Microsoft Announces a Massive Change to the CSP Direct Program

Early this week Microsoft started communicating a new requirement to partners in the CSP Direct program. Effective immediately, Partners who want to enroll as direct bill partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program must meet at least USD300K in Cloud Solution Provider program revenue during the 12 months prior to their required support contract renewal date.

Further, for existing CSP Direct Bill Partners partner this requirement goes into effect January 2021 and the partner must show the $300k in the prior 12 months upon renewal of their support plan agreement.

The official announcement can be found here

 It is interesting that Microsoft states in this announcement that “This new revenue requirement will help partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program build a more profitable business through the right model”

If you are a CSP Direct Bill partner who does not meet this revenue threshold, it is not clear how this will make your business more profitable.

First, you will have to move to be a CSP Indirect partner, which means lower margins.

Second, under the indirect model, partners lose their QMTH (Qualified Multi-Tenant Hoster) rights. What this means is that they will no longer be able to host Windows Desktop or instances of Office 365 in their non-dedicated hosted environment.

 For those who find themselves in this position, the options are limited. Instances of Office 365 and Windows OS can be sold through CSP at a reduced margin but won’t be eligible to be installed on the hoster’s shared hardware anymore. Instead they would need to be deployed on dedicated hardware, hosted on Azure, or placed on the shared hardware of another QMTH provider. It might even be time to dust off those old Office SPLA SKUs.

If you find yourself in this situation, please contact and we can review your unique situation and discuss options. We can discuss the different options CSP offers that may help you stay in the direct program or, if you were considering entering before, how you can become eligible. 

To book an appointment, with no obligation, email us at info@altariscloud.com , simply reply to this email or click the button below to book an appointment through our online booking tool.

Your Microsoft Licensing Experts at Altaris Cloud