Have you ever wondered how to fulfill the TAP requirement of publishing your solution on VMware Marketplace? Or perhaps you’ve heard about VMware Marketplace and are interested in publishing your solution. This blog explains the three publishing options available to partners to publish solutions on VMware Marketplace, as well as the prerequisites for each. It is the third blog post for Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program partners in a series about VMware Marketplace.
For an introduction to VMware Marketplace and an overview of how to get started on VMware Marketplace, please reference the previous posts in the series:
Future posts will cover additional topics, such as validation and certification on VMware Tanzu and more.
TAP and VMware Marketplace
Publishing your solutions on VMware Marketplace is an important aspect of maintaining your active TAP membership. Not only does it keep your membership in good standing, but it enables you to access VMware’s global customer base and opens up opportunities for additional co-marketing benefits. Read on below to learn about the publishing options available to partners.
Publishing Options Available to TAP Partners
There are three types of listings that partners can select from to publish their solution on VMware Marketplace:
- Listing is the simplest publish option. Listings provide an overview of Marketing, Support, and Technical information to prospective customers. Prospects cannot interact with solutions via the Listing publishing option, other than to be redirected to a landing page of the publisher’s choice.
- Bring Your Own License (BYOL) / Trial enables partners to append their solution (OVA, Helm Chart etc.) to their Marketplace listing for customers to download, subscribe, or deploy through VMware Marketplace. Customers must bring a previously-purchased license key to download / subscribe to / or deploy a BYOL solution through VMware Marketplace. BYOL listings create a new path for customers to consume partner products.
- Paid listings enable partners to create a new revenue channel and customers to purchase new products or subscriptions through VMware Marketplace. Purchasing a VMware partner’s solution through the Marketplace is beneficial to customers because it enables them to streamline their purchase motion by leveraging existing payment channels through VMware.
What type of listing is right for me?
- If you are interested in generating new sales of your solution through VMware Marketplace, the Paid listing type is the best fit for you.
- If you are looking to enable customers to access your solution by downloading, deploying, or subscribing to a previously purchased product through VMware Marketplace, then the BYOL listing type is the best fit for you.
- If you are looking to provide prospective customers with more information about your product but not generate new sales or enable customers to download, subscribe, or deploy through VMware Marketplace, then the Listing type is best for you. Prospective customers can “Request Info”, which captures prospect contact information and generates a lead to publishers. This functionality exists for all publishing options.
Prerequisites to Publish on VMware Marketplace
All publishing options require Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to be active members of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program.
Distributable solutions (BYOL and Paid) must be validated or certified prior to publishing. There are many validation and certification options available, depending on your solution type and needs. A few to highlight are:
- Pre-Certification via Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) – if your solution is certified by CNCF, you can begin the distributable publish flow immediately and upload your CNCF support statement to qualify for Partner Ready for VMware Tanzu validation.
- Platform Validation – if your solution is a Helm Chart stored in a public repository, you can begin the distributable publish flow immediately, and the platform will automatically run the tests to validate your solution as Partner Ready for VMware Tanzu upon submission to Marketplace.
- On-Demand Test Environment – if your solution is not CNCF certified and is not a Helm Chart, then you can request an on-demand test environment through Technology Partner Hub to execute partner-led tests to verify that your solution can be deployed on VMware Tanzu. Once your solution has passed the on-demand validation tests, it is eligible to be published as a distributable solution on VMware Marketplace.
For all other solution types, please visit Technology Partner Hub’s certification and validation page to review available options. If you have questions about which certification and validation program is right for you, please contact [email protected].
All validated solution listings are published on VMware Marketplace with the Partner Ready for VMware Tanzu logo.
Next Steps
To begin publishing your solution, visit marketplace.cloud.vmware.com today. If you have not yet created your VMware Marketplace account, follow these step-by-step instructions to Create A Marketplace Account. For detailed information on how to publish a solution, reference the VMware Marketplace Program Guide or schedule a demo by emailing [email protected].
Learn More
Browse the VMware Marketplace catalog and visit our webpage to learn more. Stay up to date on the latest catalog highlights by following @VMwareMarketplace on Twitter. To learn more about the Technology Alliance Partner program, visit the Technology Partner Hub.
