What is a subscription marketplace?


A subscription marketplace builds on the traditional online marketplace by allowing a vendor to sell subscriptions to their physical or digital products. A SaaS marketplace facilitates the sale and purchase of agreements for the use of digital software products and solutions for a set period, on a recurring basis. IaaS marketplaces are the same in that they sell solutions based around cloud infrastructure including cloud hosting, networking, storage, and data services, all through different cloud providers.




Contents

  1. What is a SaaS / IaaS / XaaS marketplace?
  2. What is SaaS / IaaS / XaaS catalog management?
  3. Why is a subscription marketplace important?
  4. Why is catalog management important?
  5. How can subscription marketplaces and catalog management help you?


What is a SaaS / IaaS / XaaS marketplace?


A SaaS / IaaS / XaaS marketplace is a marketplace that supports payments from customers for permission to use their products or solutions for a period, based on agreements from vendors. IaaS, or infrastructure as a service, includes hosting, data, storage, etc. SaaS, or software as a service, includes software solutions. XaaS, or everything as a service, includes quite literally everything – from software, to infrastructure, and physical goods, often bundled together.

Subscription-based marketplace agreements can be renewed on an ongoing basis, which generates recurring revenue for ISVs, tech vendors, IT distributors and resellers.


What is SaaS / IaaS / XaaS catalog management?


SaaS / IaaS / XaaS catalog management is the process of managing the exchange of SaaS / IaaS / XaaS solution delivery between an ISV, tech vendor, IT distributor or reseller, and the end customer. Catalog management involves several tasks, including maintaining product logos, product names and product descriptions in every language needed by the customer. Some other aspects of catalog management include:

  • Managing your product groups that are required for the product catalog 
  • Manage the product group visibility for your business partners
  • Enabling automated activation of your syndication contracts for your catalog 
  • Maintain reseller accounts associated with your product group


What is a SaaS marketplace


Why is a subscription marketplace important?


Building a subscription marketplace creates new revenue opportunities for the owner of the cloud platform marketplace on an ongoing, recurring basis. Because subscriptions are often digital rather than physical, overheads and expenses are reduced thanks to easier management and lower costs. However, there are contracts, delivery, pricing, and solution changes to manage, which can be done more efficiently with a subscription management platform that incorporates automation.

Why is catalog management important?


Catalog management is important in terms of keeping details up to date on each product and solution offered as part of a digital subscription. Using a catalog management solution or platform allows for easy organization of offerings, adding new ones, and keeping product and solution information up to date in multiple languages, including names, imagery, and descriptions.






How can subscription marketplaces and catalog management help you?


Telcos

Facing a saturated market, telcos can increase ARPU by operating a subscription marketplace. With catalog management, telcos can ensure they can most efficiently keep their offerings current.

MSPs

Rather that working with individual vendors, MSPs increase efficiency by quoting, procuring, provisioning, and managing processes via with an IaaS/SaaS/XaaS subscription marketplace that follows best practices for catalog management.

IT Distributors

With margins under pressure, IT distributors can increase ARR by delivering digital solutions, following a lower cost and higher margin model. Proper catalog management ensures they can quickly find what they need for their customers.



ISVs

ISVs can extend their reach and scale their business by making their solutions available for purchase on a cloud marketplace. Rather than going it alone, ISVs benefit from this one-to-many approach.

Tech Vendors

Tech vendors benefit from subscription marketplaces in the form of recurring revenue and easier distribution. For example, Microsoft sells it software largely through distributors and resellers.








Ready to learn more about subscription marketplaces?


Here are more resources about subscription marketplaces and catalog management for SaaS, IaaS and XaaS, including how you can build your own, white-labeled subscription marketplace with CloudBlue.


CloudBlue Catalog

Build a Cloud Marketplace

Learn More

Power Your Subscription Commerce

Learn More

CloudBlue’s End-to-End Distribution Platform

Learn More









Mike Jennett, Director of CloudBlue Platform Strategy, is an accomplished business and technology executive. With a deep focus on product development and go-to-market strategy, he plays a pivotal role driving strategic growth and market expansion. Mike’s career is characterized by his adeptness in driving technological advancements and his commitment to leading digital transformations with experience including IDC where he was VP of the Mobility and Digital Transformation IEP practices, and HP where he held numerous leadership roles. Mike’s expertise is also reflected in his published works and contributions to multiple tech publications. Mike holds a B.A. from California Polytechnic University.
Having previously to strategic product management, agile transformations, and user experience in CloudBlue, Taylor Giddens heads the Services & Solutions team where he ensures smooth delivery, operations and solution growth for our partners and customers.

The team includes technical account management, managed services, support, custom solution development, and customer enablement.

Prior to CloudBlue, his resume boasts leadership of some of the world’s largest companies during their digital transformations and marketplace launches. Taylor is a practitioner of servitude leadership when it comes to enabling his team to drive positive outcomes on the road to operational excellence.
Laurens van Alphen, a visionary entrepreneur with over 29 years of internet technology expertise, serves as Director of Technical Managed Services at CloudBlue, responsible for Operations and Delivery of CloudBlue SaaS.

