​​Microsoft New Zealand has announced an expansion of the number of cloud solution providers (CSPs) in the Kiwi market following the ‘rapid adoption' of public cloud platforms within the country.

As of the first of July, Rhipe and Umbrellar (previously CSP Indirect Partners) will be joining Dicker Data, Exeed, and Ingram Micro as CSPs.

Microsoft commercial and partner business director Phil Goldie says the company is a partner-led business and a healthy network drives customer success.

“Today's decision reflects the impressive growth in the New Zealand market as more customers adopt the Microsoft Cloud through monthly subscriptions and managed services. However, this decision is not simply about scaling up,” says Goldie.

“This is about fostering an already successful CSP programme in order to offer customers deeper, quality engagements, consistent support, and, ultimately, added value.

Microsoft New Zealand's assertion that the public cloud market is flourishing is backed up by recent statistics from IDC that forecast the market to be worth more than a billion New Zealand dollars by 2020.

“This decision is not only about keeping step with the growth of cloud,” says Goldie.

“It reflects the continued diversification of Microsoft's portfolio with new products, such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power BI and Azure AI, that we believe will empower Kiwi businesses. Our partner success is our success, and we see significant industry opportunity, particularly in SMB and mid-market.

Microsoft has obviously already had substantial growth elsewhere around the world so you could say it's making an educated investment in New Zealand. Global third quarter financial results for the tech giant showed cloud adoption with server products and cloud services revenue growing 20 percent, led by surging Azure revenue growth of 93 percent.

Azure premium services revenue increased over 100 percent for the 15th consecutive quarter, with early traction in advanced workloads like AI and IoT.

“This expansion is a terrific addition to our already world-class partner ecosystem,” says Goldie.

“We are already seeing huge growth in this space, with both SMB customers and partners already adopting this model as well as increasingly large customers and partners, such as Inde Technology.

Technology strategist at Inde Technology Dave Veronese says the company is rapt with the results so far.

“Offering Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program has enabled us to significantly increase our customer value through product knowledge and taking accountability for better outcomes as we are now directly responsible for the total solution,' says Veronese.

“Our customers are additionally getting benefits from the flexibility and simplicity of CSP. We value the Cloud Solution Provider program and consider it a critical component of our future success.