Public Cloud Marketplaces Causing Challenges for Technology Vendors

Technology by its nature is a complex beast, an entire industry of technology service providers exists to provide expertise to deploy, configure and operationalise complex technology.

Technology vendors have created detailed training and certification programs to ensure only skilled hands deploy their technology in order to ensure customer satisfaction. Technology vendors have also created partner certification programs whereby only registered and certified partners have access to procure equipment for customer deployment. 

Placing the technology in skilled hands ensures proper implementation of the technology and improves the outcome of the end-user client and; the resultant outcome is that the technology vendor’s reputation is enhanced and additional sales ensue.

If I were to simplify….there are some household jobs where I think I’m pretty capable, and combined with an innate love of power tools, I think I could do a better job than any hired handyman. On many an occasion I have had to admit defeat and, with cap in hand, call a professional to “fix” what I’d started. 

Well, the same is true with what is happening in the technology industry…Many Marketplaces have now become established, from large to small; the most prolific being those of AWS, Azure, and other larger Cloud providers. As Cloud does, this now enables almost anyone to “click to deploy” a large range of technology vendor services. 

This has enabled end users and un-certified technology organisations to click-to-deploy via these marketplaces. Any unskilled, un-certified, inexperienced person can now deploy (or attempt to deploy) a complex technology product. And they do…

We see hundreds of complex technology products downloaded on a daily basis, used for a day or two and then disappear. When we enquire from the downloader, most of the time the comments range from: 

“I couldn’t get it to work”, “it was too hard”, “it just didn’t work”, “I found something else”. 

From the Technology Vendor perspective this has unleashed a complex problem. In the world of Cloud and Marketplaces, their registration and certification programs have been totally disintermediated; anyone has access to their technology, no matter skill or experience. Downloads increase, failed deployments increase, negative commentary increases and Vendors must work harder to achieve sales. 

Technology vendors are challenged by this new paradigm and are struggling to find solutions. Technology service providers are challenged because their vendor registrations and certifications have also been devalued. Impacts are still being assessed and fallout has yet to be quantified, but the technology market has forever changed.

Example Westcon "White Glove" Process to Purchase & Deploy a Palo Alto Virtual Instance from a Public Cloud Marketplace