Here’s what we learned.

From Microsoft, we had an incredible lineup of marketplace leaders:

• Will Kearl – Senior Director, Microsoft Marketplace

• Darren Sharpe – Microsoft Marketplace Channel Lead

• Joined by a panel of leaders from Datadog, NetApp, Contentsquare and Suger.

The conversation was honest: what’s working, what’s improving, and where the biggest upside is.

Marketplace is at the center of Microsoft strategy

Marketplace is now the “platform for partnering” – embedded into co-sell, channel, and increasingly distributors.

Major updates: global rollout of resale-enabled offers + marketplace integrations with Arrow, Ingram Micro, Pax8, TD SYNNEX and Crayon.

ISVs can now:

• Authorize partners to resell via PO, while controlling geos, pricing, and partner selection

• Plug marketplace even deeper into how the channel already sells

ISVs with marketplace muscle are pulling ahead

ISVs were clear: when you build marketplace muscle and lean into Microsoft, growth looks different.

Laura Ripans from Datadog described this velocity shift. Microsoft’s strength in the enterprise turns into much larger deals and better access to strategic accounts.

Manik Rane from NetApp shared how they went from minimal marketplace presence to making it their primary revenue engine.

The customer pull to transact on marketplace is now absolutely real.

But growth isn’t automatic.

You have to keep educating your sales teams, learn how to co-sell, and integrate marketplace into your org:

• Make marketplace and co-sell easy for sellers with clear plays.

• Lean on customer value in cloud conversations. Even when your product looks “competitive,” show cloud sellers how it drives consumption of native services – it changes the conversation.

Channel is the next frontier & ops are key

As marketplace becomes distributed across channel, for ISVs, working with partners who already have marketplace practices is one of the fastest ways to grow.

Mike Marzano from Contentsquare underscored that strong operations are essential. The more you sell via marketplace, the more you need automation across listing, co-sell, private offers & billing – this is where platforms like Suger come in, and why having them host us mattered.

What impressed me most

• How open Microsoft marketplace leaders were with the ISV community to share what’s working and what’s evolving

• How strong the marketplace momentum feels at Ignite – number of ISVs, scale of the ecosystem, and the energy in the room this morning

• How much value comes from putting operators in one room before the main conference starts

My view: we’re still early in marketplace growth, with huge growth potential ahead.

Big thanks to our incredible speakers, to Suger for hosting, and to everyone who joined us that morning.