Microsoft Silver/Gold Membership has ended – next steps

In January 2025, Microsoft revamped its partner programs, phasing out the legacy Silver and Gold competencies to better align with your evolving needs. This transition aims to simplify the program structure and provide you with more relevant benefits. 

Previously, you could purchase action packs or Silver/Gold competencies with the necessary accreditation or annual subscription, which helped to obtain on-premises licences. However, with the increasing importance of cloud services, you likely need various licences such as Azure credits, GitHub subscriptions, DevOps licences, security solutions, Copilot licences, and Dynamics. 

Or, if you’re an MSP partner managing IT for other businesses, development subscriptions may not be necessary, but enterprise subscriptions like Microsoft 365 E5, Azure credits, Security Copilot, Power BI Premium, or SQL licences will be. 

We’ll outline some of the key things to remember about this transition below: 

Key changes to Microsoft partnership: 

1. Discontinuation of legacy competencies: As of 22 January 2025, Microsoft no longer offers renewals for legacy Silver and Gold competencies. Partners who purchased these competencies before this date can continue to use their benefits until the expiration date. 
2. Introduction of the AI Partner program: The ISV Success program and the Solutions Partner designations program replace legacy competencies. These programs are designed to provide targeted support to the businesses that use them. Remember, the Solutions designations are based on three core metrics: Performance, Success, and Skilling. 
3. Enhanced benefits: Microsoft's added over 25 in-demand product licences to the new Partner benefits offerings, including Microsoft Copilot products, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Microsoft GitHub. 
4. Transition recommendations: 

• For ISVs/software houses: Transition to the Partner Success Expanded Benefits package and potentially bolster this with the ISV Success program. This will accelerate your app development and provide the tools needed for productivity and security. 

• For resellers and managed service partners: Move to the Solutions Partner designations, which offer purpose-built benefits to help you to evangelise the technologies you work with and stand out in the marketplace. 

New Microsoft Partner programs 

So, to recap, the newly introduced Partner Success program and ISV Success program offer comprehensive support for application modernisation and development. Make sure you meet the prerequisites for the ISV Success program, which includes having a transactable offering on the Azure marketplace. If you’d like to check you fit the prerequisites or get started, we can offer support and documentation. 

Or, if you’re an MSP or reseller, the Solutions Partner designation path is likely the best fit for you. This program focuses on relevant solution areas, such as Modern Work, Azure, Business Applications as well as Security. It provides targeted support and benefits including funding, workshops, marketing material, and co-sell opportunities. This ensures you get the subscriptions and licences you need without unnecessary wastage. 

Microsoft Partner Program requirements 

The key thing to consider is that you’ll have to achieve a certain level of certification to qualify for the Solutions Partner designation program, and typically that is required from at least two members of your team. You’ll also need to meet criteria for performance which is, broadly speaking, net customer adds. 

In the example of Modern Work, you also need to consider customer success. This is based on customer growth by deploying new workloads such as SharePoint or expanding your usage of M365 solutions, like Intune for example. 

The last thing to consider is that with the reduction of on-premises licensing and the expansion to Azure, your business will have unlocked boundless opportunities for digital transformation. 

This change may make it an easier cost decision to migrate, as it could be cheaper to migrate services like Exchange and SharePoint to Azure. You’re also most likely paying for that capability if you already have a subscription to Microsoft 365 Business Premium or above. 

Benefits of migration through Microsoft partnership 

We’ve worked with quite a few partners in the last few months to support with their migrations of services like SharePoint, Exchange and DevOps. And the interesting thing is that we have also then been able to support and implement services like Teams at the same time. 

It’s all about maximising your partnership, attention and technology. 

However, there are also the subscriptions for Visual Studio where businesses are utilising DevOps Server or TFS. There are many great reasons why moving this to the cloud makes sense. If this is something you’re keen to learn more about, our team of engineers and Architects and even our trusted Partner, Black Marble, can support. 

Get support with your Microsoft Partnership transition 

So, if you’re now wondering what to do because your renewal is coming up (Probably sooner than you think), don’t worry. We've had many conversations with our partners recently to support these considerations – from licensing to migrations. 

If you need any more guidance on the changes to Microsoft’s partner programs, reach out to your account manager. And, if you’re new to us get in touch via the form on this page.