What are Cloud Marketplaces?
Cloud technology has revolutionized the way businesses across the globe function. Its cost-effectiveness and efficiency have helped enterprises to grow exponentially in an intensely competitive market. But there’s another interesting aspect of Cloud-technology that has been gaining momentum in the past few years — Cloud Marketplaces.Cloud Marketplaces are the one-stop shop for an organization’s software needs. Leading cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud run their own marketplaces and offer their customers access to a massive range of native and third-party applications.In February 2020, the public cloud marketplace surpassed the $1 trillion cap with an enormous 45% growth rate, as reported by Bessemer Venture Partners in the 2020 state of Cloud report.Not only are CMPs providing enterprises a seamless buying experience, they are also benefiting them in a number of other ways. Let’s dive deep into why buyers are rapidly shifting to cloud marketplaces instead of sticking to traditional software procurement methods.
Advantages of buying from cloud marketplaces
Many Needs, One Solution
Cloud marketplaces are the one-stop solution for a company’s software demands. Enterprises no longer need to spend days evaluating different software and conversing with different SaaS providers, looking for the software that suits their requirements.
Mega marketplaces like AWS and Microsoft Azure offer a rich catalog of applications ranging from security to analytics to financial services to customer management with every app ready to be deployed at a single click.
Organizations can save major costs by eliminating all the to and fro between multiple vendors. When everything is available in one place, procurement becomes a simplified process, empowering companies to direct all their resources on business development and growth.
Accelerated Deal Velocity
Cloud marketplaces have streamlined software procurement to the level where buyers no longer need to worry about sourcing, reviewing, negotiating and managing multiple software vendors at the same time. Neither do they have to be concerned about any extra legalities and data security as every offer listed on a marketplace is thoroughly screened and reviewed.
Adding to these benefits is smooth and easy product deployment — companies can buy with a click, get started and pay their bills duly. Buyers can also choose whatever billing model suits them the best as per their requirements.
It would be not wrong to say that cloud marketplaces have completely transformed the way people buy software. It’s now as easy as purchasing a T-shirt from Amazon.
Benefit from Pre-committed Spend on Cloud Services
We’ve been working closely with marketplaces and SaaS buyers for quite some time now and we’ve witnessed that cloud providers are willing to provide their existing customers great discounts if buyers choose to purchase applications from their marketplaces.
With committed annual spending of millions of dollars on cloud infrastructure, enterprises have a good opportunity to leverage their already dedicated expenditure to save money.
This is a suitable arrangement for them in two ways —
- They don’t need to go around looking for vendors for their multiple software requirements. They can simply procure products from their cloud providers’ marketplace while being assured that they are purchasing from someone they already trust.
- They save money. Resources are limited while the demand for technology is on the rise. The shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic drove a rapid rise in demand for infrastructural software — for companies to support effortless collaboration, ensure data security and enable a seamless virtual workflow.
Balancing budget constraints and surging demand is a tricky task and enterprises look for approaches that help them eliminate any useless expense. This is where cloud marketplaces enter and change the game. Companies can draw down on their regular cloud spending and get discounts making some additional expenditures, which they would not get otherwise.
Conserve Resources
Before the emergence of Cloud Marketplaces, buying software was a laborious task that required extensive human and monetary capital to ensure that everything from searching for vendors to procurement to tech maintenance runs smoothly.
We’ve already highlighted all the paperwork that went into the buying process but the post-buying stage was much more tedious. Engineering resources were required to integrate different software with the existing cloud which would require a whole another set of paperwork and supervision. All-in-all: hassle, hassle, and hassle.
Cloud Marketplaces swipe off the word ‘hassle’ completely with their shelves brimming with pre-integrated applications that are ready to use immediately post-buying.
Don’t even get us started on the ease of access to technical support. Cloud providers are at a liability to help buyers in case of any technical issues. This keeps sellers on their toes as their partnership with marketplaces hangs in balance if they fail to offer the needed support.
These are the four key reasons why cloud marketplaces like Azure, AWS and Google are gaining popularity day by day and will continue to do so. They’ve become an efficient channel for procuring software and selling software.If you’re thinking of tapping into the potential of cloud marketplaces for growing your software business but don’t know what strategy works the best for you, then SaaSify is the answer to your troubles. Our platform helps you get listed on marketplaces quickly and our expert team offers you end-to-end guidance on designing an effective marketplace strategy for you to get ahead of the competition and secure hundreds of new customers.SaaSify is the smartest solution to your marketplace business vision.Marketplace success is just a click away!