Get started building in the Cloud with Microsoft
Are you a software company building (SaaS) solutions and do you want to learn more about what Microsoft has to offer for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)? Then continue reading, this article is going to help you better understand on why to get started building in the Cloud and how to leverage Microsoft investments towards your growth.
But first things first, why Microsoft? This starts with the technology stack. The Microsoft Cloud includes Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, as well as end-to-end security, identity and access management for your solution. You can leverage the full technology stack from ideation to scaling your solution abroad via the Commercial Marketplace.?
Azure?- Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services such as computing, storage, analytics, and networking. It also provides?seamless integration with the other Microsoft Clouds. And with the recent announcement regarding the extended partnership with OpenAI Microsoft became the exclusive Hyperscaler for OpenAI services. Azure will power all OpenAI workloads across research, products and API services. These workloads will be bundled into Azure OpenAI services which are part of the broader Data & AI solution stack, see visual below.
The Data & AI services provide unique new opportunities for ISVs to build solutions with embedded AI. Think for example about combining Azure OpenAI with Azure Form Recognizer for business process automation, or together with Azure Bot / Power Virtual Agent and Azure Speech Service you can easily optimize contact center operations and reduce cost.
If you have an idea about building something, with or without these new OpenAI services, start today by joining our startup program called FoundersHub. This Microsoft program is built around the needs of startups. Think about Azure Credits, Developer licensing like Visual Studio and Github Enterprise and business software like Microsoft 365, Power Platform and Dynamics 365 to run your business.
Besides the credits and licensing benefits you get personalized guidance from technical advisors on how to build a scalable Cloud solution. Or connect with industry / business experts for advice and coaching when you’re ready! Eligibility criteria:
1. You must be engaged in the development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of your current or intended business - this software must be owned, not licensed.
2. Your Startup has not already received more than a total of $10,000 in free Azure.
3. Your headquarters must reside in the?countries covered by our Azure global infrastructure.?
4. Your startup has not gone through a Series D or later funding round.
5. Your startup must be privately held.
6. Your startup must be a for-profit business.
7. Your startup is not an educational institution, government entity, personal blog, dev shop, consultancy, agency, bitcoin or crypto mining company.
If you’re not eligible for our startup program your designation is the ISV Success Program (ISP). This partner benefits program is tailored around the needs of more mature software builders. Below you find a summary of the core benefits, more details on the expanded package during Microsoft Inspire. If you want to learn more about the details of the program you could watch the recorded webinar during the Marketplace summit. If you want to register right away please go here or follow these steps in Partner Center.
Besides building your solutions on Azure there are also great opportunities with Microsoft Teams?– Microsoft Teams has 145 million daily active users as of March 2023, this number has almost doubled over the last year. Leverage the reach by building apps that integrate with Microsoft Teams and help organizations communicate, collaborate, and innovate. Learn more on how to collaborate with Microsoft on building your application for Microsoft Teams or contact the?Microsoft 365 ISV Benefits Service Desk directly to start today!
Dynamics 365?– Dynamics?365 is a portfolio of intelligent business applications that delivers operational efficiency and customer experiences enabling businesses to become more agile and reduce complexity. The Go-To-Market (GTM) is focused on different solution plays:
With the?launch of the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot?this also brings new opportunities to the different solution plays for ISVs. Think about solving specific industry processes or building generic customer-centric line of business (LOB) apps on top of Dynamics 365.
The program to help you get started building on top of the Dynamics Platform is ISV Connect Program. This program offers platforms, resources, and support designed to help you develop, publish, and market your business apps.
Microsoft Security?- Safeguard your application with the Microsoft Security services. Think about identity and access management. Or securely store and access sensitive information—such as API keys, passwords, certificates, or cryptographic keys—in cloud apps and services with Azure Key Vault.
Leverage Microsoft security services to build trust with your customers. If you're interested in building dedicated security solutions think about Microsoft Sentinel. Microsoft Sentinel is a scalable, cloud-native solution that provides:
GitHub - Deliver software faster and more securely by combining the practices and tools that have supported the growth of the largest developer community in the world with seamlessly integrated Azure products and GitHub services.
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Wit the recent announcement of GitHub Copilot X it gets easier for developers to start using the OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real-time. GitHub Copilot is already?writing 46% of code?and helps?developers code up to 55% faster. Read the full details in the blogpost from Thomas Dohmke, CEO GitHub.
