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Insightful audio from the global tech advisory firm.
00:00:03:03 - 00:00:40:22
Bola Rotibi
Welcome to the CCS Insight Podcast. My name is Bola Rotibi, and I'm the Chief of Enterprise Research here at CCS Insight and your host for today's discussion on how marketplaces and partnerships drive digital transformation. Joining me today from Amazon Web Services is Marta Whiteaker, Director of AWS Marketplace Center of Excellence. I also have Sid Vajpayee, the Global Coastal LiDAR Cloud and Technology AWS partner from Zscaler, a global provider of secure cloud transformation services. Hello to you both and welcome to the podcast.
00:00:41:01 - 00:00:43:02
Marta Whiteaker
Hi! Good to be here.
00:00:43:04 - 00:00:46:13
Sid Vajpayee
Hello, Bola. Hi, Marta. Thanks for having me here.
00:00:46:15 - 00:01:30:05
Bola Rotibi
That's excellent. We have a fantastic conversation in this podcast. We're going to be diving into how AWS Marketplace and its ecosystem of partners like Zscaler are transforming procurement partnerships and digital transformation. We'll be looking to touch on some key areas, such as the evolution of digital marketplaces, the role of channel partners and also security, digital transformation, addressing customer challenges and future trends. So, let's start by understanding how this marketplace has evolved over the years. What can you share about its journey from being a developer focus to serving digital buyers and B2B millennials?
00:01:30:07 - 00:02:04:17
Marta Whiteaker
Sure, I'd be happy to. And since I have been part of the journey, for now, 12 years, I can take us back to the beginning in 2012 when we first launched to the marketplace. So, we were the first cloud infrastructure provider to launch a B2B, digital online marketplace. And our theme was to be able to enable, customers to be able to find, buy and deploy software that runs on AWS.
00:02:04:19 - 00:02:28:20
Marta Whiteaker
So at that point in time, now, remember, we're back in 2012. It's still somewhat the early days of cloud. A lot of our customers back then were developers who were experimenting in the cloud, working a lot with infrastructure-type software. And a lot of it was being bought for DevTest purposes.
00:02:28:24 - 00:02:53:05
Marta Whiteaker
So this meant that a lot of the customer base, as I told you, was developers who were excited to be able for the first time to really buy software that they could deploy in minutes. Remember, it used to take lots of time to go out and try to source the hardware, get in the queue, get the software bought.
00:02:53:05 - 00:03:19:17
Marta Whiteaker
And now they could do it instantaneously. And they were able at the time to also buy it in a per-usage model, which was revolutionary back then. That's not really all that long ago, a little over a decade ago. And now fast forward to where we are today, where AWS Marketplace is more than just an e-commerce website.
00:03:19:18 - 00:04:05:20
Marta Whiteaker
I mean, we're really transforming the digital supply chain today. We've got over 5,000 sellers that are ISVs, such as Zscaler here, or channel partners, and we have over 20,000 listings. So while I was talking about how we started with just mainly software developers, now today you have buyers across all industries that are not only DevTest, but also enterprise line of business buyers, government and our sellers are ISVs and our channel partners also range from not just infrastructure but also to business applications.
00:04:05:23 - 00:04:28:00
Marta Whiteaker
So while we have lots and lots of security providers like Zscaler, we also have business applications like Salesforce, Adobe, going across the gamut of healthcare, financial services, gaming, retail. So it's grown quite a lot in the in the decade-plus since we launched.
00:04:28:02 - 00:04:54:15
Bola Rotibi
That's fantastic. And over that decade, we've seen that shift as you've talked about. The developers and now, the list that you provided talks about the shift to third-party solutions, like Zscaler, and changing and flexing with the kind of new procurement trends that buyers have also changed, especially if we think about millennials.
00:04:54:15 - 00:05:20:07
Bola Rotibi
Unfortunately, I'm not a millennial. But that kind of self-service capability has really taken hold, and that's something we see. So I'd like to speak to Sid, you've been an AWS Marketplace partner. Could you talk a little bit about Zscaler's experience with the way that the marketplace has evolved over the last 10 to 12 years? What's your experience on that?
