The marketplaces of hyperscaler cloud service providers may have some of the flavors of traditional distribution, but they’re not distributors.
Distributors are a mainstay of the channel go-to-market ecosystem. Through the two-tier model, distributors provide the ordering, inventory management, sales, marketing and logistics support that enable vendors to sell to and through partners at scale.
The marketplaces of hyperscalers — cloud service providers — have some of the characteristics of distribution. They’re a repository of products and services that partners can sell through private offers or customers can buy direct. They offer some level of sales and marketing support. And that makes them look like distributors or an alternative to distribution.
In practice, though, hyperscalers are more akin to resellers than distributors. They’re another channel or market route often supported by distribution. Hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google Cloud sell with and through distribution to leverage their resources and channel coverage.
In this infographic, Channelnomics defines and delineates the differences between traditional distributors and hyperscaler marketplaces.
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