Cloud marketplaces have become an increasingly important way for customers to buy technology. They can offer a familiar route to procurement, help organizations use their precommitted cloud budgets for eligible purchases and support goals such as consolidating IT spend and simplifying governance.
For partners, though, the opportunity goes well beyond the transaction. A recent report from Canalys (now Omdia) predicts that by 2027, more than half of all hyperscaler marketplace business will flow through partners. That points to an important shift in how technology is bought and sold – and creates an opportunity for partners to bring much more than purchasing convenience to the table.
Partners know their customers. They understand their environments, priorities and cloud investments. Many also bring the services and technical expertise needed to migrate, integrate, deploy, and manage technology after it’s purchased. When we combine that customer intimacy with the reach and capabilities of leading cloud service providers (CSPs) and the Palo Alto Networks platform, marketplaces can become a powerful vehicle for creating value across the ecosystem.
One of the most important principles in any marketplace strategy is also one of the simplest: Meet customers where they want to buy.
Organizations have established relationships with CSPs and, in many cases, significant cloud commitments. They may also have specific pricing arrangements, governance requirements and procurement processes tied to those relationships. A marketplace purchase can allow them to work within that existing framework rather than introduce an entirely separate buying motion.
The opportunity for partners is to understand those dynamics early. Does the customer have a cloud commitment? Is there a marketplace budget available? Are there CSP programs that could support the opportunity? Would purchasing through the marketplace make the process easier or provide a commercial advantage?
Palo Alto Networks works across the four major CSP ecosystems – AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) – giving partners the flexibility to follow customers to the cloud environments and marketplaces that make sense for them. Through Palo Alto Networks agreements with CSPs and benefits available through the reimagined NextWave Partner Program, marketplace transactions can also carry relevant pricing advantages for eligible partners and customers.
The goal is to understand how and where the customer wants to buy, then build the opportunity from there.
Of course, procurement is only the beginning. A marketplace can make technology easier to purchase, but partners can help customers turn that purchase into adoption and value.
Say a customer is looking to secure AI adoption, migrate infrastructure to the cloud, modernize on-premises infrastructure or transform its network. Addressing any of those priorities takes more than selecting technology. The customer may also need help assessing their IT environment, deploying and integrating new capabilities, and connecting their investment to a broader security strategy.
Partners are often closest to those needs because they already have trusted relationships with customers. Many are also managed security services providers (MSSPs) or have other services capabilities they can provide around a marketplace transaction.
That creates an opportunity to do more than facilitate a sale. Partners can combine Palo Alto Networks technology with their own services and expertise to develop a more complete offer for the customer. In turn, that can expand the value of the engagement, support technology adoption and create opportunities to develop and expand more strategic customer relationships.
Palo Alto Networks has long recognized this role for partners. The newly evolved NextWave Partner Program includes marketplace, resale, managed security services, support and delivery models, reflecting the different ways partners contribute throughout the customer lifecycle.
Marketplace opportunities can also open the door to platform discussions. Customers rarely look for “platformization” from the outset. Most often, they just want to solve a specific problem. They may need to protect an AI initiative, secure a cloud migration, modernize infrastructure or improve connectivity for a cloud-first environment. But those priorities often intersect with other cybersecurity needs.
That gives partners an opportunity to start with the customer’s immediate need and identify how a more integrated, consolidated approach can deliver additional value. This is where complementary capabilities across the ecosystem can come together. CSPs provide the cloud platforms and services customers use. Palo Alto Networks extends security across those environments. And partners bring the technical expertise, services and customer context needed to connect those capabilities to specific needs.
Rather than viewing each technology purchase in isolation, partners can help customers consider how it contributes to a broader security strategy. And as we develop marketplace sales motions in additional areas, including identity, partners will have even more opportunities to connect capabilities around customers’ evolving needs.
For all the attention cloud marketplaces receive as a digital route to market, much of the opportunity today is still deeply relationship-based. It starts with identifying the customer need, understanding that customer’s cloud strategy and commitments, bringing the right value proposition and then getting the right people around the table.
Success hinges on effective collaboration between the partner, the customer, the CSP, and our dedicated Palo Alto Networks account and alliance teams. Through early qualification and joint account planning, we can collectively pinpoint customer challenges, determine the best purchasing route, and define how each stakeholder can contribute to the solution.
This is also where marketplace strategy connects directly to the value exchange in cybersecurity I’ve discussed previously. Partners, vendors and other members of the ecosystem invest in different capabilities – technology, knowledge, skills, services and customer relationships – and create greater value when those investments are aligned around the customer. Public cloud marketplaces give us another way to put that model into action.
Cloud marketplaces are already changing how customers purchase technology; however, I believe we have only scratched the surface of what partners, CSPs and technology providers can accomplish together as these marketplaces evolve.
For partners, the next step is to understand the CSP initiatives and marketplace programs relevant to their customers, identify where their own services and expertise can add value, and be ready to act when the right opportunity emerges.
Reach out to your Palo Alto Networks team to schedule a sales enablement session, learn the relevant CSP sales motions, identify opportunities within your customer base and understand how to submit deal registrations through the NextWave Partner Program.
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