00:05:20:09 - 00:05:50:00
Sid Vajpayee
Yes, absolutely, Bola. Zscaler has been a long-term partner of AWS. The partnership goes back about seven or eight years. However, we started to truly adopt and offer our solutions on AWS Marketplace about three years ago, just over three years ago. And at that time, we took a conscious decision to make sure that all our platform offerings are available to customers worldwide on AWS Marketplace.
00:05:50:00 - 00:06:13:03
Sid Vajpayee
They could come and engage us for assessments, if they wanted to see how their infrastructure is set up. Is it secure? They could come and look at our solutions on the marketplace and evaluate them, or if they have done that and they want to invest and deploy Zscaler to improve the security postures, they could come and transact.
00:06:13:05 - 00:06:40:11
Sid Vajpayee
And the first marketplace motion that we enabled was something known as private offers, where customers could come and buy Zscaler. That actually created a new revenue stream for the company. We saw that customers were not just coming in and buying more, but then our deal sizes started to increase. We saw that the average sales time that we had for opportunities was coming down.
00:06:40:17 - 00:07:08:24
Sid Vajpayee
Our retention rates, on renewals, significantly improved as well. Our AWS Marketplace business is quite sizable, running into hundreds of millions of dollars in terms of transacted revenue. I feel good to say that the business is still growing at approximately 100% year-on-year. And we would like to thank our colleagues at AWS for giving us this avenue to co-sell on.
00:07:09:01 - 00:07:16:06
Bola Rotibi
Excellent. That must be some music to your ears, Marta. A very happy partner.
00:07:16:08 - 00:08:01:23
Marta Whiteaker
Yes, we provided the technology and we certainly supported Zscaler as one of our top partners. I will have to acknowledge what a great job Zscaler did in preparing to adopt a digital channel. Yes, there's technology there to use, but it also involves changing your processes, aligning your sales, aligning your ops and Sid and I have worked together over the years and it's been really impressive to see how you have looked at all the different parts of your business to really scale it up, to embrace what a digital channel can do in terms of providing the kind of benefits that you talked about.
00:08:02:00 - 00:08:03:00
Bola Rotibi
That's fantastic.
00:08:03:00 - 00:08:11:14
Sid Vajpayee
Yes, there were a few battle scars, I'll be honest about it. A few learnings. That's fair enough. All right, let's move on.
00:08:11:16 - 00:08:31:04
Bola Rotibi
That's brilliant. You both have talked about the accessibility of marketplaces and the kind of simplicity of accessing solutions and really reaching out to meeting these specific needs of customers. But one of the things I was going to really kind of drill down a little bit onto is the challenges and benefits.
00:08:31:04 - 00:08:48:04
Bola Rotibi
So, you know, marketplace adoption presents some really unique challenges as well as some benefits. And I think we've had a little bit from Sid there, about some of the challenges, but Marta, what have you observed regarding start-ups and enterprise security navigating this shift?
00:08:48:06 - 00:09:12:02
Marta Whiteaker
Yeah. It's not interesting if we don't speak about challenges, right? When you think about what a digital marketplace such as AWS Marketplace does, think of us almost like this scale, right, where we've got speed and agility on one side, but we've got the need for control on the other side. So, to be transparent here.
00:09:12:03 - 00:09:41:10
Marta Whiteaker
When we started, we did a great job with speed and agility. Remember I talked about how you as a customer could go in and buy and deploy in minutes. But guess who didn't think that that was such a great idea? Enterprise procurement, right. So we, as we always do at Amazon, we listen to our customers and we heard loud and clear from enterprise procurement organizations that they needed controls.
00:09:41:13 - 00:10:10:12
Marta Whiteaker
They needed the visibility. They need to know what is being bought. They need to know which terms apply and most importantly, they need to know has it been approved? And so, we spent several years really doubling down on figuring out what are those features and adding those features along the way so that we could have that scale be in more balance for the enterprise buyers.
