Pax8 and Microsoft Updates for September 2025

Grow your business, Microsoft, MSPs

September 16, 2025

Pax8

To stay ahead in the Microsoft ecosystem, be sure to register for our monthly Microsoft partner update webinar. Below are the key highlights from our September 2025 session.

Program Updates

CSP Requirements and Incentives
New compliance and performance benchmarks for indirect resellers are just around the corner. Effective October 1, 2025, indirect resellers must:

Complete business vetting
Have a minimum of $1,000 TTM billed revenue at the reseller tenant level
Complete the mandatory requirements of the Partner Center security score (when made available)
Accept the Indirect Reseller Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA)
Have Solutions Partner designation for solution areas or 25 partner capability points, specific to the solution area incentive
Have $25,000 TTM revenue for all solution area incentives at PLA

Solution areas for incentives eligibility are defined as:

Modern Work incentives: Solutions Partner designation for Modern Work or Security
Business Applications incentives: Solutions Partner designation for Business Applications
Azure incentives: Solutions Partner designation for Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure) or Infrastructure (Azure)

Potential Microsoft Commerce incentives are also changing in FY26 — catch up with everything Microsoft announced back in May here.

Partner of Record Requirements
The enforcement timeline for these requirements has been pushed. By December 1, 2025, indirect resellers:

Must use Partner Location ID (not Global ID) on Pax8 orders
Can only complete orders in countries Pax8 is authorized in (US, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Southeast Asia)
Can only complete orders in countries in which the indirect reseller is authorized
Must have active reseller status in Partner Center

Also, any customer who signed an MCA prior to April 2023 is required to sign the newest MCA starting October 7, 2025. And effective January 5, 2026, all indirect Resellers must have their customer sign the MCA through either a partner attestation API or through direct customer acceptance. Failure to have the customer sign the MCA will result in failed orders.

Promotions and Sales Programs

Microsoft 365 Three-Year Offers
Microsoft is offering three-year terms for key SKUs with 15% off for net new customers through December 31, 2025. Available through Pax8, these offers include:

Office 365 E3 and E5
Teams Enterprise
E5 Security and Compliance Suites

Requirements are as follows:

Minimum 100 seats
Upfront or annual billing only
Must contact Pax8 account team to purchase

This is a great opportunity to lock in long-term value for your clients while boosting your margins.

Promotions and Offers
Microsoft has a host of promotions for M365:

Microsoft 365 E3 – 15% off annual term – first-time purchase only; maximum 2,400 seats
Microsoft 365 E5 – 15% off one-year term – annual term/annual bill and monthly bill; first-time purchase only; maximum 2,400 seats
Microsoft 365 Copilot – 15% off annual term – new and existing Copilot customers with qualified pre-req SKUs; minimum 10 seats, maximum 300 seats
E5 Compliance 50% off – new and existing Copilot customers with qualified pre-req SKUs

Pax8 M365 Copilot Rewards Program
Pax8 is offering partners one month free for every qualifying Copilot for Microsoft 365 license they purchase (value of $30). Partners must opt-in through a registration form, and seats must be purchased on a net new subscription for a 12-month term. The rebate is valid only for the initial quantity ordered (quantity increases are not eligible).

Pax8 is also providing a suite of enablement resources to help you go to market with Copilot, including editable PowerPoint templates, a campaign-in-a-box launching in October and end-user training hosted by Microsoft. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to scale your Copilot practice, these tools can help you accelerate adoption and drive revenue.

Pax8 Modern Work Security Optimization (MSO) and Nerdio
Upgrade 10 licenses per tenant from M365 Business Standard to Business Premium and receive six months of Nerdio for Modern Work free. This offer is valid through December 31, 2025. Book time with your Pax8 Productivity Solution Consultant to learn more and get started.

