Azure Plan at a glance

Heard talk about Azure Plan on the grapevine?

Yesterday Giacom hosted a webinar where we covered everything MSPs need to know about the changes coming with the Azure Plan going live.

Just in case you missed it, here are the highlights.

What’s changing 

Partner earned margin is going away and being replaced by Partner Earned Credit (PEC).

Exchange rates will fluctuate as Microsoft is now moving to a global price list (in USD).

Partners will now be able to create multiple Azure subscriptions for a single tenant.

 Potential impact

 For partners to qualify for PEC they will have to hold a valid MPN agreement and have the relevant RBAC applied on their customer’s tenant.

Historically, Gold and Silver partners both qualified for incentives. With the Azure Plan, Microsoft has only confirmed incentives for partners with Gold competency. This may change, but nothing official has been announced yet.

 What are the benefits

 It rewards partners who are offering managed services to end-customers.

Multiple subscriptions for a single tenant as opposed to having only one subscription per one customer tenant.

Aligns partners to a single global price list.

Unlocks access to Azure Cost Management and Azure Lighthouse.

Your questions answered

Is it mandatory to move? Not at the moment. There is a cut off for new subscriptions coming in July 2021, though.

Can I transfer Azure reserved instances from existing Azure to Azure Plan? Not at the moment, although Microsoft are currently working on this. 

Do I still get discounts on my resources? With the old margin model you'd get it as a standard, with Azure Plan you will need to qualify for PEC.

 Does this impact the end customer? It won't impact the end customer because nothing is changing from an Azure platform perspective. This is a commerce and billing change.

 How do I migrate now? You can create a ticket through CloudMarket, by calling our support line, or your account manager.

 If I want to migrate, do I have to do it on all my subscriptions? No, you don’t. You can do this customer by customer rather than it affecting all Azure subscriptions at once, so you have time to speak with the customer and make any amendments if required.

Information for early birds:

If you are ready to move, get in touch with Giacom. There is no downtime, it is a quick and simple switch done by Giacom. Moving now means you have a lot more time to become familiar with the Azure Plan!