An Introduction to XaaS Distribution & the “Partner @ the Core” Mindset
From 2015 forward, many cloud services winners will drive growth by mastering the art of XaaS distribution. What do I mean by XaaS distribution?
XaaS distribution (vs direct-to-customer SaaS) is about “Partner @ the Core” mindset. When your startup executes around Partner @ the Core mindset, your anything-as-a-service (XaaS) innovation gets baked in-or symbiotically attached—to upstream partner apps, clouds, networks, systems and experiences—amplifying your reach and accelerating your momentum, while reducing your marketing/sales spend.
Partner @ the Core mindset is much different than a “Partner @ the Edge” channel mindset. Here’s how. Historically—-if you were setting out to build atech company—as distinct from a B2C or B2B company that uses tech—growth marketers often saw distribution channels as something that functioned “at the edge” of their product—i.e. retailers, VARs, integrators, affiliates. This is what I mean by Partner @ the Edge. And this model continues to evolve as even cloud superpowers like AWS invest in building out partner networks of cloud consultants.
But from the standpoint of a holistic growth marketing approach for startups, there’s more to the age of cloud than ‘@ the edge’ channel partnerships or direct-to-customer programs and practices. Much more.
Cloud in 2015 is increasingly about plug & play ‘new stack’ & nativemicroservices architectures—-what some have described as a ‘composable’ enterprise vision. And in this new stack or composable enterprise context, a stickier set of monetizable partnering options is consistently available to XaaS innovators—-if and when they focus their biz dev and marketing efforts….”@ the core” of their prospective partner’s business. Time and again, history has proven this to be true—across hundreds of categories and successive generations of tech industry evolution—as the biggest and most long-term platform winners often begin life as “ingredient” players—providing value inside of or symbiotically attached to the products and services of incumbent vendors.
Fast forward to today’s anything-as-a-service innovation wave and we can see the potential of this very same Partner @ the Core growth pattern.
Fueled by the mainstreaming of cloud first, mobile first, API first digital industrialization, ‘point XaaS’ innovators (E.G. ‘security as a service’ or ‘analytics as a service’ or ‘file-sharing as a service’ etc.) are increasingly entering into partner deals and relationships in which they get plugged in to the architectures, roadmaps, agendas and value propositions of cloud and enterprise superpowers.
This is the practical essence of what I mean by the term “Partner @ the Core”—sticky partnering at the very heart of an incumbent leader’s established center of market gravity—i.e. their product set, installed base of customers, and established developer ecosystems.
XaaS Distribution: 10 Common Modalities
Partner @ the Core mindset enables innovators to execute around multiple modalities of XaaS distribution. These modalities can be flexibly implemented—and can be mixed, matched and morphed by streetsmart CEOs and their BizDevOps and partner marketing teams to create virtually non-duplicatable distribution advantages.
Here are 10 reference Partner @ the Core modalities.
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