Azure Accelerate FY26: Microsoft’s New Funding & Incentives for Partners

For Microsoft partners, the cloud and AI landscape is no longer just about moving workloads; it’s about building smarter, faster, and more profitable solutions. Azure has evolved into a powerful, AI-driven platform that can handle complex workloads, multi-cloud strategies, and advanced analytics, all while helping partners deliver measurable value to their customers.

In FY26, Microsoft launched Azure Accelerate with partners squarely in mind. This unified program combines migration, modernization, and AI adoption support into one seamless experience, backed by direct access to Microsoft experts, generous funding opportunities, and full lifecycle coverage for your customer projects.

Table of Contents

• What is Azure Accelerate?

• Key Benefits of Azure Accelerate

• Getting Started with Azure Accelerate

• Funding and Incentives through Azure Accelerate

• Maximizing Value from Azure Accelerate

• Conclusion

Key Takeaways

• Azure Accelerate is Microsoft’s unified program, consolidating Azure Migrate and Modernize with Azure Innovate, plus the Cloud Accelerate Factory, to streamline cloud and AI adoption.

• It provides end-to-end support, flexible funding, expert deployment assistance, and AI-powered tools to accelerate time-to-value for businesses of all sizes.

• The Cloud Accelerate Factory offers zero-cost technical execution across over 30 Azure services, augmenting partner capabilities for scenarios like infrastructure, AVS, virtual desktop, app/database, analytics, and secure cloud migrations.

• Partners qualify based on Azure designations and specializations, following steps from defining goals to project nomination and receiving support.

• Incentives are fixed payments based on planned Azure consumption (Azure Consumed Revenue or ACR) in Year 1, with specific amounts for various project sizes and engagement types.

• Partners must maintain performance measurements, including a 3:1 pre-sales to post-sales engagement ratio and meeting ACR targets in over 60% of claims, with earnings capped at $3M.
  

What is Azure Accelerate?

Azure Accelerate stands as Microsoft’s unified program, an integral part of the AI Cloud Partner Program, explicitly designed to fast-track the adoption of both cloud technologies and artificial intelligence. This innovative program consolidates various prior initiatives into a single, streamlined offering. Its structure is built to support organizations comprehensively, from the initial assessment phase all the way through to the final execution of their cloud and AI strategies. This support comes with the added advantage of expert guidance and flexible funding options, including direct assistance from the Cloud Accelerate Factory at no additional cost.

Unlike its predecessors, the Azure Migrate and Modernize, Azure Innovate programs—Azure Accelerate provide a singular, cohesive, and end-to-end framework. This unified approach places a strong emphasis on both meticulous planning and efficient execution, making the transition to cloud and AI significantly simpler for businesses of all sizes. The goal is to facilitate rapid adoption with reduced risk and a much greater potential for impactful outcomes.

Key Benefits of Azure Accelerate

Azure Accelerate is designed to empower organizations, enabling them to navigate their cloud journey with enhanced speed, intelligence, and unwavering confidence. The core benefits that this program delivers are multifaceted:

Simplify and Speed Cloud Adoption

The program offers end-to-end support, meticulously designed to streamline both migration and modernization efforts. This comprehensive assistance ensures a smoother, more efficient transition to the cloud environment.

Maximize Value

Organizations can leverage flexible funding mechanisms, which include Azure credits, direct Partner incentives, and expansive, uncapped investment opportunities. This financial support is geared towards ensuring that businesses can fully realize the economic and operational benefits of their cloud adoption.

Gain Expert-Led Deployment Support

A standout feature is the Cloud Accelerate Factory, which provides zero-cost technical assistance from Microsoft. This invaluable resource offers expert-driven deployment support and grants access to a highly specialized Partner ecosystem, ensuring that implementations are executed flawlessly and efficiently.

Accelerate Time-to-Value

By utilizing AI-powered tools, proven best practices, and strategically funded pilots, the program helps to significantly reduce implementation risks and accelerate the pace of innovation. This ensures that businesses begin to see tangible returns from their cloud investments much faster.

Getting Started with Azure Accelerate

Azure Accelerate is primarily designed for organizations collaborating with qualified Microsoft Partners who possess relevant Azure designations or specializations. Participation in the program and access to its benefits generally require partners to hold specific Azure certifications and demonstrate deep cloud expertise. This includes specialized knowledge in areas such as Infrastructure & Database Migration, Azure VMware Solution, SAP on Microsoft Azure, Analytics on Microsoft Azure, and Building AI Apps on Microsoft Azure. For smaller and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), specific SMB tracks are also available for Infrastructure, Data & AI, and Digital & App Innovation.

To embark on this journey, partners can follow these steps:

1. Define Your Goals: Clearly identify your organization's specific cloud or AI adoption objectives.

2. Engage with Experts: Connect with a qualified Azure partner or reach out directly to Microsoft Azure sales teams for initial guidance and consultation.

3. Nominate Your Project: As a partner, you will then submit your project or customer opportunity through the Azure Accelerate nomination process. This process covers both pre-sales engagements (such as assessments and proofs of value) and post-sales deployment engagements.

4. Receive Support: Upon the successful acceptance of your nominated project, you will gain access to the program’s comprehensive funding, technical resources, and hands-on deployment assistance from your dedicated Microsoft account team and partners.
   

To facilitate these engagements, Azure Accelerate provides access to a suite of powerful tools and resources. These include AI-powered assessment tools to accurately evaluate existing environments, sandbox environments for secure testing and experimentation, and direct deployment assistance for more than 30 Azure services. Furthermore, partners can leverage established best practice frameworks, such as the Azure Well-Architected Framework, to ensure robust and efficient deployments.

