Consulting
Summaries, by type, of real consulting cases from Microsoft partner programs. Customer names, contacts, and pricing are removed; only the problem and the reasoning remain.
ISV Success — 27 architecture sessions
Architecture design (ADS), review (ARS), and publication (MPS) sessions held before APAC ISVs listed products on the Microsoft Marketplace. Sectors include AI SaaS, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, HR, data platforms, and legal tech.
- ADS
- Architecture Design Session — design a Marketplace-ready Azure architecture for an on-premises or other-cloud solution
- ARS
- Architecture Review Session — validate compliance and deployment readiness
- MPS
- Marketplace Publication Session — support the offer publication process
| # | Sector | Region | Request | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OTT media · AI recommendation SaaS | India | SaaS vs Managed Application; cost and scalability optimization | Settled a five-layer architecture. Replaced costly Databricks with AKS + Apache Spark. Single tenant per customer by default, shared tenant only for non-sensitive customers. Publish SaaS first, add a Managed App and private offers in parallel. | ARS completed; key design decisions settled |
| 2 | Data quality / DataOps software | India | Move a VM-based offer to Kubernetes / Managed Application | Mapped each service to Azure (App Service, Data Factory, Purview, Entra ID, Key Vault, AKS, PostgreSQL). Compared splitting App/Engine/DB out of a single VM and AKS node-pool vs namespace isolation. | Transition roadmap being reworked |
| 3 | Embedded analytics SaaS (Power BI + Azure OpenAI) | India | Add a Managed Application offer alongside SaaS | Ran SaaS and an ARM-packaged Managed App in parallel. Worked around private offers blocked by missing billing IDs on CSP-subscribed customers with a temporary public plan. | Several customers published; Managed App being packaged |
| 4 | Enterprise app (Python Flask) | — | Re-platform from a standalone server to Azure and publish as transactable | Supported the SaaS vs Managed Application decision. | On hold at an early stage |
| 5 | Data integration and management | Korea | Move from VM to container deployment; evaluate Managed Application | Explained the Managed Application model and reviewed the architecture. | On hold at an early stage |
| 6 | Embeddable generative AI chatbot SaaS | APAC | Architecture review before transactable publication | Reviewed the self-hosted SaaS structure, subscription tiers, and embedding approach. | ARS/MPS scheduled |
| 7 | Medical AI · ECG analysis | Korea → Global | Move a hospital on-premises system to a SaaS + Managed App hybrid | Hub-and-spoke landing zone, PII masking at the hospital before encrypted transfer, AKS microservices, AI analysis behind private endpoints, HIPAA clause-by-clause Azure mapping. Separate VPN gateway per hospital; dual k3s / PowerShell installers. | MVP-first publication strategy |
| 8 | Microsoft 365 business apps | India | Turn a Teams add-on / Managed App into a transactable SaaS | Aligned the SharePoint, Teams, and Power Platform build with SaaS listing requirements; documented that professional services cannot be transactable in APAC. | ADS/ARS requested |
| 9 | HR · AI recruiting app | New Zealand | Pre-publication validation; SaaS vs Managed App | Evaluated a Managed App for enterprises needing private deployment and extra security alongside SaaS. | New product to publish as SaaS |
| 10 | Web3 developer bounty platform | — | ARS before global Marketplace expansion | Shaped the AWS-hosted structure so it can be delivered as SaaS or Managed App; AI on Azure AI Foundry models. | ARS → MPS scheduled |
| 11 | Medical device software (SaMD) automation SaaS | Singapore · Malaysia | Architecture diagram review and readiness validation | Multitenancy, a dedicated Azure tenant per enterprise customer, delegated RBAC isolation, and co-sell requirements. | Transactable SaaS to be published |
| 12 | HR/recruiting AI and email-writing AI | India | Teams/Graph integration and an Outlook add-in | Best practices for Teams/Graph integration of voice and video interviews; Outlook add-in packaging and Marketplace readiness. | Preparing for design sessions |
| 13 | CAE simulation software | Korea | First Marketplace publication; VM offer vs SaaS | Guided packaging and submission for a Linux VM offer and explained credit handling on CSP/MCA accounts. | Transactable VM offer in progress |
| 14 | Consumer behavior analytics SaaS | Korea | Architecture design for adopting Power BI | Browser performance improvements and AI-assisted multilingual translation. | Early design stage |
| 15 | AI accounting assistant (accounting SaaS integration) | Australia | Keeping answers accurate in free-form chat | Separated a predefined prompt library from free-form chat; grounding and prompt optimization strategy. | ARS scheduled |
| 16 | Industrial safety computer vision · edge AI | UK · Australia | Transactable publication of a hardware-dependent solution | Hardware-independent software modules as Transactable; deployments that include hardware as Contact Me. | ARS/MPS scheduled |
| 17 | RegTech · anonymous reporting platform | Singapore | AWS to Azure; container offer | Reviewed the CNAB bundle ARM limitation that prevents provisioning managed services (SQL, Redis) with a container offer, and the alternatives (bundle them in vs customer-provided). | ARS scheduled |