"With AI available at every step, we can fundamentally redefine developer productivity. We are reducing boilerplate and manual tasks and making complex work easier across the developer lifecycle. By doing so, we’re enabling every developer to focus all their creativity on the big picture: building the innovation of tomorrow and accelerating human progress, today". - Thomas Dohmke, CEO GitHub.
Other developer scenarios to think about are related to Digital & App innovation. You can find the different scenarios here. But think for example about the?Developer's Guide to Azure, or keep going with?Azure Tips and Tricks?blog posts and videos.
Last but not least from the tech stack point of view is the development of Industry Clouds. Take for example the approach towards public sector with the announcement of?Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty.?A new solution that will enable public sector customers to build and digitally transform workloads in the Microsoft Cloud while meeting their compliance, security and policy requirements. This provides an unique opportunity for ISVs as well. If you're building industry specific solutions and publish your solution into the Commercial Marketplace as a transactable offer you can become part of one of the Industry Clouds as well. There are four key principles shared by Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft, that guide our approach to working with industries:
1. Our offerings scale and can be customized by our unmatched global ecosystem of partners. Together we number in the hundreds of thousands, including leading ISVs and SIs in every industry. This breadth and depth of experience ensures customers have access to the solutions and experience they need to address their unique business challenges.
2. We recognize each industry is unique. Our aim is to deliver solutions tailored to the specific needs of every industry. While we all aim to unlock sustainable growth and innovation, each organization experiences different needs and challenges.
3. We work to empower customers to be successful as a trusted advisor and co-innovator—a partner. No customer wants to be dependent on a provider that sells them technology on one end and competes with them on the other.
4. We ensure that customer data belongs to our customers. We never use customer data for our own benefit.
Another example of Industry Clouds to investigate further is Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. Find out why sustainability is good for business. Explore practical steps you can take to accelerate your organization’s sustainability journey. Read this executive playbook to learn more.
The second part of the why Microsoft question is the future of B2B procurement via Marketplaces. Let us help you build a new sales channel, expand your business abroad or build a new partner-to-partner strategy to scale your business via our partner ecosystem. But why Cloud Marketplaces?
“We predict cloud marketplace procurement goes mainstream”.?
As shared earlier, this quote comes from the?state of the Cloud 2022?by Bessemer Venture Partners (BSP).?
Microsoft has different Marketplace storefronts to position your solution towards end customers (together named the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace). With these different storefronts you can target different audiences and the possibility to position your solutions towards millions of customers in 100+ countries. Learn more about the full possibilities of the Commercial Marketplace and watch the session on-demand Marketplace summit. See detailed agenda for ISVs below:
The Commercial Marketplace also gives you the opportunity to build new partner-to-partner connections. With 90.000 CSP partners selling Microsoft solutions to end customers, worldwide Microsoft has the largest partner ecosystem to help you grow your business. We want to help you build new connections and find partners to start co-selling your solution towards Microsoft end customers, you will learn more about this at the build and grow stage. More details about private offers can be found?here, which is part of the bigger collection?Mastering the Marketplace.
Now that you have a better understanding about the tech stack and core benefit programs for software builders it’s time to work on skills!
The fastest way to start learning is by joining our Microsoft NL SaaS community on LinkedIn. This is the place where you stay up to date about everything which is relevant for you as a software builder. Think about events like SaaS day and the SaaS academy. Both containing on-demand content about everything you need to know for building your SaaS business with Microsoft, from a business and technical perspective. Learn for example about different pricing strategies or how to embed Open Ai services into your solutions.
Besides SaaS fundamentals the community page is also where we share relevant training sessions to work on your broader Cloud Skills. Learn for example how to use Azure OpenAI services to infuse your solution with generative AI. Use the Partner Training Calendar (microsoft.com) to find the right training that fits your learning path.
Another great resource for learning is Training | Microsoft Learn. Here you can build your own learnings path or follow individual modules, for example how to setup your Partner Center account. The community is also the place where you can connect with your peers, the local Microsoft team and other business partners to help you grow your business with Microsoft.
I know we covered a lot from a get started point of view and thanks for taking the time to read, really appreciated. But you are not alone in this journey, we're here to help you grow your business on top of the Microsoft Cloud. So If you have any question about anything related to this article please leave a message, happy to help!
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Wonderful Niels Janssen
Azure Sales Specialist @ Microsoft | Cloud Solutions, Microsoft Certified
1 年Nice blog Niels Janssen