Cloud services

Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin

Note

The Microsoft Partner Network is now called the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.

This article describes the Cloud benefits that are available to partners on the cloud services benefits on Partner Center (see the following screenshot). It also describes how to activate Cloud subscriptions.

View your Cloud benefits

As a partner in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, you might have access to many technical and go-to-market benefits. If you're a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin, you can explore many of these benefits directly from the Partner Center.

To see your Cloud products benefits:

• From the Partner Center Benefits menu, select Cloud services.

On the Cloud services page that appears you can see:

• Cloud product subscription benefits that are available to you.
• The membership and program that provisioned a specific benefit product.
• License quantity assigned for each product.
• Date before which to activate the benefit.

In the Cloud services benefits page, you can find all cloud products that require a product key for activation, such as Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Intune, and Power BI. Products are offered based on the type of membership or program available to you as a partner in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, for example Microsoft Action Pack, Solutions Partner designation, legacy gold, or silver benefits.

To activate a Cloud subscription:

1. Locate the desired subscription on the cloud products page.
2. Select the Cloud service benefit name link that you wish to activate.

1. In the wizard panel, read the activation walkthrough to learn how to redeem the keys.

   

2. When you're ready to redeem the key, navigate to Activate benefits and follow the instructions.

If you want to activate a new subscription, or if your existing subscription is disabled or expired, open a private or incognito browser window. Then copy and paste the following link and follow the instructions: https://signup.microsoft.com/productkeystart.

Note

Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, Enterprise Mobility + Security, Microsoft Intune, and Windows 10 Enterprise benefits are no longer a part of competency benefit packages. You can activate Microsoft 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 E5 benefits that act as replacements to the standalone benefit packages that are discontinued.

If you want to extend the end date or add more licenses (also known as seats) to an existing subscription, open a private or incognito browser window. Then copy and paste the following link and follow the instructions: https://portal.office.com/commerce/productkeyredeem.aspx.

Note

After you redeem a key, that key can't be redeemed a second time. Also note the following important points:

• Confirm whether you need to add more licenses, how many, and whether to extend the end date. If you choose to add more licenses and you don't extend the end date, the system will provide you with less than 12 months of active subscription.
• Make sure you're signed in with the correct credentials and that you're activating the keys on the correct Microsoft Entra tenant. Always sign in with a private or incognito browser window to ensure that you're activating keys on the correct tenant.
• The benefit expiration date shown in Microsoft Partner Center indicates the last date to exercise usage rights on that benefit. This date might differ from the subscription end date listed in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal. This can be due to several factors, such as the benefit activation date, the number of licenses associated with the key, and the licenses added or extended on the admin portal.

Extend the end date or add more licenses

To add more licenses or extend the end date for an existing subscription:

1. Copy and paste the following link into a private or incognito browser window: https://portal.office.com/commerce/productkeyredeem.aspx.
2. When you're signing in to your Microsoft 365 admin center portal, make sure you're using the correct Microsoft Entra tenant. Then, select the cloud subscription from the list:

• To renew the existing subscription, select Extend end date. Extending the end date increases the duration of the subscription, and keeps the number of licenses the same.

Important

If your subscription is disabled or expired, you might not find the option to extend the end date. Open a private or an incognito browser, copy and paste the following link, and follow the instructions to proceed with activation: https://signup.microsoft.com/productkeystart.

• To add more licenses to an existing subscription, select Add licenses. If you also want to renew the existing subscription, don't select Add licenses. Selecting Add licenses reduces the subscription duration and increases the number of licenses in the subscription.

  

1. In the side panel, select Redeem product key.
2. Enter the product key and then select Validate to verify the key details.
3. Select Redeem to complete the process.

Note

Each product key provides users with 12 months of service from the date you redeem the product key. However, if your existing users have an early renewal date, two dates will be averaged out to make it easier to manage your subscriptions based on a single end date for all your users. No time is added or lost during the calculation. The calculation used to average out two dates is the following: [A (initial users) x B (time remaining on subscription) + C (new users) x (12 months)] ÷ total number of users = new time remaining.

Activate a subscription for the first time

Follow these steps if you're activating a subscription for the first time. You can also use these steps if your subscription is in a disabled or expired state:

1. Copy and paste the following link into a private or incognito browser window: https://signup.microsoft.com/productkeystart.
2. Make sure you've signed in to the correct Microsoft Entra tenant account. After you're signed in, verify the tenant details.

1. Enter the 25-digit key obtained from Partner Center, and then select Next.
2. Verify the displayed product details, number of licenses, and subscription duration. When you're ready, select Redeem to activate the subscription.

The newly activated subscription is available in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, from the Your products tab.

Activate Office 365 E3 benefit, activate cloud benefits, or renew Office 365 E3

Check to see your current product status.

If your Product Subscription Status is Active

If you have a new 25-character product key (example: AAAA1-BBBB2-CCCC3-DDDD4-EEEE5) which is ready to be redeemed, you can redeem the key in any of these three ways:

• Renew the existing subscription for one more year.

  If you want to renew the subscription to last for one more year, wait for the existing subscription to expire. To check the subscription expiry date, see Microsoft 365 admin center: Your products.

  After the existing subscription has expired, use these steps to renew your subscription.

• Add licenses to the existing subscription and extend the end date.

  Adding a license increases the number of licenses in your subscription and extends the end date by a few months for all the licenses.

• Extend the end date of the existing subscription by a few months.

  Extending the end date only extends the end date of the subscription by some months for all licenses. Extending the end date doesn't increase the license count of the subscription.

  1. In a browser, open a new InPrivate or Incognito window.
  2. Paste the following activation link in the address bar of the window and sign in using the correct tenant: https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/Home#/subscription
  3. Select the product for which you wish to add more licenses or extend the end date.
  4. Select Add Licenses to add more licenses to the existing subscription. Select Extend end date.

If your Product Subscription Status is No Active Subscription or Expired

1. Get your Product activation keys by selecting Get Keys.

   

2. In a browser, open a new InPrivate or Incognito window. In that window, paste the following activation link in the address bar of the window: https://signup.microsoft.com/productkeystart.

3. Enter the 25-character product key you got from Step 1 in the Product Key box to continue with redemption.

   

4. Verify that the product name, license count, and duration are correct. Select Redeem to activate this subscription for logged-in tenant account. Once activated, you can enjoy the subscription.

   

5. After the key is redeemed successfully, the product is added to your Microsoft 365 admin center portal. You can add users to these products who can then use them. (To learn more, see Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to users or Microsoft Admin Center help.

   

6. Select Redeem product key.

   

7. Enter the 25-character product key, then select Validate.

   

   Once the key is validated, verify the new Total licenses and End date. If you accept the new end date and license count data, select Redeem to add new licenses or extend the end date of the subscription.

   

Licensing scenarios

This section describes a few sample licensing scenarios for subscriptions associated with Azure and cloud products. In these scenarios, you learn how subscription end dates are calculated.

Scenario 1

If you have 100 licenses active on a subscription and you're trying to extend the end date by using a key with 25 licenses, the end date will be extended by three months for the subscription with 100 licenses.

Scenario 2

If you have 100 licenses active on a subscription and you're trying to extend the end date by using a key with 100 licenses, the end date will be extended by 12 months.

Scenario 3

If you have five licenses active on a subscription and you're trying to extend the end date by using a key with 10 licenses, the end date will be extended by 24 months for the subscription with five licenses.

Scenario 4

If you're trying to extend the end date by using a key with more than 3x the active licenses, you get the following error message:

This message is by design, because you can only extend the subscription end date by a maximum of three years.

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