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Cloud marketplaces are not new and provide users with a smart, low-touch, easy way to get started with data management in the cloud. In today’s market buyers want better solutions to meet their personalized needs, and this has made public cloud marketplaces even more popular for doing business. Public cloud marketplaces leverage a cloud-based commerce model that enables businesses to evaluate a range of different options to solve a multitude of issues.

As seen from the Denodo Global Cloud Survey 2020, cloud computing adoption continues to explode. According to Gartner, the global cloud market will reach $411 billion by 2020. Public cloud marketplaces are quickly becoming one of the preferred channels that companies use to research, purchase, and manage their apps. Here’s a closer look at how to develop a marketplace strategy to improve your tech delivery and help your team increase productivity. Opportunity awaits at the doorsteps of cloud users. In this blog, we will explore possibilities and options for working with marketplaces.

Cloud customization and maximizing resources

Every major cloud provider (such as Amazon, Microsoft, or Google) has a marketplace platform that offers a wide variety of solutions. Having a cloud marketplace strategy enables providers to effectively customize their selection of applications without having to wait for official evaluation, and this helps to customize the cloud. The biggest advantage is that you can shop around and pick the right solutions with the price that fits your budget, which makes marketplaces extremely cost effective.

Denodo Cloud Tip: Data virtualization is about integrating disparate data via connect, combine and consume methodology as demonstrated by the Denodo Platform. This is managed via a semantic layer (data access layer) in Denodo, and the Denodo offerings (Azure VMs or Amazon Machine Images – AMI) on the cloud marketplaces allow you to just do that with cost flexibility and a choice of offerings. You can get started with AWS, Azure, or GCP cloud marketplaces using the Denodo Platform in less than an hour.  

Save Time and Money Buying from Cloud Marketplaces

Aren’t you already convinced to try solutions via cloud marketplaces? The idea is to strategically plan based on available resources and the overall budget driving the cloud adoption. Marketplaces are not just for SMBs, as one would expect, as even enterprises are looking for ways to manage their expenses and the overall time it takes to get started. Marketplaces bring the agility, scalability, cost management, and innovation. They are stepping stones that enable businesses to grow, and in fact marketplaces enable the cloud first paradigm, as they provide the requisite time-to-value and speedy deployments. For this reason, different types of marketplaces have evolved, which are technology driven (AWS Container Marketplace), business driven (like Azure AppSource), or even based on industry verticals (such as marketplaces for fintech or healthcare solutions).

Based on the recent Denodo cloud survey, the cloud poses various challenges, shown in the chart below, mainly around cost and license management, and this is why marketplaces provide an easy entry route for building with confidence.

Cloud evaluation challenges that can be alleviated via marketplaces

Cloud marketplace tip: Marketplaces are evolving quickly, making it easier for consumption and subscription sign-ups. For IT leaders/CIOs/CDOs, it’s about the ability to manage costs (pay as you go) and only pay for what you use. It’s a simple evaluation vehicle without having to worry about the billing aspects, as this is managed by the cloud providers. The Denodo Platform on AWS, Azure, and GCP marketplaces offer a variety of choices. Users can start with as low as $2/hour and, based on the average usage of 5 days/8 hours a week, could save more than 60% over 24X7 usage on an annual basis. If you are looking for leveraging marketplaces for cloud burst use cases, you can take advantage of hybrid licensing support as part of Denodo Platform 8, which is slated to come out later in 2020.

Marketplaces and Self-Service Capabilities are Synonymous

Gone are the days where you have to spend weeks or months to get started with a software project. Cloud marketplaces offer the right control over your cloud experience and offer self-service capabilities, which also reduces friction across various organizational departments in getting started. From the recent global cloud survey conducted by Denodo, self-service capability was one of the top reasons for users to leverage cloud marketplaces, drastically reducing the time for decision making, and enabling them to quickly explore and build prototypes without sacrificing their budgets. In addition, various use cases such as simplified BI reporting and analytics, and accelerated data science, can be validated via data virtualization using cloud marketplaces. Research projects, in which users can scale cloud infrastructure while managing costs, is another useful scenario.

Motivation and benefits of cloud marketplaces

Cloud marketplace tip: Various use cases enable one to quickly get started with a marketplace, leveraging simplified procurement, billing, and user management. The flexibility to spend within a certain limit and not have to go through procurement or approval helps streamline the onboarding and testing of a new solution. Denodo offers premium support for all marketplace subscriptions and discounts for annual subscriptions. One can also spin up development/test instances as part of the private offer transaction through the marketplace, and I’ll talk about this in the next section.

Making the best of cloud programs and related resources

There are many ways to capitalize on cloud marketplaces. For example, they come with full-fledged technical support from the solution vendor along with initial onboarding and educational sessions. Vendors offer consulting packages that help with accelerating use-case deployment but more importantly, cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft provide the option of doing private offers through marketplaces. This ties into the other programs such as enterprise discount programs (EDPs), whereby companies can negotiate a discount (buying power) for committing to a certain usage pattern via a marketplace. Hence any solutions bought via marketplaces are eligible for that discount. The ability to embrace and execute based on an agreed-upon enterprise contract makes the deal close much more smoothly and quickly, savings weeks or months of procurement time.

Cloud programs to assist marketplace adoption

Cloud marketplace tip:  Take advantage of cloud programs such as private offers, EDPs, or standard agreements to spearhead your project or subscription sign-up via cloud marketplace. This will not only save immediate time and budget, but can help make the whole journey easy on the wallet.

In summary, cloud marketplaces offer many benefits for all types of users across businesses that are eager to get started with cloud evaluation. The risk is very low and the investment needed is easy to manage and budget. Denodo provides various tools such as cloud test drives for learning about use cases in the cloud, along with a 30-day free trial to build the confidence. While marketplaces seem easy, they might not be best for all scenarios, such as complex enterprise wide deployments, for which it might be best to engage directly with the sales team to outline the best architecture and packaging/pricing to suit your broader needs. My recommendation would be to at least explore the BYOL free trial (essentially where you can test the platform using your own datasets) and/or signup for a pay-as-you-go subscription. Denodo Platform 8, the next generation of the Denodo Platform, will further simplify the user experience via automated, web-based data management and data integration, companies of all stripes to start small and grow at their own pace.

Don’t miss any debate-style 3-part Experts Roundtable Series, and watch cloud service providers, systems integrators, and customer organizations duel it out with their insights into the statistics published from Denodo’s 2020 Global Cloud Survey.

Mitesh Shah
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