MPN Evolution: Changes to Identity & Access MPN Competencies

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We want to clear the air on a recent announcement around the upcoming changes to MPN – specifically the retirement of the Identity and Access Competency. Last week, Microsoft announced the streamlining of our MPN competencies, which includes not just retiring a select few over the next 18 months, but also evolving competencies to put Partners in the best position to support our mutual customers. As customers increasingly look to the cloud to meet their business needs, they want to know that our partners have the expertise to help them. Identity is at the forefront of any customer’s mind when leveraging cloud services and the recent changes in MPN competencies exemplifies more than ever that Microsoft is doubling down on Identity – not sun-setting.

The recent change for the Identity and Access competency should not be seen as Microsoft retiring it, but rather expanding the solution space to include Enterprise Mobility Management. Identity and Access has been merged with mobility to better support customers with their transformation to modern end-user productivity where Identity, Mobility and Information Protection all come together.

This change is not signalling in any way the end of any Microsoft products. In fact, we have more engineers working on Identity and Access Management today (600+ across the cloud and on-premises) than we have ever had before at Microsoft. Our Enterprise Mobility Suite’s primary focus is securing a mobile enterprise led with Identity-driven security, and is on track to a billion-dollar business. Microsoft has always strived to align the key competencies to reflect the true market and business needs of our customers and partners – this transition is a great example of us continuing to do so.

While we understand any change be can a challenge, the moves are all aimed to helping our partners find greater success. You can learn more using the MPN Evolution Competency Guide or join watch webinar and view the corresponding slide deck. If you have any questions, please use the live chat option on MPN Evolution page or contact your Microsoft contacts .

We value your partnership through this important evolution and look forward to your continued engagement in building our businesses together.