As a Dutch racing champion and car enthusiast, he brings the same drive to the tech realm, steering Keenondots from a managed hosting firm to a global cloud enablement leader. Laurens is celebrated for his outcome-driven leadership, deep industry insight, and passion for balancing business innovation with client engagement.
Lincoln Lincoln is CloudBlue’s Head of Global Sales; having been with the company since November 2017. Leading CloudBlue’s global go-to-market organization, he’s responsible for driving accelerated and sustained mutual growth with CloudBlue’s customers and partners, as well as forming new customer partnerships across the Vendor and Provider ecosystem. As part of CloudBlue’s leadership team he is responsible the organisation’s revenue and continued market leadership by delivering and supporting products, services and solutions to organizations in established and new markets around the world.

Before joining CloudBlue, Lincoln was AppDirect’s Regional Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, responsible for forming, building and leading AppDirect’s business and operations across the APJ geography. He built and led AppDirect’s fastest growing and highest performing region globally within 3yrs.

Before joining AppDirect, Lincoln was EMC’s Practice Manager, Cloud Service Providers, APJ, working with the leading Service Providers to maximise their Cloud Business presence & market success. Lincoln joined EMC in 2007, and has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, having been based out of Singapore, Australia and the UK. Prior to EMC, he was in range of sales and channel positions at Symantec and VERITAS.

Lincoln has an Honours degree in Business Administration from Kingston University in the United Kingdom.
Brent Clooney is the Executive Director and Associate General Counsel for Ingram Micro Inc., and lead counsel for CloudBlue.

Brent is a Canadian based corporate lawyer with more than 20 years of experience as a strategic legal advisor both in private practice and as in-house counsel to large multi-national companies. Prior to joining Ingram Micro in 2008, he worked at a well-respected corporate law firm in Toronto, Canada and later served as general counsel for Toshiba Canada. During his 15-year tenure at Ingram Micro, he has held positions of increasing complexity and responsibility, and since being promoted to his current role in 2022, Brent is the legal lead for both Ingram Micro’s Canadian and global cloud businesses, as well as CloudBlue.

Brent holds a law degree (LL.B.) from Queen’s University, a Psychology degree (B.A. Honours) from Lakehead University, and has been admitted to the bar in Ontario, Canada since 2002.
Anurag serves as the Head of Product Management for CloudBlue and is responsible for product direction and driving innovation. His leadership has been marked by a keen focus on customer needs, growing the ISV ecosystem, and ensuring the continual evolution of CloudBlue’s product portfolio.

Anurag joined Ingram Micro in 2017 and has been instrumental in, positioning CloudBlue as an industry leading monetization platform for MSP’s, Telco’s and Distributors. Previously Anurag worked at Oracle and Microsoft where he managed many technology projects and programs.
As VP of Engineering of CloudBlue, Rony oversees the development and engineering efforts of the company. He is a recognized leader with more than 25 years of experience in Technology and Product.

Prior to joining CloudBlue Rony lead the R&D efforts at Tripwire acquired by Thoma Bravo, and Cedexis acquired by Citrix. Rony is a leader with extensive experience in transforming both complex technology problems into products that customers love and disjointed organizations into agile high performing teams.
Coen is a distinguished leader and entrepreneur in the realm of cloud technology. Currently serving as CEO of Keenondots and the Global Director of CloudBlue SaaS. He is passionate about driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and leading high-performing teams to achieve transformative results.

With a background as Managing Director of INTO Cloud and a pivotal role as Director of Products of KPN, he brings a wealth of experience in steering organizations through the complexities of the digital landscape.

Beyond the boardroom, Coen is a marathon enthusiast, demonstrating endurance and discipline in pursuit of both professional and personal goals.
Alyson has over twenty years of experience in demand generation, marketing automation and data management. She is responsible for leading the strategy and direction of the company’s brand, performance, and digital marketing.

Prior to CloudBlue, Alyson served as Ingram Micro’s Director of Global Business Intelligence Marketing Automation driving channel partner campaigns. Her tenure in marketing leadership at prestigious companies such as Western Digital, Ocean Institute celebrates redefining marketing campaigns and building top performing teams based on trust, experimentation, and results.

Alyson resides with her husband and three children in Orange County and is an active volunteer and donor within her children’s sports and education programs.

Darek Tasak is leading Customer Success & Value Creation for CloudBlue. In his role, he looks after CloudBlue customers globally during the entire lifecycle of our relationship: from the initial on-boarding, through in-life account management, always ensuring they build successful businesses leveraging our technology. Additionally, he is also in charge of Partnership & Alliances, as well as Pricing Management for everything we commercialize.


Before CloudBlue, Darek managed Ingram Micro’s Services division for hi-tech customers in Europe & APAC. His prior experiences include also launching and leading pan-European services business for TDSynnex, as well as strategy consulting with Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

As President of CloudBlue, Uddhav is a distinguished leader and visionary with nearly two decades of platform-building experience. He is an industry leader in digital commerce, the subscription economy, and monetization platforms.


Notably, at SAP, he spearheaded the transformation of their platform business into a multi-cloud platform-as-a-service, offering enterprise and developer-friendly subscription models. At Pure Storage, he championed the efforts to successfully disrupt the storage industry by creating revolutionary Storage-as-a-service, AIOps-as-a-service, and Disaster Recovery-as-a-service offerings with cutting-edge features and establishing a sophisticated subscription commerce infrastructure that is channel-friendly.


At CloudBlue, Uddhav guides and empowers businesses to rethink their monetization strategies by unlocking the power of digital ecosystems and marketplaces. CloudBlue provides enterprises with a mature multi-tier, multi-channel marketplace and monetization platform that enables usage-based subscription models and global delivery of Anything-as-a-Service solutions. Uddhav has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of the subscription economy through his innovative thinking and impactful contributions.

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