| 18 | Kubernetes cost-optimization scanner | APAC | Publication readiness of a container app running in the customer subscription | Reviewed the standalone design with no central backend and the unused-disk/IP detection logic. | ARS booked |
| 19 | Financial compliance document AI SaaS | Australia | Transactable publication at hundreds to thousands of customers | Multi-container Container Apps with a separate AI container, Managed Identity, execution inside customer infrastructure for data sovereignty, centralized upgrade automation. | Publication in progress |
| 20 | Salesforce–Azure AI insights | India | First Managed Application publication | Pre-checked publisher/customer resource separation, update and patch mechanics, operating boundaries and support responsibility, and preview listing requirements. | ARS → MPS scheduled |
| 21 | Fabric data modeling and code generation | Australia | How to add an AI assistant | Compared direct Copilot integration with a standalone in-product feature. | Technical session being arranged |
| 22 | Enterprise AI engineer platform (multitenant) | — | Global commercialization | Helped resolve program registration and Partner Center submission errors rather than technical issues. | ARS/MPS scheduled |
| 23 | Legal tech · case management | Australia | Container migration and agentic AI expansion | Azure resource guidance and publication-fit validation. | Further sessions requested |
| 24 | Agentic AI · customer success SaaS | India | Publishing a SaaS that runs on another cloud | Recommended standard Entra ID multitenant app registration and admin consent, an M365 integration test environment, transactable assets (landing page, webhook, fulfillment API), and phased Azure-native AI. | ARS planned; analysis document written |
| 25 | Industrial-site vision AI | Singapore | AWS to Azure; hybrid edge and cloud | Inference on-premises, metadata and dashboards in the cloud. Dual SaaS + Managed Application publication, Azure IoT Operations / Arc at the edge, cost comparison. | ARS/MPS scheduled |
| 26 | B2B supplier onboarding and verification SaaS | APAC | Redesigning a legacy backend | Addressed performance and scalability limits and gave design guidance on accuracy and explainability of AI verification logic. | Three-step ADS → ARS → MPS schedule |
| 27 | E-learning content → AI knowledge base | — | Move an AWS serverless stack to Azure | Mapped Lambda/SQS/Aurora/S3/ECR to Azure equivalents, covered Functions architecture differences, and kept the processing pipeline intact. | Tentative ARS date |
Partner Technical Consultant — 30 one-to-one engagements
Azure and Microsoft 365 consulting tickets partners raised through their Partner Center technical benefits, covering licensing, architecture, capacity, incidents, and program policy.
Licensing / purchasing (6 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing SQL Server on bare metal | L&SA OV vs CSP Perpetual | Separated License Mobility eligibility from Outsourcing terms and tabulated the licenses needed per scenario (upgrade, VM move, AlwaysOn, multitenancy). | Recommendation delivered |
| Power BI Report Server in SQL Server 2025 | Availability by edition | Using official documentation, confirmed Standard is included from 2025 while 2022 and earlier still require Enterprise + SA. | Reply drafted |
| Exchange Server CALs | CAL equivalency by M365 plan | Mapped inclusion by plan using the CAL/ML equivalency table and purchase-channel (EA/MCA) conditions. | Reply drafted |
| Perpetual SQL Server licenses on a third-party cloud | Perpetual licenses without SA | Found an option needing no extra purchase via the Authorized Outsourcer path and dedicated physical servers; compared monthly cost by purchase option. | Dedicated-server path confirmed (multiple rounds) |
| Mixing SPLA and BYOL | Double licensing | Explained that they are mutually exclusive and presented three options (dedicated server + owned, shared + SA, SPLA rental). | Advice delivered |
| Raising a CSP product key activation limit | AVMA vs MAK | AVMA does not apply on non-Hyper-V hosts; guided the MAK path and wrote the Partner Center request fields and justification. | Routing guide completed |
Architecture design (9 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Changing an Entra ID domain with Domain Services | Managed domain impact | Analyzed impact on domain-joined VMs given that a managed domain name cannot change after creation and a default-domain change is not propagated. | Impact scope documented |
| Consolidating affiliate tenants while keeping separate domains | Single tenant, multiple domains | Delegation with Administrative Units, Conditional Access starting in report-only, separating landing-zone and tenant design, a seven-step pilot. | Advisory document delivered |
| Azure infrastructure design and estimate for an enterprise AI platform | Web/WAS, RAG, RDBMS, vector DB | SKUs per component, zone-redundant HA on PostgreSQL Flexible Server, Load Balancer vs Application Gateway, comparison of external LLMs. | Open questions listed |
| AI search agent over SharePoint | Separating global and subsidiary permissions | AI Search + Foundry Agent RAG, limits of the preview SharePoint indexer and production alternatives, same-tenant subscription split vs dedicated tenant. | Guide delivered |
