The great channel debate: Born-in-the-cloud or Traditional partners?

I thought i will take a slight de-tour in this NL and talk of my early channel building experience at AWS for this episode. I joined #AWS India from #IBM and one of the first (among many other new ones those days) terms I learnt was "Born in the cloud partner"( Let's just called them BIC here). In the initial days we used; perhaps even over used, this term very often. I came over from IBM and till then, the only partners I had known were the hardware, software and services partners. Know by many names; resellers, Value added resellers, system integrators, they all essentially came from the world of buying and selling hardware and software. I have had the previledge of knowing and working closely with some of these partners over the last two decades and to me the term "born in cloud" was both intriguing and fascinating. Having lived through the hey days of the build up of the "born in the cloud" partner ecosystem, I have now come to deeply appreciate both the organisations as well the people who built them.

So if you are a channel manager at a SaaS provider and looking to build or expand an existing ecosystem, you should consider a few aspects before deciding whether BICs suit for your business growth needs or Traditional partners. I always visualise this like two trains running in two parallel tracks in the opposite directions and chasing a common goal(aka markets/clients). One has a superior skills, agility while the other has depth, scale and experience. Whom you select as a partner purely depends on your business needs but a few points to consider are as below:

• Delivery capabilities- Most BICs started as agile delivery engines for early cloud providers such as AWS, GCP etc and grew rapidly out of the need of these providers to launch faster into the markets. Traditional partners were initially slow to respond to the demand but have since then caught up well and are scaling these capabilities.
• Skills: This, to me is the biggest asset for Born-in-the-cloud partners as they have the skills and expertise to help businesses migrate to, deploy and manage cloud applications and optimize their cloud workloads. Traditional partners are still in the skill build out phase and may have some cloud skills but they may not be as up-to-date on the latest cloud technologies.
• Agility: Born-in-the-cloud partners are more agile than traditional partners. They can quickly adapt to changes in the cloud market and the needs of their customers. Traditional partners may be more slow-moving and bureaucratic.
• Financial heft: Traditional partners have well established financial relationships with various intermediatories in the market(distributors, financial instiutions etc) and they are extremely efficient in capital deployment and rotation for business needs. This isprimarily due to the years they have spent in the trenches honing their financial capabilities and the knowing the market dynamics better. BICs are still learning some of the ropes.
• Depth in client relationships: Traditional partners are more likely to have longer lasting and deeper relationships with enterprise clients while BiCs may be more willing to work with cloud native customers and new age enterprises to understand their needs and develop customized solutions. Establishing trust and credibility in a market where traditional partners have longstanding relationships. Transforming business models, upskilling workforce, and managing the balance between legacy and cloud.
• Culture: BICs tend to have a startup-like culture, flat hierarchies, and a high degree of flexibility while traditionals might have more hierarchical structures, established processes and a blend of old and new cultural elements.

Ultimately, the best type of partner for a business depends on its specific needs. If a vendor is looking for a partner with deep cloud expertise and a focus on agility, then a born-in-the-cloud partner is a good choice. If, on the other hand, a business is looking for a partner with a broader range of skills and experience, then a traditional partner may be a better fit.