The Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program’s mission is to support partners in building, developing, and promoting VMware-compatible solutions. Active partners in the TAP program enjoy multiple benefits – one of which is the opportunity to publish solutions on VMware Marketplace.
By providing access to VMware’s global customer base in a highly efficient manner, publishing on VMware Marketplace is the most important step in every partner’s go-to-market strategy with VMware.
Let’s dive into Marketplace to learn more.
What is VMware Marketplace?
VMware Marketplace is a robust ecosystem of VMware-compatible solutions that was created in the fall of 2020 through the merger of VMware Solution Exchange (VSX) and VMware Cloud Marketplace.
Today, VMware Marketplace is the one-stop shop for customers to discover, purchase, and deploy validated third-party and open-source solutions for VMware endpoints. For partners, VMware Marketplace provides a single point of access to VMware’s global customer base.
Did you know?
Publishing solutions to VMware Marketplace is a mandatory requirement of maintaining an active TAP membership. In addition to global customer access, every publishing partner is eligible for co-marketing opportunities based on their listing type.
Examples of co-marketing opportunities include promotion in monthly newsletters, mentions on VMware Marketplace social media accounts, and access to press release templates. Partners who publish asset-based solutions become eligible for additional opportunities, including VMware participation in webinars, featured solutions on VMware Marketplace homepage, and others.
VMware Marketplace is a great place to showcase solutions that have earned VMware Ready and Partner Ready badges. Solutions that have received the VMware Ready and/or Partner Ready badges are tagged with the applicable badge and categorized in the catalog filters. Badges give customers confidence in the interoperability of certified and validated solutions.
Benefits of VMware Marketplace
With VMware Marketplace, partners can:
- Fulfill TAP program VMware Marketplace listing requirement
- Access and service VMware’s global customer base across industries and various stages of cloud adoption
- Engage in joint co-marketing and go-to-market opportunities
- Capture new sales leads
- Display completion of VMware Ready and Partner Ready certifications
- Establish a new source of revenue through paid listings (coming Fall 2021)
Getting Started with VMware Marketplace
Publishing on VMware Marketplace is easy. There are multiple publishing options available to meet partners’ needs, from Listing Solutions that serve as information-only marketing pages to Distributable Solutions.
Distributable Solutions enable customers to directly deploy assets from VMware Marketplace to a variety of VMware platforms including VMware Cloud on AWS, vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Cloud Director, and VMware Tanzu Kubernetes.
Each publishing flow begins with confirmation of active TAP membership and walks publishers through the self-service process of listing a solution.
Next Steps
For more information on getting started with VMware Marketplace, including the co-marketing opportunities available, review the Publisher Guide found on the Resources tab of the Marketplace website.
If you are attending VMworld 2021, be sure to register for the VMware Marketplace session, The Rise of B2B Marketplaces and the Role of VMware Marketplace [VI1460], to learn more about the importance of publishing on B2B marketplaces. Registration for VMworld 2021 can be found here.
Keep an eye out for additional Marketplace content in future TAP newsletters as TAP and Marketplace join forces to promote TAP partner solutions to VMware customers worldwide.
