28 01732 759725 CLOUD MARKETPLACES Integrating different elements In this context, Phylip Morgan emphasised the importance of integrations between the different elements of that ecosystem as the market moves more and more to a subscription-led go-to-market. “It’s a case of integrate or die. If you haven't got an API to your platform, then that's really going to hold you back in the information interchange that is required for the channel. Going forward, there will be no single pane of glass, but an aggregated environment that will require all kinds of ecosystems, portals and marketplaces with integration built-in to satisfy consumer-led demand to buy services by subscription.” Robin Ody chose the example of billing to illustrate this point, on the basis that accurate billing is fundamental to an MSP’s operations and customer relationships, arguing that vendors could be doing much more to facilitate billing accuracy through better integration. “There is often discussion around what a distributor is going to do to integrate with their vendors. My question is what is the vendor going to do to integrate with marketplaces? One bit of data we got back from a survey was that one of the most valuable things cloud marketplaces can do for MSPs is to deliver a bill they can trust, particularly now when price changes happen every year and you have as-a-service consumption and cloud consumption.” Walsh views accurate billing as a competitive advantage and says that one of the company’s priorities is to streamline the provisioning, the aggregation and the orchestration of bills so that MSPs are encouraged to buy more from within its marketplace. An open ecosystem He added that what Pax8 is not interested in doing is stopping partners from buying from other marketplaces including those of the hyperscalers. He believes strongly that the ecosystem must be open and praises Microsoft’s foresight in this area. “Microsoft has set up its marketplace so that if a vendor adds a product we can order it if we don't already have it on our line card. A vendor on the Microsoft marketplace can be ordered through Pax 8 as if it were a Microsoft SKU. It's an easy way for us to take advantage of products that are over in the Microsoft marketplace and not on ours. There's some setup required, but it's minimal compared to the onboard requirements that we would have if we were starting from scratch, because we’ve already built that API layer into Microsoft.” Ody said: “At the moment about 15% of marketplace business goes through the channel and that is increasing to about 30% over the next few years. And in part that's increasing because of the work companies like Microsoft and AWS have done to improve the way they work with the channel because they realise that the value in the marketplace is not just delivering products to end users. Yes, you can do that. But the point is the channel still has a value because it knows its customer and answers customer problems and builds solutions.” He suggests that for this reason Pax8 was very wise when it entered the UK market to make the point that they were coming in with people and investing in resource: “In the MSP world, you have to recognise that the human element is where the value happens.” Self-serve for vendors According to Walsh, Pax8 is also investing to make it easier for vendors to decide which marketplaces to pick, for example by giving them the opportunity to selfserve more. “The vendor could benefit from selfservice in marketplaces, for example by being able to set up their profile, add new products or change pricing. Our future vision is to enable self-service, to give that vendor the right to our APIs, to allow that vendor to not only set up and control and manage their catalogue, what's on the shelves, but also to gain insight into who’s buying. If you can provide that through a marketplace platform, you're adding value for a vendor,” he said. www.pax8.com Following October’s Canalys Forums 2023 channel event in Barcelona, cloud marketplace provider Pax8 held a briefing to discuss some of the issues raised in conversations with MSPs and in onstage debates and roundtable discussions. Pax8 co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Ryan Walsh, EMEA CEO Harold Nuij, EMEA Chief Revenue Officer Phylip Morgan and Robin Ody, Principal Analyst, MSP Analysis at Canalys, all highlighted the importance of Pax8 to the MSP ecosystem. Walsh cited its 86% compound annual growth rate, which he said was due to both its technology platform and its partner enablement activities – “The combination is what makes a marketplace thrive or be an empty Mall” – while Nuij described Pax8’s position at the heart of vendor and partner relationships. “I think our cloud commerce marketplace really sits at the centre of this modern ecosystem where we really try to orchestrate our partners, the vendors and the customers of our partners, with the ultimate goal of enabling MSPs to grow their business, be more operationally efficient and manage risk.” The role of cloud marketplaces in an evolving ecosystem How Pax8 is adding value for MSP partners and vendors Phylip Morgan
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