NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Nov. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cloudforce today announced it has won the Education 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
Cloudforce also won the award in 2025 and is the first company to be named Microsoft's Education Partner of the Year twice. Both wins trace back to one mission: helping students everywhere prepare to contribute meaningfully to an AI-powered world. More than 100 universities now use nebulaONE, Cloudforce's AI platform, to bring that mission to their campuses, and Cloudforce has more than doubled its annual recurring revenue over the last 12 months. nebulaONE is now the leading AI platform for higher education worldwide.
“Students today are entering a job market that AI is rewriting in real time, and many of them are anxious about where they fit,” said Husein Sharaf, CEO of Cloudforce. “We believe universities play a pivotal role helping them answer that, because no AI model can replace their faculty’s lived experience. Our work is to put that expertise within reach of every student, at any hour, on infrastructure the university trusts and controls. Working with Microsoft, we want every graduate to leave campus ready to use AI with confidence and good judgment, and ready to do work that matters. This award belongs to the more than 100 universities already making that happen.”
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards celebrate partners delivering exceptional customer outcomes through Microsoft Cloud, AI, services, and devices. This year’s winners and finalists were selected from more than 4,500 nominations submitted worldwide across a diverse range of categories and geographies. Cloudforce was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Education.
The Education award honors partners whose Microsoft-based solutions produce measurable improvements for higher education or K-12 institutions. It recognizes achievements in teaching and learning, educational access and equity, operational efficiency, and student and faculty experiences.
nebulaONE reflects what the universities moving fastest on AI have learned in its first years on campus. Students get the most from AI that knows their courses and their unique preferences, so nebulaONE connects to the university’s systems and works from professors’ approved materials. Faculty decide how their intellectual property is used. Universities choose their AI models, change them without rebuilding courses, and pay only for what students and staff actually use rather than for idle seats. Everything runs inside the university’s own Microsoft Cloud environment, so student data, research, and course content stay under the institution’s control. Cloudforce engineers handle governance, compliance and integration, so universities reach production quickly and keep expanding from there.
“We started very simply with two production use cases, and that was delivered to us within 30 business days,” said Howard Miller, CIO of UCLA Anderson School of Management. “Where we’ve been able to scale that to is over three dozen production agents at this point. It’s being used by staff, it’s being used by faculty, it’s being used in the classroom.”
“Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” said Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. “This year’s honorees are harnessing the power of Microsoft Cloud and AI to deliver transformative solutions, accelerate customer success, and expand what’s possible. Their ingenuity and impact inspire us, demonstrating what can be achieved when bold vision and technology come together to empower organizations around the world.”
The 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards are announced ahead of Microsoft Ignite, which will be held in San Francisco from November 17-20. Additional details on the 2026 awards are available on the Microsoft Partner blog: https://aka.ms/2026POTYA_Announcement. The complete list of categories, winners and finalists can be found at https://aka.ms/2026POTYAWinnersFinalists.
About Cloudforce
Cloudforce builds nebulaONE®, the leading AI platform for higher education worldwide. More than 100 universities use nebulaONE to give students, faculty and staff secure access to AI that is connected to their courses and runs inside the university’s own Microsoft Cloud environment. The only company to win Microsoft’s Education Partner of the Year award twice, Cloudforce is backed by Owl Ventures and M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund. Learn more at www.nebulaone.com.
For additional information:
Courtney McAlister
Walker Sands for Cloudforce
cloudforce@walkersands.com
