The rich ecosystem of solutions on VMware Cloud Marketplace just keeps on getting better. Our latest updates make the platform easier for both publishers and subscribers to use. Learn about these updates below.
Enriched Usability for Subscribers and Publishers on VMware Cloud Marketplace
VMware Cloud Marketplace was launched in August 2019 at VMworld US as a catalog of third-party and open-source solutions integrated with a handful of VMware platforms. In the 10 months since, we’ve rapidly expanded our reach to more platforms, enhanced functionality on integrated platforms, added high-impact features and more. This past month, the VMware Cloud Marketplace team has focused on enriching the usability of the platform.
Before we deep-dive, it’s important to understand the two types of users on VMware Cloud Marketplace: subscribers and publishers. A subscriber is a user that browses, downloads and deploys third-party and open-source solutions to VMware platforms via VMware Cloud Marketplace. On the other hand, a publisher is a user that submits solutions to VMware Cloud Marketplace for subscriber consumption. The two personas are not mutually exclusive – publishers are often subscribers as well, and vice versa.
Opening up new possibilities for publishers
Until now, VMware Cloud Marketplace operated under a bring your own license (BYOL) model. Subscribers could browse and quickly deploy third-party solutions from the catalog by using their existing licenses for these solutions.
However, the BYOL model is not appropriate in all situations. For example:
- Publishers with SaaS solutions where there is no software to be uploaded
- Publishers that cannot upload software for any other reason (e.g. legal constraints)
- Publishers that would like to redirect subscribers to their own page for trials and licenses
To accommodate these unmet requirements, we now enable publishers to create “List-only” solutions. These contain information about the solution and then redirect the subscriber to another site where they can further engage.
Rethinking the subscriber onboarding process
The process to sign up for VMware Cloud Marketplace is now much simpler with a new self-onboarding flow. To get started, simply go to the VMware Cloud Marketplace catalog and click Sign up’.
You will be prompted to sign in to your VMware Cloud Services account. If you don’t have one, it’s simple to sign up.
Once you have signed in to your VMware Cloud Services account, you can select an existing CSP Org to which you can add the VMware Cloud Marketplace service. Alternatively, you can also create a new Organization and add the service to this (you will be the Org Owner in this situation). To learn more about Org Owners, Org Members and other details about CSP’s identity and access management features, please review the user guide linked in the resources section below.
Then, you can browse and explore VMware Cloud Marketplace via an accessible tile on the CSP Console page.
Faster and richer experience for subscribers
VMware Cloud Marketplace has expanded its set of highly usable features for subscribers.
We recently announced the availability of an Update Manager for VMware Cloud Director. We’ve since expanded this feature for VMware Cloud on AWS and vSphere. Further, for all three platforms (including on-premises), we now include time-stamped logs that provide additional context to subscribers.
Lastly, for our on-premises subscribers, we now offer multi-catalog capability while deploying solutions. To learn more about how we enable subscriptions to on-premises, please review our earlier blog post.
Next steps and resources
- Visit our catalog to try out these features
- Learn more on our webpage
- Browse all blogs from the VMware Cloud Marketplace team
- Review the Using VMware Services guide, including the section on Org Roles and Permissions
- Contact us for further inquiries
