetes
      • Azure Defender for Storage
      • Application Gateway WAF v2
      • WAF Application Gateway
      • Azure Active Directory B2C
      • Azure Active Directory Domain Services
      • Azure Active Directory for External Identities
      • Azure Bastion
      • Azure DDOS Protection
      • Azure Firewall
      • Azure Firewall Manager
      • Azure Front Door Service
      • Azure Defender for IoT
      • Azure Dedicated HSM
      • Key Vault
      • Network Watcher
      • Azure Defender for App Service
      • Azure 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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