00:10:10:17 - 00:10:39:21
Marta Whiteaker
Now, while the start-ups also really liked the speed, they also maybe lacked some of the structure on their side to be able to really process things correctly. So, we also continued to develop features and functionality that would support both, one end of the spectrum on speed was with start-ups and the other end of the spectrum with enterprise buyers.
00:10:39:23 - 00:10:58:21
Bola Rotibi
Okay. That makes a lot of sense, actually. So, you know, you talked about those benefits and certainly the challenges, and Sid has already sort of talked a little bit to some of those challenges. But I'd love to know how does Zscaler help organizations overcome these challenges while realizing the benefits of marketplace adoption?
00:10:58:23 - 00:11:18:17
Sid Vajpayee
Yes. Customers, in the last three and a bit years we've been working with them on marketplaces, they've given us feedback that they are now moving towards a stage where they want to centralize procurement across different ISVs and channel partners and AWS Marketplace actually allows them to do that. It gives them a single, pane of view.
00:11:18:17 - 00:11:43:17
Sid Vajpayee
It gives them a lot of analytics over their spending and everything then gets consolidated into one pane to give them full control. And Marta is absolutely right. You know, we need to cater to different types of customers. You will have large enterprises, and then you'll have start-ups or organizations who are at a very different stage in the journey. And coming up with a consistent approach, which you can then apply across the board, is key.
00:11:43:19 - 00:12:05:18
Sid Vajpayee
So when we started to work with AWS Marketplace, we started to set up processes internally in terms of, how do you go and create listings? And then if all the colleagues in our sales organization or channel organizations who are working with these customers and channel partners want to take advantage, then how do you go and create offers?
00:12:05:22 - 00:12:37:09
Sid Vajpayee
How do you publish those offers? How do you help customers subscribe to it? So AWS gave us a lot of tools, which we then built on top of to create a more seamless experience for our customers and partners. And I think that's the key. The best way to go in and manage these customers and partners at different ends of the spectrum is to try and understand what their common goals and objectives are, and then create an experience for them where they tend to get a majority of those requirements fulfilled.
00:12:37:09 - 00:12:55:02
Sid Vajpayee
And there will always be corner cases, where someone would like to have something unique. And in that situation, you should have a team in place. We call it our marketplace operations team. These are awesome people, who are then able to cater to these corner cases. So I think that's how we've approached it at Zscaler.
00:12:55:04 - 00:13:06:09
Sid Vajpayee
And I've been speaking to some of our partners who also work with AWS, and we share best practices, with each other. And this, I think, is the direction in which the market is going to go now, Bola.
00:13:06:11 - 00:13:25:11
Bola Rotibi
That's actually fantastic. And I actually I would like to stay with you, Sid, because you talked about how you talk to and work with partners and AWS channel partners internally, they're very critical to the AWS Marketplace ecosystem. But you have your own partners, so I was wondering, we talk about, you know, sort of like a fourth multiplier in the marketplace.
00:13:25:13 - 00:13:44:13
Bola Rotibi
And you've hinted to that, Sid, in fact you've quite explicitly said that it helps your partners, but is there anything else that you could add to where you've collaborated? How do you help collaborate with other channel partners and other system integrators and other value-added resellers to enhance the customer value?
00:13:44:13 - 00:14:11:20
Sid Vajpayee
Absolutely. Absolutely. Zscaler was a channel first company, in fact, right from the first day, when this company was set up by our founders, they started to invest in the channel ecosystem. We work with large and small system integrators. We work with service providers. We worked with value-added resellers. And these partners, they help us find opportunities.
00:14:11:20 - 00:14:39:02
Sid Vajpayee
They help accelerate existing opportunities. They help us transact, i.e. take the solution to the customers. They then deploy, they then operate these services for the customer on behalf of Zscaler and we have pretty solid channel ecosystem and these are critical towards our journey of becoming a $5 billion a year organization in the near future.