Azure Kickstart Program
Registration is now open for this multicourse series. It includes:

Azure 101–103: From architecture basics to governance and cost management
MSP 101 for Azure: Learn how to build a resilient Azure practice with security best practices and strategic selling

Azure Accelerate for Nonprofits
Earn up to $500 per new customer and additional credits for incremental Azure consumption. Customers must have $500-plus monthly Azure revenue for two consecutive months to qualify. Learn more here.

New Microsoft 365 Business Premium Add-ons

Data security incidents remain widespread, 83% of organizations experiencing more than one data breach in their lifetime and generative AI usage adding to that threat. To combat this, Microsoft Purview unifies data security, data governance and compliance, providing protection and insights across your clients’ apps, clouds and devices.

For example, Purview can apply DLP policies to platforms like Salesforce, Dropbox, Box, Google Workspace and even custom enterprise applications. It can also monitor and classify data in multicloud environments, including AWS and Google Cloud, ensuring consistent protection wherever data lives.

Together with Microsoft 365 Defender, which offers protection across emails, endpoints, identities and workloads, you can enable rapid response with XDR-prioritized incidents. Defender provides a clearer picture of attacks by streamlining the detection, investigation and remediation across the entire cyberattack kill chain. This deep context allows SOC teams to investigate and respond at the incident level, making prioritization easy and remediation faster with near real-time custom detections, in-product remediation playbooks and a single language for advanced hunting across all services — all as a connected experience.

In addition, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers a holistic SaaS Security solution, extending its powerful capabilities to new areas of SaaS app protection. This offers greater understanding into overall app posture and ways to remediate misconfigurations to reduce attack surface area for apps like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Okta, DocuSign, Github and more.

How to Bring These Tools to Your Customers
Microsoft is offering these tools as Business Premium add-ons tailored for SMBs, with bundled pricing and simplified deployment:

Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium

Unified data security, governance and compliance
Purpose-built for Copilot readiness and regulatory compliance
Includes: Information Protection, Insider Risk Management, eDiscovery, Audit, Compliance Manager (add-on)
Bundle price: $10.50/user/month (vs. $19 individually)

Microsoft Defender Suite for Business Premium

End-to-end device and cloud security
Designed for hybrid and cloud environments
Includes: Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, Cloud Apps, Identity, Endpoint P2, IoT, Entra ID P2
Bundle price: $10.50/user/month (vs. $30+ individually)

Purview + Defender Bundle

Comprehensive protection across data and devices
Ideal for SMBs preparing for GenAI and meeting regulatory requirements
Includes both suites
Bundle price: $15.75/user/month (vs. $49+ individually)

How Pax8 Can Help

As a reminder, Pax8 Professional Services can help partners implement solutions like these, extend their teams and expand their impact with fixed-price, fixed-scope services.

Modern Work

Data migration (mail, files, workflows) into Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, Teams, and SharePoint
Unified collaboration with Teams Phone System
Unified security and governance with Intune, Entra, Purview, and Defender
Modern Work Consultation

Security

Pax8 offers migration and architecture processes for:

Microsoft Azure
- Migration Assessment
- Server and Data Migration
- Greenfield Deployment
- Azure Virtual Desktop
- Azure Consultation
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Migration Assessment
- Server and Data Migration
- Well Architected Review

We also offer engineer-led implementation for security products (including SentinelOne, Blackpoint, Avanan, Proofpoint, CrowdStrike and Microsoft) as well as engineer-led billing consolidation of your security product portfolio.

Business Applications
Efficiently upgrade accounting, operations and/or sales software systems with implementation and support services, including:

Launchpad: Self-Guided Implementation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (ERP)
Launchpad: Partner-Led scalable sales and delivery of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (ERP)
Consultant-Led Implementation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (ERP)
Consultant-Led Implementation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Professional (CRM)

Pax8 Marketplace Updates

Public Storefronts
Our Public Storefronts feature is now live! Share a read-only version of your Storefront with prospects. Customize branding and generate leads via a built-in contact form. Try it here.

Integrations Hub