Miscrosoft Azure will soon be available to New Zealand reseller partners through Open Licensing programs.
Azure in Open Volume Licensing, available from August 1, offers a new option for partners to purchase a Microsoft product or service from preferred distributors and resell to customers to continue to help build a profitable business while meeting growing demand for flexible Cloud solutions, according to a company statement.
With Azure in Open, partners can control the direct relationship instead of purchasing Azure directly from Microsoft or as part of an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft.
Microsoft senior director, Cloud partner strategy, Josh Waldo, said the business opportunity for Microsoft’s partners around Cloud continued to expand.
"With Azure, partners are able to help customers embrace the speed, scale and economics of Cloud through an open and flexible platform that provides all the building blocks to quickly build, deploy, and manage Cloud-based solutions.
Previously, there were two options for purchasing Microsoft Azure, either on www.azure.microsoft.com or as part of an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft.
Through the Open Licensing program, Azure will now be available through another familiar licensing option that offers the benefits of Microsoft Volume Licensing, flexible monetary payments, and additional opportunities for you to grow margins and deepen customer relationships, Waldo said.
"When you resell Azure in Open Licensing, you purchase tokens from your preferred Distributor and apply the credit to the customer’s Azure Portal in increments of $100," he said.
"The credits can be used for any consumption-based service available in Azure."
To add more credit, you simply purchase new tokens and add them to the account.
This gives you the opportunity to manage your customer’s portal, setup services, and monitor consumption, all while maintaining a direct relationship.
Waldo said there would be opportunities to gain sales and technical skills to prepare the August launch.
"I encourage all of you to view Phil Sorgen’s video on this launch announcement and attend our “Ramp Up” Azure in Open Virtual Summit on June 4," he said.
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"If you can’t make it on June 4, you can access the recorded content at that same link afterwards."