00:14:39:04 - 00:15:02:06
Sid Vajpayee
So I was quite pleased when we started to work with AWS Marketplace and we saw that AWS Marketplace has a very specific motion for consulting partners and channel partners. We have transacted a lot of business with channel partners on AWS Marketplace. You know, Marta will give you more details in terms of how that motion is evolving.
00:15:02:10 - 00:15:22:14
Sid Vajpayee
But from a Zscaler perspective, we want to make this the default motion, we want to leverage the power of three or four. And then when customers come to us, we want to be working very closely with our channel partners and AWS to make sure that we can jointly, together, help provide the services that the customer needs for the business use.
00:15:22:16 - 00:15:26:09
Sid Vajpayee
And also deliver those services to AWS Marketplace.
00:15:26:12 - 00:15:45:16
Bola Rotibi
Well, that's impressive, Sid. And that 5 billion tag is quite a sizable number. And Marta, Sid has hinted at some of the things that, you know, AWS is doing to support this. But I'd love to kind of get your take on what is specifically these are just some help support.
00:15:45:16 - 00:15:54:01
Bola Rotibi
This collaboration helps Sid and his channel partners to the high revenue returns they're looking for.
00:15:54:03 - 00:16:22:20
Marta Whiteaker
Yes. When we started, we supported ISVs to sell directly to customers. But very quickly, we heard from our customers that they also want to work with their trusted partners, which is exactly what Sid was saying. And they want to negotiate their contracts with resellers and distributors and managed service providers.
00:16:22:20 - 00:16:52:11
Marta Whiteaker
So we created, like we did with Private Offer, which allows the ISV and customer to negotiate the terms and pricing, we also then created the Consulting Partner Private Offer, and that enables the ISVs to authorize the consulting partners to receive the wholesale pricing and sell the software to the customer. And that was probably one of the game changers.
00:16:52:11 - 00:17:20:02
Marta Whiteaker
I think that's been one of the fastest-growing parts of the business in AWS Marketplace. And we are, yes, investing, continuing to invest a lot to enable the selling motion of the in-party or multi-party as the, the power of three or power of four as Sid called it because customers buy solutions, right. We want to enable our customers to achieve a business outcome.
00:17:20:02 - 00:17:45:08
Marta Whiteaker
We want marketplace to be able to support that buying journey, and therefore that is not just one party involved. So it is a big focus on what we have been doing and what we will do. One feature that we launched, really one service, that we launched was Professional Services a couple of years ago.
00:17:45:08 - 00:17:52:06
Marta Whiteaker
So, in addition to software, you can also now sell professional services through AWS Marketplace.
00:17:52:08 - 00:18:09:06
Bola Rotibi
So in other words, the marketplace is almost becoming that one-stop shop, a real place for, in the same way that we will see all marketplaces, places to, you know, engage and make relationships so that the relationships can be fostered on the marketplaces.
00:18:09:06 - 00:18:13:01
Bola Rotibi
But you will always have the best self-service. This is actually fantastic.
00:18:13:01 - 00:18:38:21
Marta Whiteaker
If I could just add one point to what Sid said before we go on, because it's really important in this context is as we talk about, you know, what the future is and how we're evolving. One of the key themes we have is what we're calling Marketplace Everywhere. And what that means is, we want the buying journey to happen where customers are.
00:18:38:21 - 00:19:19:04
Marta Whiteaker
And, Sid referenced this, just a minute ago when he was talking about how Zscaler is developing that customer experience. So, in the future we will be working more and more with our partners like Sid and making the tools available for our partners to develop that customer experience the way that their customers want to buy. And then where they're in the background, making sure that we provide, the ability for how the pricing works, the contracting works, the billing works, all of that works.
00:19:19:06 - 00:19:24:22
Marta Whiteaker
But again, leaving that customer experience in the hands of our partners.
00:19:24:24 - 00:19:46:04
Sid Vajpayee
I just want to say that that's one of the best things about AWS Marketplace. There are options out there in the market, right? Let's be honest. There are other hyperscalers, there are other marketplaces. And I think, AWS Marketplace by far is the most robust, evolved, flexible, lots of, platitudes and objectives, come to my mind.
