News

MSPAlliance, Microsoft To Work Together

The International Association of Managed Service Providers and Microsoft are joining forces to better educate and certify companies using Microsoft IT management tools.

The International Association of Managed Service Providers (MSPAlliance) and Microsoft today said they are joining forces to better educate and certify companies using Microsoft IT management tools.

Charles Weaver, president of the MSPAlliance, described the relationship with Microsoft as a kind of "reciprocal recognition" -- for the MSPAlliance's Managed Services Accreditation exam and Microsoft's IT infrastructure certification.

"When a company takes our exam and specifies they have achieved Microsoft IT certification, they will receive credit for that, whereas today they do not," Weaver explained. "Conversely, Microsoft is promoting the Managed Services Accreditation exam to their partners worldwide…a big win for us."

The managed services space is expanding, especially as the economy contracts and enterprises and corporations shrink in-house IT departments. Microsoft is "certainly paying more than lip service to the concept of managed IT services" so the relationship with the MSPAlliance is delivering a "resounding and pro-channel message," Weaver said.

With 7,000 worldwide members, the MSPAlliance has developed a certification and accreditation standard for a variety of players who are "getting into the technology sector with the express purpose of delivering some sort of managed IT service," he continued. Among those players will be companies that use Microsoft's expanding managed services platforms.

"They're [Microsoft] taking a very hands-on approach to this relationship in terms of getting the news out to their partners," Weaver said.

The MSPAlliance is a trade organization open to employees of managed IT service provider companies, and more information is available here.

About the Author

Jim Barthold is a freelance writer based in Delanco, N.J. covering a variety of technology subjects.

Featured

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.

  • Report: Security Initiatives Can't Keep Pace with Cloud, AI Boom

    The increasingly fast adoption of hybrid, multicloud, and AI systems is easily outgrowing existing security measures, according to a recent global survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and exposure management firm Tenable.