When a private equity firm evaluates a portfolio company, cybersecurity is rarely the first line item on the deal thesis. It is, however, almost always the first question that surfaces in diligence, the first finding in a 100-day plan, and the first thing a board asks about after an incident anywhere in the portfolio.
That is why we are announcing this particular milestone the way we are. Last month, ne Digital attained the Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security designation. It joins the Solutions Partner for Modern Work and Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure) designations we already hold.
Three designations. Each one earned against Microsoft's own data on how we perform for clients. Together, they describe a partner that Microsoft has validated across the full stack—from core infrastructure to business applications—that a portfolio company actually depends on.
What the Security designation measures
A Solutions Partner designation within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program is not a marketing tier, a fee-based membership, or a self-declared competency. Microsoft calculates it from a Partner Capability Score: a composite of data Microsoft already records in Partner Center about how a partner actually operates.
To attain the Security designation, a partner must earn at least 70 of 100 points, and must score above zero in every metric. The score is built from three categories:
Two features of this framework matter more than the number itself.
First, no single category can carry a partner across the line. A firm with a deep bench of certified engineers but no deployment history does not qualify. Neither does a high-volume reseller with thin skills. The designation requires demonstrated strength in all three at once.
Second, the evidence is telemetry, not testimony. Usage growth and deployment counts come from Microsoft's own records of what is running in client tenants. Certifications are verified against Microsoft Learn transcripts. There is no application essay.
The designation is also reviewed on an ongoing basis. A partner that stops investing in skills or stops delivering successful deployments does not keep it.
What it validates about ne Digital
The Security solution area spans four workload groups: Identity and Access Management, Threat Protection, Information Protection and Governance, and Cloud Security. In practice, that maps directly to the technologies we deploy and operate for clients every day:
- Microsoft Entra ID — identity governance, Conditional Access, privileged identity management, and lifecycle workflows across multi-entity portfolios
- Microsoft Defender XDR — Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Identity, and Defender for Cloud Apps, correlated into a single incident queue
- Microsoft Sentinel — cloud-native SIEM and SOAR, with detection engineering tuned to the threat patterns we see across private equity portfolios
- Microsoft Purview — sensitivity labeling, data loss prevention, insider risk, and retention aligned to regulatory and deal-room requirements
- Microsoft Intune — device compliance as an enforcement point for Conditional Access, not just as an inventory tool
Earning the designation means Microsoft has confirmed that our engineers hold the certifications on these workloads, that clients are adopting them through us, and that the deployments succeed and grow.
Why it matters for private equity firms and portfolio companies
Diligence gets shorter
Operating partners and deal teams increasingly ask a portfolio company's IT provider to prove security competence. A Microsoft-validated designation is a third-party answer, not a vendor claim. It sits alongside our SOC 2 Type 2 attestation as independent evidence of how we operate.
The standard is portable across the portfolio
Because the designation reflects a repeatable operating model rather than a single heroic deployment, the same identity, threat-protection, and data-governance baseline can be applied to every entity a firm acquires, across the Americas and Europe. Security posture stops being a function of which portco hired which local MSP.
Escalation reaches further
Solutions Partners work with Microsoft through dedicated partner channels, technical resources, and support paths that are not available to unaffiliated providers. When a client-affecting issue needs Microsoft engineering attention, we are not starting from a public support queue.
Licensing and security come from the same accountable party. See the next section.
How ne Digital is different from other Microsoft partners
There are many Microsoft partners. Three things separate ne Digital.
1. Three designations, not one
Most partners that hold a Security designation hold only that one, rather than multiple specializations. Most that hold Modern Work do not hold Infrastructure.
ne Digital holds Security, Modern Work, and Infrastructure (Azure)—alongside capabilities in Data & AI—which means the same firm that hardens the identity layer also runs the Azure landing zone underneath it and the Microsoft 365 workplace on top of it. Security controls that span all three, such as Conditional Access policies that depend on Intune compliance and Azure network posture, are designed and operated by one team, not negotiated across three vendors.
2. Direct CSP, not an indirect reseller
ne Digital is a Microsoft Direct Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). We hold the licensing, billing, and support relationship with Microsoft directly, with no distributor in the middle.
For a portfolio company this means one invoice, one support path, and one accountable party for both the licenses and the security services running on them. It also means we control tenant provisioning and entitlement changes ourselves, which matters when an acquisition closes on a Friday and the new entity needs to be inside the portfolio's security baseline by Monday.
3. Governance-first delivery at portfolio scale
We were built for private equity. Our operating model assumes multiple entities, multiple jurisdictions, aggressive integration timelines, and a board that expects reporting it can act on.
Every security service we deliver is designed around documented controls, evidence collection, and attestation-ready reporting, because that is what our clients are asked to produce. Our own SOC 2 Type 2 attestation reflects the same discipline applied to ourselves.
Our commitment
Attaining the Security designation is a milestone we are proud of. It is also a floor, not a ceiling. The Partner Capability Score is measured continuously, and we intend to keep meeting it the same way we earned it: by putting certified engineers on client work and by making sure what we deploy actually gets used.
To the clients whose environments contributed to this score: thank you. This designation is, in the most literal sense, a measure of your success on Microsoft's platform.
Ready to see where your portfolio stands? Request a Security Posture Review for one or more portfolio companies. We benchmark identity, threat protection, and data governance against the Microsoft baseline we operate across our client base, and deliver a board-ready findings summary.
