Virteva has earned three new Microsoft Solutions Partner designations this year: Data & AI, Infrastructure, and Digital & App Innovation. They join the Modern Work and Security designations we have held for several years. Virteva has now attained five of the six possible Solutions Partner designations Microsoft awards, signifying that Virteva has further demonstrated its vast expertise and results across Microsoft 365, Copilot, Azure, and the Security platforms in the Microsoft technology ecosystem.
Partner badges tend to blur together, so this post explains what these specific credentials measure, why these additional designations matter if you are running infrastructure or preparing for AI workloads, and how to check any of it yourself in about five minutes.
What a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation measures
In 2022, Microsoft retired the old Gold and Silver competency tiers and replaced them with Solutions Partner designations across six solution areas: Modern Work, Security, Infrastructure (Azure), Data & AI (Azure and Fabric), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), and Business Applications.
It’s important to know that a designation is not a membership fee; it’s a (hard-won and not easily attainable) indicator of proven excellence and mastery in various subcategories of Microsoft Cloud technologies.
To earn one, a partner must demonstrate consistent and significant results with organizations that prove our advanced capabilities in driving solutions success to our customers, built from measured components: certified staff on the technology, and sustained success at the organizations where we have deployed it. Microsoft reevaluates a partner’s attainment of these Solutions Partner designations on an ongoing basis, so a designation reflects what a partner can do now, not a certificate earned years ago.
That structure is why we point buyers to designations in our guide to evaluating Microsoft partners in Minnesota.
The three new designations, in plain terms
Microsoft splits each partner capability into three areas, and each answers a different buyer question.
Infrastructure covers moving workloads out of aging server rooms and running them in Azure: migration, hybrid environments, and day-to-day cloud infrastructure management. This is the designation to check before hiring anyone for an Azure migration. It backs the Azure side of our Microsoft Cloud practice, where migration and ongoing management run as one engagement instead of a handoff between a project team and a support desk.
Data & AI covers the Azure and Fabric data platform: analytics, database migration, and the governed data foundations that AI tools depend on. For most of our clients the practical version of this is Copilot readiness. The organizations getting real value from Microsoft’s AI tools are the ones whose data was governed, labeled, and structured before rollout. That work is Data & AI work, and it now carries a measured credential behind the Copilot deployment and agent governance practice we have been building all year.
Digital & App Innovation covers application work on Azure: modernizing legacy applications, cloud-native development, and DevOps practices. When a client’s migration surfaces a ten-year-old line-of-business app that will not survive a lift-and-shift, this is the capability that deals with it.
In Microsoft’s current partner program structure, these three areas together make up what Microsoft calls Cloud & AI Platforms. Virteva now holds all three.
What to look for?
What we tell buyers still stands: designation fit beats designation count. If you need a Microsoft 365 and Copilot partner, look for Modern Work and Data & AI. If you need an Azure migration, look for Infrastructure. Five designations mean we can put measured credentials behind more of the work we do. They do not replace the questions you should ask any provider about SLAs, references, and who actually answers the phone.
Check it yourself
Every designation in this post is visible in Microsoft’s public partner directory. Search for Virteva in the AppSource partner directory and compare what you find against what we claim here. We recommend the same lookup for any partner you evaluate, including us.
If you want to see what sits behind the badges, book an IT maturity assessment and we will run the evaluation in the other direction: benchmarking your environment against where a measured partner should take it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation? A Solutions Partner designation is a measured credential Microsoft awards to partners who reach a high bar of excellence and demonstrated results in one of six solution areas, such as Modern Work, Security, or Infrastructure. The score combines certified staff and deployments in active use, and Microsoft recalculates it on an ongoing basis. The designations replaced the retired Gold and Silver competency tiers in 2022.
Which Microsoft Solutions Partner designations does Virteva hold? Virteva holds five of the six designations: Solutions Partner for Modern Work, Solutions Partner for Security, and all three Azure designations, which are Data & AI, Infrastructure, and Digital & App Innovation. Virteva also holds Microsoft Specializations in Adoption and Change Management and in Identity & Access Management, audited validations that require the parent designation as a prerequisite.
What are the three new Solutions Partner designations Virteva has attained? Infrastructure covers Azure migration and cloud infrastructure management. Data & AI covers the Azure data platform, including analytics and the data foundations AI workloads depend on. Digital & App Innovation covers application modernization, cloud-native development, and DevOps on Azure. Together these three areas form what Microsoft’s partner program calls Cloud & AI Platforms.
What is the Solutions Partner for Microsoft Cloud designation? It is the designation Microsoft awards to partners who earn all six Solutions Partner designations. Virteva currently holds five of the six, with Business Applications remaining.
How do I verify a Microsoft partner’s designations? Search Microsoft’s public partner directory through AppSource for the company name. The listing shows current designations and specializations. Confirm the designation matches the work you are buying, and treat any partner still advertising retired Gold or Silver competencies as displaying a credential that no longer exists.