00:19:46:10 - 00:20:17:05
Sid Vajpayee
And what Marta said is absolutely true. Creating the framework to meet customers' requirements, but then giving partners, whether you're an ISV partner or a channel partner, the flexibility to create, publish, transact and then grow their offerings is one of the unique features available at AWS Marketplace. And I think we should highlight that because it does give us a lot of room to not just look at what customers are looking for today, but also what the future is, say, three years or five years down the line.
00:20:17:08 - 00:20:32:17
Sid Vajpayee
And we love the fact that we are able to give those inputs back to AWS, who takes those into consideration, not just from Zscaler, but from all of the partners that AWS has and continues to evolve the marketplace. So I think that's one of the big advantages that AWS gives us.
00:20:32:19 - 00:20:53:18
Bola Rotibi
That's quite a resounding confidence in the marketplace. And it talks to, some of the things that we've been discussing here at CCS Insight. You can imagine at some point where, you know, there'll be these relationships that could be trusted relationships.
00:20:53:18 - 00:21:15:06
Bola Rotibi
Between partners and channel partners on marketplaces, which seems to ensure that as we go forward, maybe the marketplace is a sight of maturity for a mature organization in terms of that digital transformation goal and aims, which is what those organizations are trying to drive towards.
00:21:15:08 - 00:21:34:16
Bola Rotibi
So let me take the conversation a little bit to security and building trust, which talks a little bit about what I've just said. I want to come back to you. Security is always a top priority for enterprises. In fact, every survey we do and we go out, we ask about what are your top priorities, security.
00:21:34:16 - 00:21:51:13
Bola Rotibi
Security just generally, dealing with data privacy, is always on the top-line, certainly if not the top within the top three. So how does Zscaler ensure secure adoption? Certainly with solutions to AWS Marketplace?
00:21:51:13 - 00:22:24:14
Sid Vajpayee
Sure. So Zscaler was started with the mission of securing, simplifying and transforming our customers' businesses. And if you look at today's world, there are a number of technologies out there which impact how business can be more agile and competitive. So, we came up with a very simple, innovative approach about helping customers secure the data, the applications and systems, so we feed in our zero-trust exchange platform, which provides these different capabilities to customers and channel partners.
00:22:24:16 - 00:22:46:14
Sid Vajpayee
Now, having said that, I would like to believe we're really good at what we do. But the reality is that customers would like to take up a solution and deploy it in their estate alongside some of our other partners' solutions. And, a perfect example would be, say, a large enterprise who is trying to move workloads from on-prem to AWS' cloud.
00:22:46:20 - 00:23:12:04
Sid Vajpayee
They would need an identity solution. They would need an end-point solution. They would need someone to secure their customer users' applications and systems. And we work very well with obviously AWS, but we also partner with organizations like CrowdStrike and Okta who are leaders in their spaces. And we saw initially that AWS Marketplace would have listings for all of us individually.
00:23:12:04 - 00:23:32:05
Sid Vajpayee
And we were thinking, when customers are using our solutions in conjunction with one another, not in isolation, how can we go and start to create offerings which are more combined as far as the customer's concerned, so that they don't have to go and pick and choose one and then the second and the third in isolation? And that's where channel partners came into the mix.
00:23:32:05 - 00:23:56:04
Sid Vajpayee
So I'd like to give an example of Securer, channel partners for all of us combined, who has now created a listing on AWS Marketplace, where they are encouraging customers to work with them and then deploy the full zero-trust solution to secure their users and applications and systems with Zscaler, CrowdStrike and Okta while they move their workloads to AWS Marketplace.
00:23:56:04 - 00:24:16:07
Sid Vajpayee
So this for me tends to be something, which is worth calling out because security will, as you say, and is a top priority for customers, but they need to make sure they have the best for each solution for each component under security. And AWS Marketplace gives us and the partners flexibility to offer that.
