EA is moving on. Here's how to seize the moment.

Written by Mark Adams | 10 April 2026

Microsoft's Enterprise Agreement has been the backbone of enterprise cloud licensing for decades. But the rules are changing. Not quietly, and not slowly. This post explains exactly what is happening, why it matters for CSP partners, and how to turn this structural shift into a genuine competitive advantage.

What is actually happening

In November 2024, Microsoft publicly confirmed what the channel had been speculating about for years. Beginning January 1, 2025, a portion of cloud Enterprise Agreements in direct markets became ineligible to renew under the existing EA framework. Microsoft started notifying affected customers in January 2025. The recommended paths forward are two: MCA-E for customers who want a direct relationship with Microsoft, and CSP for customers who want a partner-led service and lifecycle model.

CSP is, in Microsoft's own words, the "hero motion" for small and mid-sized organisations. That is a deliberate choice of language. Microsoft is signalling that the channel partner model is where it wants growth to go.

This does not mean EA is gone tomorrow. Our partners tell us the reality is messier. Timelines move. Some customers are still renewing into EA. Microsoft has extended some contracts. The transition is real, but it is uneven, playing out at different speeds across different customer segments and geographies.

What is not ambiguous is the direction of travel. Partners who wait for certainty before acting will find the opportunity has already been taken by those who moved earlier.

2019
Oct

Microsoft Customer Agreement introduced into CSP. Azure plan launches.

The MCA replaces the older Microsoft Cloud Agreement for all CSP customers. The new commerce experience for Azure in CSP goes live November 1, 2019. MCA acceptance becomes mandatory for all CSP purchases and renewals from January 31, 2020.

2022
Jan

Seat-based NCE goes live. Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Windows 365 move to new commerce.

New subscription rules come into effect, including the 7-day cancellation window. New commercial seat-based orders are required in new commerce from March 10, 2022. Legacy renewals end from July 2022.

2024
Jan

Microsoft-led migrations begin for commercial legacy licence-based subscriptions.

Microsoft starts migrating remaining legacy subscriptions. Copilot for Microsoft 365 becomes available across all channels including CSP NCE. Public sector migrations follow in September 2024.

2025
Jan

EA renewal eligibility changes for a portion of cloud EAs in direct markets.

Customer notifications begin. Recommended paths: MCA-E for direct purchase, CSP for partner-managed lifecycle. A 5% pricing uplift for monthly-billed annual-term subscriptions also takes effect from April 2025 across CSP, MCA-E and direct online.

2025
Nov

Online Services pricing consistency update across EA price levels A-D.

Microsoft aligns EA online services pricing to Microsoft.com pricing. This removes a historic pricing advantage some EA customers held, narrowing the commercial gap between EA and CSP further.

2025
Dec

Partner-of-Record validation enforcement begins for distributors.

Partner Center enforces POR validation for new subscription orders and most updates to existing subscriptions. For EU and EFTA markets, all partner IDs on a subscription must meet validation requirements before updates are allowed.

$75B+ Azure annual revenue (FY2025). The single largest workload pool in the shift, and the one where CSP partner economics are most differentiated.

$20B+ Microsoft Security revenue. Fast-growing, deeply attached to M365, and part of every enterprise conversation.

$13B AI and Copilot annual run rate. Available in CSP NCE since January 2024 and growing rapidly across the partner base.

23% Dynamics 365 YoY revenue growth in Microsoft FY25 Q4. The business applications market is accelerating, not slowing.

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Azure billing visibility

The number one customer complaint. Customers coming from EA or Microsoft Direct are used to clear billing views and cost centre attribution. CSP billing has historically been harder to navigate. Partners who can close this gap turn the biggest objection into a differentiator.

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NCE operational risk

The 7-day window catches partners out. One incorrect licence count and you are committed for the term. Several partners rebuilt their internal contracts and governance processes after being caught. Those who did this work are now operating with materially less financial exposure.

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Multi-region migration complexity

For customers operating across multiple geographies, CSP migration can require tenant changes they actively resist. EA remains the path of least resistance in some of these cases. CSP partners can only sell to customers in the same CSP region as their tenant, a real constraint for multi-national bases.

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EA opportunity detection

Partners are not always aware which of their existing CSP customers also hold active EA agreements. Partner Center does not send alerts when EA data shows up. Without that visibility, those renewals slip through. The partners who spot them first win the conversation.

Map your EA exposure across your existing CSP base

Start with what you already have. Identify which of your current CSP customers also hold active EA agreements. These are your warmest prospects for a CSP-led renewal conversation. Partner Center does not surface them proactively and Microsoft is not sending alerts when these appear. You need visibility at the platform level. If your tooling does not give you this, that is the first gap to close.

Build your Azure billing story before you go to market

The number one complaint partners hear from EA customers considering CSP is billing visibility. If you can demonstrate parity with EA billing or better, you remove the biggest objection before it lands. Build a reconciliation and cost transparency playbook. Make Azure cost management a feature of your service offering, not an afterthought. Partners who show customers better Azure visibility than they had under EA will win these conversations consistently.

Tighten your NCE governance before it costs you

The 7-day window is not going away. Build customer-facing self-service governance into your model so licence changes go through a controlled process rather than informal requests. Update your customer contracts to reflect NCE commercial terms explicitly. Introduce daily or weekly licence audits as a standard operational process. The partners who have done this work are operating with significantly less financial exposure and significantly more customer confidence.

Build an EA conversation asset and use it proactively

Many of our partners are planning webinars and asking for ready-to-use enablement content for EA-to-CSP conversations. A clear, concise explainer on what the shift means commercially, what changes for the customer, and what to do next is a practical sales tool. It also positions you as the expert in the room when the Microsoft notification arrives. The partners running these conversations first are building pipeline with the least competition.

Reduce your Partner Center dependency at the operational level

We consistently hear from partners that they want to move their teams off Partner Center and into a platform they control. This is a growth constraint, not just a user experience preference. The more your day-to-day operations depend on Partner Center, the harder it is to scale your CSP business without adding headcount at the same rate. Automation at the provisioning, billing, and renewal layer is the difference between a CSP business that scales and one that does not.

The window is open. Not forever.

The EA-to-CSP migration wave is real, but it is not a fixed event with a single date. It is a structural process that will play out over several years, at different speeds for different customer segments and geographies. Some customers will move quickly once notified. Others will take two or three renewal cycles. The competitive dynamic is not about being there at a single moment. It is about building the capability and the relationships now so that when each customer is ready to move, you are the obvious choice.

The partners who build their tooling, tighten their NCE governance, fix their Azure billing story, and start the EA conversations with their customer base now will accumulate a structural lead that compounds over time. The partners who wait for the market to settle will find themselves competing for customers that better-prepared rivals have already won.

This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to move. And moving well means having the right platform behind you.

Find out how our platform helps direct-bill CSPs manage the EA to CSP transition at scale, with the automation and integration your business needs to grow.

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