A Year in the Life of a Microsoft Managed Partner
2024 has been a transformative year for ivision’s partnership with Microsoft. Our Managed Partner status grants us exclusive access to training, resources, and events that give our clients a competitive edge in the Microsoft space. Let’s take a look at this year’s highlights and how we’ll be leveraging them in 2025.
This year, our team of engineers was hard at work completing various training and earning certifications to obtain new specializations. We kicked off Q2 by earning our Microsoft Advanced Specialization: Infrastructure and Database Migration to Microsoft Azure, which came as the result of demonstrated capabilities and expertise in migrating workloads running on Linux virtual machines and open-source databases to Azure. This specialization also empowers us with the unique opportunity to secure long-term cloud relationships through exclusive access to specific go-to-market programs.
Specializations & Certifications
In May, we earned our Microsoft Advanced Specialization in Identity & Access Management, marking our first Security Advanced Specialization and a grand total of four specializations. With hybrid and remote work here to stay, IAM has become a crucial component of any organization’s security strategy. ivision’s proven expertise in this area, verified through customer references and Microsoft exams, ensures our proficiency in deploying and managing these workloads.
Fast forward to September, we announced our achievement of becoming a Microsoft Copilot “Ready” Tier Partner. This new partnership status was earned through our participation in the Microsoft Copilot Jumpstart initiative, where a thorough assessment of our practice was conducted, and further credentials were gained. With this status, ivision is able to operate as a full-scale Copilot practice, providing clients with exclusive resources, the latest Copilot capabilities and best practices, and a team of certified Microsoft experts to lead the charge. We are excited to see what these new achievements will help us unlock for clients in 2025.
Events
This year, our Microsoft partnership brought us all over the country, meeting with different teams and attending conferences in Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. We have attended over a dozen conferences, social events, and specialized meetings, and each one provided us a unique opportunity to develop new skills and new relationships. Events like Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Power Platform Community Conference, Microsoft MTC Architect Summit, TEC 2024, and more introduced us to other Microsoft experts in the industry, and hosting events like our Microsoft Rooftop Social and Microsoft Copilot Legal Summit allowed us to strengthen existing partnerships with the Microsoft team.
Thought Leadership
2024 was also a great year for thought leadership at ivision. We put our knowledge to effective use and applied it to current events to help clients navigate shifting circumstances. When Broadcom acquired VMware, many organizations were hoping to explore new options to avoid business disruption. We introduced ways to leverage Microsoft as a solution through Azure Native Migration, Azure VMware Solution Migration, and more.
Mark Pierce, General Manager of our Microsoft Group, was invited to speak on Scott Eastin’s The
Business of Microsoft Partners podcast, where he discusses his career in the Microsoft system, the coming impact of AI, and how ivision’s Microsoft partnership plays a critical role in our strategy. He also contributed to a CRN article on Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella. In the article, Mark discussed how Microsoft’s leadership’s focus on cloud and AI presents exciting new opportunities.
We also tackled pressing topics like Mastering the Azure AI Text to Speech Avatar Feature, Maximizing
Your Investment in Copilot for Microsoft 365, and 5 Ways AI Can Enhance Your Work Experience. Following the Power Platform Community Conference, several of our consultants teamed up to share key insights from the event as well.
Offerings
Our team is dedicated to designing and implementing offerings that help our clients succeed across the entire Microsoft ecosystem.
- Azure Foundations – Azure Landing Zone
- Azure Native Migration
- Copilot Data Governance Readiness with Microsoft Purview
- Azure Migration to Azure VMware Solution
- Azure Data Modernization Workshop
- Secure Hybrid Work Offering
- Microsoft 365 Managed Support
- Power Platform + Copilot Studio SWAT
- AVD Rapid Deploy
- Azure Platform Management Support
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 QuickStart
- Mergers & Acquisition Playbook
- Azure SQL Modernization
- Teams Collab Rapid Deploy
- Teams Phone Rapid Deploy
- Intune Managed Support for Endpoint
- Windows 365 Rapid Deploy
- Azure Virtual Desktop Managed Support
- Microsoft Sentinel Cloud SIEM QuickStart
- Azure Health Check
- Modern Management for Endpoints
Looking Ahead
In 2025, we’ll be focusing on aligning our offerings to the priorities our clients rely on Microsoft for the most. We’ll continue leaning into implementing Copilot across different devices and roles, securing the cyber foundation of every client, delivering threat protection engagements, M365 core execution, and assisting with migrations. Learn more about ivision’s Microsoft partnership and how we can help your business make the most of their technologies!