Funding and Incentives through Azure Accelerate

Azure Accelerate engagements are a key part of the Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) program, which offers significant earning opportunities for qualified partners. The financial rewards are structured as fixed amounts, directly tied to the projected size of the customer project, specifically defined by the planned Azure consumption in the first year following the deployment date. The Azure Pricing Calculator can be a useful tool for estimating this consumption.

Payouts vary depending on the project's scale, categorized by planned Azure consumption. For example:

Extra-Extra Small (XXS) engagements

Projects with $5,000 – $15,000/year planned Azure consumption can yield $2,000 USD (Market A & B).

Extra Small (XS) engagements

Projects between $15,000 and $50,000 per year can result in $6,500 USD (Market A) or $5,200 USD (Market B), with SMB variations yielding $4,000 USD (Market A) or $3,200 USD (Market B).

Small engagements

Projects between $50,000 and $100,000 per year can earn $15,000 USD (Market A) or $12,000 USD (Market B), with SMB variations yielding $12,000 USD (Market A) or $9,600 USD (Market B).

Medium engagements

Projects between $100,000 and $250,000 per year can earn $35,000 USD (Market A) or $28,000 USD (Market B).

Large engagements

Projects between $250,000 and $500,000+/year can result in $75,000 USD (Market A) or $60,000 USD (Market B).

Specific engagement types covered under Azure Accelerate include:

Core Migrate & Modernize Pre-Sales (Assessment and POV)

Focuses on analyzing and mapping IT infrastructure with Azure Migrate for planning purposes.

Core Migrate & Modernize

For migrating Windows Server, Linux, SQL Server, and open-source databases or modernizing applications to Azure.

Core Migrate & Modernize with Microsoft Defender for Cloud (MDC)

Offers additional incentives for secure migrations that specifically include Defender for Cloud consumption (at least 4% of planned ACR from MDC).

Migrate and Modernize VMware

For migrating VMware environments to Azure VMware Solution (AVS), with a requirement that at least 70% of planned ACR comes from AVS.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Migration For migrating Windows desktops and applications to Azure Virtual Desktop.

SAP Migration Pre-Sales (Assessment and POV)

For analyzing and planning migration of on-premises SAP workloads to SAP private/public cloud or SAP on Azure.

SAP Migration

For executing the migration of SAP estates to SAP on Azure (Native), SAP RISE, or SAP Grow.

Data Platform Pre-Sales (Assessment and POV)

For conducting assessments and proofs of value for customer analytics projects using Microsoft Fabric and Azure Databricks.

Data Platform

For migrating and modernizing customer data estates, deploying Microsoft Fabric and Azure Databricks services.

AI Apps, Agents and Developer Pre-Sales (Assessment and POV)

For assessing and proving value in building new AI-powered apps or modernizing existing ones with Azure Application Platform, Managed Database, and Azure AI services.

AI Apps, Agents and Developer

For deploying Azure AI and Developer services, including Azure AI Foundry & Platform, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure App Service, Azure OpenAI, GitHub offerings, etc.

SMB-focused versions are also available for Core Migrate and Modernize, Migrate and Modernize VMware, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Migration, Data Platform, and AI Apps, Agents and Developer, tailored for small and medium-sized businesses.

It is important to reiterate that Cloud Accelerate Factory engagements provide zero-cost expert assistance for deployment services and do not include direct partner payments.

For Proof of Execution (POE), pre-sales engagements typically require an assessment and a proof of value. For post-sales engagements, partners need to provide the Azure Pricing Calculator output and relevant Azure Subscription IDs to enable post-deployment monitoring of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) against targets. ACR refers to the monetary value of Azure services consumed by customers, calculated by the quantity of a metered resource consumed multiplied by the price per unit paid by the customer.

Maximizing Value from Azure Accelerate

To ensure organizations and partners derive the utmost value from the Azure Accelerate program, several strategic approaches are recommended:

• Engage Early: Proactively connect with partners and your Microsoft account team in the initial stages to collaboratively tailor plans that align precisely with your specific objectives and needs.

• Utilize the Cloud Accelerate Factory: Make full use of the no-cost deployment support offered by the Cloud Accelerate Factory. This valuable resource can significantly accelerate your implementation timelines and ensure adherence to best practices.

• Leverage Funded Pilots and Workshops: Participate in funded pilot programs and workshops. These are excellent opportunities to build essential skills, validate workloads in a controlled environment, and gain hands-on experience before full-scale deployment.

• Align Projects with Best Practices: Ensure that all projects are meticulously aligned with Microsoft’s established best practices, such as the Azure Well-Architected Framework, and adhere to relevant sector-specific compliance models.
  

For partners, maintaining eligibility and maximizing earnings also involves adhering to specific performance measurements. Partners are expected to maintain a 3:1 ratio of pre-sales to post-sales engagements. Furthermore, they must demonstrate that they are meeting Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) targets in over 60% of their individually measured claims. There is also an overall cap on partner earnings, set at $3 million USD. These measures are in place to ensure that engagements drive tangible, measurable cloud consumption and successful customer outcomes.

Conclusion

Microsoft Azure Accelerate is thoughtfully designed to be a steadfast partner for organizations at every conceivable stage of their cloud journey. Whether your focus is on migrating existing systems, modernizing applications for enhanced performance, or spearheading innovation with cutting-edge AI capabilities, Azure Accelerate provides the comprehensive framework, expert guidance, and financial incentives necessary to achieve your digital transformation goals with confidence and efficiency. This unified program simplifies a complex landscape, ensuring that businesses can unlock the full potential of Azure’s cloud and AI offerings.