When Microsoft Calls You Most Innovative: What Winning a Partner Award Actually Means
Originally published in 2017. The lessons — and the recognition — still stand.
In May 2017, I stood on stage at the Microsoft Cloud & Hosting Summit alongside Timothy Campbell — a member of my product team — to accept the Most Innovative Data Platform Offering Award — presented by Aziz Benmalek, then Vice President of Worldwide Hosting and Cloud Services at Microsoft.
It was a recognition I'm proud of, not just because of what it represented for Datapipe, but because of what it revealed about the discipline required to win trust at the hyperscaler level.
What the Award Was For
The annual award recognizes the Microsoft partner that demonstrated a substantial increase in SQL Server Enterprise consumption while providing customers with a full suite of data services built on the Microsoft data platform.
At the time, database workloads were exploding in volume and complexity. Organizations were grappling with how to store and manage data at scale — cost-effectively — without sacrificing performance or compliance. SQL Server's capacity to accommodate inactive data ("cold" workloads) offered a compelling answer to the strain legacy on-premises infrastructure was creating.
At Datapipe, we had built a data platform practice that went well beyond basic managed hosting. We architected hybrid cloud database solutions designed to enable enterprise cloud-first strategies — integrating SQL Server into broader multi-environment architectures, enabling seamless migrations, and ensuring the kind of operational continuity that enterprise clients require.
As I noted at the time:
"With the ever-increasing amount of information organizations must store, we've seen an influx in demand for solutions that store data in a way that is both cost-effective and scalable. This recognition speaks to our best-of-breed data platform service offerings and the hybrid cloud database solutions Datapipe deploys to drive enterprise cloud-first strategies." — David Lucky, Director of Product Management, Datapipe (Business Wire, May 2017)
What It Took to Get There
Awards like this don't appear out of nowhere. They're the product of a sustained partner investment — and in Datapipe's case, that investment in Microsoft was deep and deliberate.
By the time we accepted this award, Datapipe had:
Achieved Microsoft Gold Partner status across Data Center and Cloud Platform competencies
Joined the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Program as one of the first managed service providers to offer end-to-end managed Azure services
Been named a finalist for Microsoft's Hosting Partner of the Year in 2015, with our Managed Cloud for Azure service recognized as "truly exceptional" and an "example of excellence" — selected from over 2,300 nominations
Achieved eleven Microsoft partner competencies across a wide range of technologies
Built deep expertise in SQL Server, Managed Exchange, Managed SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics, and Azure-based hybrid environments
Each of these milestones required investment: technical certifications, customer references, audited delivery capability, and genuine co-selling motion with Microsoft field teams. The Most Innovative Data Platform Offering Award in 2017 was, in many ways, the culmination of years of that investment.
Why Partner Recognition Matters — Beyond the Trophy
I've had the opportunity to lead partner marketing and GTM functions across hyperscaler ecosystems since that time, and one thing is consistent: Microsoft partner recognition carries weight with buyers.
When a Microsoft VP stands on stage and says your company "continues to deliver flexible solutions that combine Microsoft technologies with its unique expertise and services" — as Aziz Benmalek did when presenting this award — that's not marketing copy. It's validation from the source.
For enterprise buyers evaluating managed service providers, systems integrators, or cloud advisors, partner awards serve as third-party proof of capability. They signal that the hyperscaler has vetted the partner's technical depth, customer success track record, and delivery consistency. That's a shortcut through a lot of procurement risk.
What This Means for My Work Today
At CloudScale Advisory, I bring this experience to bear for technology companies building or scaling their Microsoft partner motion — whether that's designing co-sell strategies, standing up MDF programs, preparing for competency evaluations, or building the kind of GTM discipline that turns a good partnership into a recognized one.
Winning a Microsoft partner award once requires execution. Helping clients win consistently requires a system.
If you're working to deepen your Microsoft partnership and want to talk strategy, I'd welcome the conversation.
David Lucky is a cloud GTM and partner marketing strategist with 15+ years of experience across AWS, Azure, and GCP ecosystems. He previously served as Director of Product Management at Datapipe (acquired by Rackspace in 2017) and has held senior partner marketing roles at Rackspace, Effectual, and Centrilogic. He runs CloudScale Advisory.