00:24:16:08 - 00:24:39:05
Bola Rotibi
I love that because you've just validated my prediction. There's a couple of things I love about this, because, first of all, having partners kind of combined together to give a joint, unified, integrated, zero-trust strategy takes away the burden from the end-user, whether that's an enterprise
00:24:39:05 - 00:24:58:01
Bola Rotibi
or a small business, of having to deal with that integration themselves or even have to pay for the solutions on a point-by-point basis. So I think that's brilliant. But the other thing is I can imagine that, as you get these well-known relationships that people will kind of look at, that's already a well-known relationship.
00:24:58:01 - 00:25:18:05
Bola Rotibi
I can go with that. Yeah. So I think that I'm really excited about that. It's important that partners take this off. Marta, very quickly, this must be music to your ears, I know AWS has always focused on what they can do in terms of making sure that their systems and their environments are
00:25:18:09 - 00:25:29:09
Bola Rotibi
optimally secure and all that good stuff. Can you talk a little bit more about anything specific about what you're doing to build customer trust in the security of the AWS Marketplace?
00:25:29:12 - 00:25:55:18
Marta Whiteaker
Yes. Of course. As you said, at AWS, security is job zero. It's our absolute highest priority. So just as we have that top goal with AWS, obviously the same is true with AWS Marketplace. Starting out, we have a very rigorous onboarding process. We know every ISV that we onboard and their products.
00:25:55:20 - 00:26:21:19
Marta Whiteaker
We do evaluations that the product is ready to be sold on the marketplace today. We perform scanning, checking for malware. We monitor the catalogue in the 24 by seven, when malware attacks happen and there are issues, we, depending on what it is, we might quickly address certain products depending on what needs to be done.
00:26:21:24 - 00:26:35:08
Marta Whiteaker
But it's that monitoring 24/7 is what really helps give our customers that trust that we have curated the catalogue and this is what builds trust with our buyers.
00:26:35:10 - 00:26:54:06
Bola Rotibi
It's good to hear that. So, we're coming towards the end of this discussion. I have to say, guys, it's been a brilliant discussion and our podcast listeners will be very interested in what was being said, but I want to try to come to the end to talk about marketplaces as enablers of digital transformation and also a little bit about the future.
00:26:54:08 - 00:27:17:09
Bola Rotibi
Digital transformation, let's face it, it's a critical goal for many organizations. I would probably say all organizations, as they look to evolve and adapt. Marta, in particular, how does AWS Marketplace enable enterprises to achieve these transformational goals and objectives, and what trends do you see shaping the future for the marketplace?
00:27:17:11 - 00:27:37:17
Marta Whiteaker
Let me come back to what you mentioned a little bit earlier with the millennials, right? If you look at millennials, that the crop after 1981, I guess, by the end of this year they're going to drive most of the IT purchasing. And these are digital-first probably digital-native buyers.
00:27:37:17 - 00:28:03:00
Marta Whiteaker
And 75% of this demographic prefers not to talk to a human in the buying process. So really different than the processes that developed over the last couple of decades. Think about how we started in 2012 with self-service. And yes, we added different features and certainly support a co-sell process.
00:28:03:00 - 00:28:12:12
Marta Whiteaker
But you look at these trends, you look at amazon.com, you look at how we behave as humans today, buying on digital marketplaces.
00:28:14:01 - 00:28:49:16
Marta Whiteaker
That really points to the way that we need to continue to develop in the self-service model where customers can go, they can discover, they can test it out, maybe they do a pay-as-you-go, maybe the contracting comes later. But having those features such as free trials and being able to request a demo or an actual Private Offer there on demand, and then automatically deploy those, integrated with AWS services or as Sid described, these integrated solutions, right, that he described in the zero-trust example.
00:28:49:19 - 00:28:59:17
Marta Whiteaker
So as we've always done at Amazon, we listened to our customers, we listened to our partners because that's what helps us shape the future.
00:28:59:19 - 00:29:12:04
Bola Rotibi
That's fantastic. Sid, what can you add to that? What is Zscaler contributing to these transformational journeys? What do you specifically see? I'm particularly interested in your trends that you see.
