News
Microsoft Cuts Ribbon for 'Azure Space Partner Community'
- By Gladys Rama
- July 19, 2022
Microsoft unveiled a new partner group at Inspire on Tuesday aimed at driving benefits and incentives toward partners participating in the Azure Space program.
The Azure Space Partner Community is now accepting new members, according to Stephen Kitay, senior director of Microsoft's Azure Space program, in a blog post. Qualifying partners can sign up here.
There are 21 members of the program at launch, including HPE, Nokia and SpaceX. The inaugural members include "space operators...manufacturers, systems integrators, data providers, ISVs, startups and more," Kitay wrote.
"These partners cover a breadth of capabilities -- such as connectivity, earth observation, virtualization, data processing, analytics, and ground infrastructure -- adding unique, value-added services on top of our Azure Space platform," he said.
Partners that join the Azure Space Partner Community have access to specialized technical support and go-to-market benefits. For instance, they'll be able to:
- Test drive Azure Space technologies before general availability
- Receive help from Microsoft on developing proofs-of-concept
- Integrate Microsoft products like Teams and Power BI into their offerings
- Participate in marketing opportunities at Microsoft events
- Receive discounts and licensing perks
Azure Space, which Microsoft first launched in 2020, programmatically combines Microsoft's space-focused technologies with those of its partners. Essentially, Microsoft intends to provide cloud capabilities that will meet the space needs of governments and industry. Azure Space products extend across cloud, edge, machine learning, augmented intelligence, automation, networking, visualization and digital solutions.
As part of the Azure Space platform, Microsoft has launched modular Azure datacenters, a "groundstation as a service" product with Azure Orbital, and a collaboration with HPE to bring Azure to the International Space Station, among others.
"The Azure Space Partner Community enables our partners to deliver the most comprehensive and innovative offerings to joint customers, helping to shape the future of space technologies and services," said Kitay. "The space industry is rapidly advancing, and we believe in the power of bringing together this community in an ecosystem."
Inspire, Microsoft's annual partner conference, is taking place virtually this week from July 19 to 20.
About the Author
Gladys Rama (@GladysRama3) is the editor of Redmondmag.com, RCPmag.com and AWSInsider.net, and the editorial director of Converge360.