| AI over SharePoint and Blob data (including three follow-ups) | Per-document permissions and search | Integrated vectorization, limits of CAD text extraction, and clarified that Administrative Units delegate directory permissions only — data permissions must be split with RBAC and SharePoint permissions. | Consolidated guide and portal walkthrough delivered |
| Power BI adoption proposal | Licensing and Copilot prerequisites | Pro for authors with Fabric/Premium capacity for many viewers, capacity prerequisites for Power BI Copilot, pilot steps. | Proposal basis delivered |
| Billing Copilot Cowork to an Azure subscription | Copilot Credits | Pay-as-you-go linking steps and required roles, spending policy setup, and the difference between hard-stop policies and alert-only budgets. | Procedure answered |
| Partner Center Growth Margin integration architecture | Identifying resellers in the indirect model | Confirmed from the API spec that there is no reseller identifier parameter, separated customer-level calls from reseller attribution APIs, five-layer architecture. | Implementation guide delivered |
| VM high availability, backup, and DR | Active-active, ASR, failback | Zone-spread VMSS + Standard Load Balancer, comparison of three automatic repair options, a runbook to re-add load balancer pools after ASR failover, failback procedure. | Detailed answer delivered |
GPU / compute capacity (2 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Securing large-scale ND-series GPUs | VM count vs GPU count confusion | Recalculated the request to establish the real scale, explained the three processing paths by size and the quota ticket procedure, and escalated internally for capacity review. | Escalation in progress |
| Long-term multi-node H200 estimate | SKU selection | Separated GPU generation names from Azure SKUs, chose candidate SKUs, calculated reserved pricing, and escalated for quota and capacity review. | Escalation in progress |
Escalations / incidents (3 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mass device disconnection after IoT Hub TLS 1.0 retirement | About 60,000 devices | Separated the causes into TLS version/cipher retirement and a root CA change; gave minimum SDK versions, canary validation, and OTA group rollout. Escalated to the product team for temporary mitigation, and found a separate issue where the OTA server certificate chain exceeded the device receive buffer. | Temporary mitigation and handover |
| Migrating about 500 on-premises VMs to Azure | Advisory vs delivery scope | Separated advisory from delivery, split AIX into its own track, and provided a CAF landing zone, hub-spoke design, service mapping, and published savings figures. | In progress |
| Diagnosing a Windows Server hard hang | Event log analysis | Separated a planned restart from an abnormal hard hang by timestamp, configured full memory dumps and iDRAC NMI dumps, and set criteria to route to hardware or OS support after collecting SEL/TSR. | Initial conclusion delivered |
EA → CSP transition (2 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transition tool access and regional eligibility | Partner Center eligibility | Explained that eligibility depends on the tenant's authorized CSP region, not resource regions, and that the transition moves billing ownership only while subscription IDs stay the same. | Resolved |
| Validating the EA → CSP process | Impact on SMTP port 25 | Validated the three-step process and confirmed from official documentation that the transition does not block traffic immediately but blocking applies on later deployment changes; recommended moving to an SMTP relay first. | Multiple rounds |
Partner programs / governance (2 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controlling Copilot Studio agent sharing | Allow personal/team sharing, approve org-wide | Managed Environments sharing limits, app permission policies, Pipelines approval gates, and the CoE Starter Kit. | Draft answer |
| How support case volume is counted | Why the numbers differ | Confirmed with the product team which cases are counted (cloud technical support cases) and analyzed the report by service and product family, separating what could and could not be explained. | Official answer obtained |
Technical resources (6 cases)
| Case | Topic | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harness and context engineering materials | Evaluation, tracing, RAG | Collected the azure-ai-evaluation SDK, Prompt Flow, and AI Search + OpenAI RAG patterns with official links. | Materials provided |
| Azure AI, Data, Cloud, and Security materials | Nine material types | Answered availability and limits per type with search criteria and an index design; partner-only materials excluded from sharing. | Answer completed |
| Latest Microsoft and Azure AI materials | Presentation decks | Selected and provided Korean-language materials. | Provided |
| Fabric and AI governance materials | Data and governance | Selected and provided Korean-language materials. | Provided |
| AWS vs Azure comparison materials | Sharing scope of competitive materials | Separated public from internal-only materials and offered official service-mapping documentation as a shareable alternative. | Classification completed |
| Architecture guidance for CSP deployment scenarios | Training and guidance request | Request at the intake stage. | — |