I recently learned about the Microsoft Partner Program and the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, which made me curious if there is a way to find out if the recommendations are being pushed because of an undisclosed financial incentive.
I spent 5 years at the architecture level in a midsized .NET company and I got to see the self-reinforcing ecosystem in action. Companies are given discount incentives for Microsoft software like SQL Server based on the number of employees they have who have official Microsoft certifications, which further attempts to keep tech staff invested in the stack.
How can I tell?