00:29:12:06 - 00:29:37:21
Sid Vajpayee
Yes, absolutely. Marta's right when she sees that how buyers are, researching, evaluating, buying, deploying, solutions from ISVs is continuously changing all of the time. And we see that as well. For example, we've seen that customers are now looking at more integrated offerings, whether that is from a zero-trust perspective or within just a Zscaler platform.
00:29:37:23 - 00:30:17:07
Sid Vajpayee
So how can we create new offerings where we can offer services which are bundled together rather than on a standalone basis, it's something that is important for us right now. The other trend that we're seeing is that the number of small deal sizes is growing exponentially. So, rather than customers coming in and buying in, say one big goal and then sticking with that on a long-term basis, they probably want to try it out for smaller time periods or they want to buy in phases after ramp-up, to support their business requirements. This is a second trend that we are seeing, and we are adapting to that.
00:30:17:07 - 00:30:42:09
Sid Vajpayee
And the third one, which is very, very relevant to marketplaces right now, is giving customers the flexibility to consume services on a pay-as-you-go basis. And AWS Marketplace has had that. And I love some of the new enhancements that are coming out from their product team on that, which will allow customers to have a full utility basis model for consuming ISV solutions.
00:30:42:09 - 00:30:50:03
Sid Vajpayee
So I would say those three big trends are pretty relevant for us right now, and we are trying to make sure that we can cater to and respond to them.
00:30:50:04 - 00:31:04:17
Bola Rotibi
That's fantastic. Well, I've got to say, this has been a really insightful discussion. Before we wrap up, I'd like to invite each of you to share one final thought or call to action for our listeners. So, Marta, let's start with you.
00:31:04:20 - 00:31:37:00
Marta Whiteaker
My takeaway here for everyone is get started. Get started now. Things are moving really quickly. And with digital marketplaces such as AWS marketplace, it is easy to buy and it is easy to sell. We've come a long way since 2012. I could not have said that in 2012 with a straight face, but I can now, after a decade-plus of developing features and functionality.
00:31:37:00 - 00:31:47:07
Marta Whiteaker
And I think if you don't take advantage of it now, then you will feel like you missed out. So jump in there.
00:31:47:07 - 00:31:50:02
Bola Rotibi
Excellent! Sid? Last thoughts?
00:31:50:04 - 00:32:11:09
Sid Vajpayee
Very similar to Marta's, actually. So, you know, the holiday season is coming up. People will be flying for business and for pleasure as well. A lot of people are going to be going to the airports. Now, here's how I view marketplaces, right? You go to the airport, you check in, you drop your bag, clear security board the plane.
00:32:11:11 - 00:32:37:18
Sid Vajpayee
Now, if you have access to fast track, you can check in faster. You get to drop your bag faster, you can clear security faster. You get to board first. Marketplaces are like that, especially on the AWS Marketplace. So if you're a customer out there or if you're a channel partner out there, or even an ISV and you want to have quick access, then getting on to the AWS Marketplace is going to fast track your journey significantly.
00:32:37:20 - 00:32:56:00
Bola Rotibi
This has been a fantastic conversation. My personal view is that it really does reinforce some of the things that we at CCS Insight have been thinking about in our Predictions event. But it is about bringing together possible certified partnerships and integrated solutions. And I think it's going to ease the way.
00:32:56:00 - 00:33:20:22
Bola Rotibi
And as I said earlier, we talked a little bit about, maybe this is a maturity side of organizations really thinking about their digital transformation and working with marketplace and specifically AWS Marketplace. I'd like to thank you both for sharing your expertise. And giving us really a wonderful conversation. And don't forget to subscribe to the CCS Insight Podcast series for more discussions on technology and integration.
00:33:20:23 - 00:33:25:01
Bola Rotibi
So until next time, stay innovative.
00:33:25:01 - 00:33:26:06
Marta Whiteaker
Thank you, Bola and Sid.
00:33:26:10 - 00:33:26:22
Sid Vajpayee
Thank you.