Marketplace for ISVs

Transform software into SaaS offerings and expand distribution channels to find new revenue streams.

As a software company, you can leverage the VSHN marketplace and 24/7 operations support to enhance your offerings and reach new markets. Key benefits include:

Market Expansion: Access new markets and customers through Cloud Service Providers' (CSPs) marketplaces.
Recurring Revenue: Generate recurring revenue with automatic metering and invoicing.
24/7 Support: Benefit from round-the-clock operations, DevOps support, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Data Sovereignty and Security: Ensure compliance with Swiss-level security, ISO 27001 certification, and ISAE 3402 audit reports.
Open Industry Standards: Utilize open standards for deployment (Docker & Kubernetes), user management (OpenID), and metrics (Prometheus).

Additionally, you will receive expert hosting services from VSHN and access to self-service tools. Our onboarding engineering support will help you smoothly transition to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, what we call "SaaSification".

What you get

Placement at CSPs and Enterprises: Your application will be placed into instances of the Marketplace at CSPs and Enterprises. See our website for a list of CSPs and Enterprises we already work with.
Technical Integration: We’ll help you to engineer the integration into the Application Marketplace framework. The goal is to reach the highest maturity level.
Day-2 Operations: To be able to properly operate the application, we’ll create operations playbooks together so that VSHN can take over the responsibility of day-2 operations.
Joint Marketing and Go-To-Market: We create a plan for joint marketing efforts to promote the application in the Marketplace. A ready-made go-to-market playbook will help to shape the strategy to bring the application to the masses.

Revenue Stream

The standard revenue stream looks like this:

End User: The end user pays the CSP for the service usage. Internal cost attribution might happen at the department or team level in an enterprise organization.
CSP or Enterprise: They pay VSHN for the Marketplace integration, the ongoing service usage (day-2 operations, managed service), and the ISV software.
VSHN: VSHN pays the ISV for the software usage and third-level support.

Please contact us to discuss and learn more.

Pricing

Marketplace Listing

To bring the service into the Application Marketplace, a one-time effort is required.

Service Technology	One-Time Onboarding
Helm Chart The deployment of service instances happens through the instantiation of a Helm Chart, which automates the deployment and configuration of your application on Kubernetes or OpenShift clusters.	contact us
Kubernetes Operator The service instances are managed through a specialized Kubernetes Operator that automates the operational tasks of your application, providing advanced management capabilities.	contact us

Service Technology

One-Time Onboarding

Helm Chart

The deployment of service instances happens through the instantiation of a Helm Chart, which automates the deployment and configuration of your application on Kubernetes or OpenShift clusters.

Kubernetes Operator

The service instances are managed through a specialized Kubernetes Operator that automates the operational tasks of your application, providing advanced management capabilities.

Additional work, such as helping to package the application into a container or developing a Helm Chart, is part of our AppFlow offering. For more details, please refer to our Application Deployment Engineering services.

Strategic Partner Collaboration

Co-Marketing

Collaboration maximizes visibility and success. Simply listing a product in the marketplace won’t be enough. Together, we can create a joint marketing strategy tailored to our mutual goals - from newsletters and webinars to events and integrated campaigns. This not only enhances our visibility but also increases our chances of success. We have frameworks to plan and execute these co-marketing initiatives effectively.

Co-Selling

We engage in co-selling initiatives with our partners to maximize sales opportunities and drive mutual growth. This involves working together to identify and pursue sales opportunities, leveraging our combined resources and market presence. Sales enablement is key to this success, ensuring both teams have the necessary tools and knowledge. By co-selling, we can achieve greater market penetration and customer satisfaction.

Application Marketplace framework

The Application Marketplace framework is used to package and prepare a service for listing in the Marketplace.

It provides all the necessary functions for providing a managed service:

Provisioning and de-provisioning of a service instance
Self-service backup and restore
Access to service logs
Service metrics and dashboards
Alerting based on service metrics
Automated service maintenance
Service-instance scaling
Integration into the Crossplane ecosystem (XRDs, Compositions, and Composition Functions)

Prerequisites

To be able to leverage the Application Marketplace framework, some prerequisites have to be met:

Helm Chart based service

The application must be available as an OCI-compliant container image (e.g., Docker image), ready to be executed on an OpenShift (Kubernetes) cluster.
A Helm Chart must be available to deploy and configure application instances on an OpenShift (Kubernetes) cluster. This allows for consistent and repeatable deployments.

Kubernetes Operator

The application should have a Kubernetes Operator that manages the lifecycle of the application instances. The Operator must be compatible with Red Hat OpenShift and should be installable via a Helm Chart.
The Operator handles tasks such as scaling, backup, and recovery, providing advanced management capabilities.

We can help reach these prerequisites; for example, as part of our AppFlow offering. Please contact us for more information.

Behind the Scenes

The Application Marketplace is based on Crossplane - The cloud native control plane framework and leverages Project Syn for configuration management.

We use the open-source frameworks vshn/appcat and component-appcat, both available on GitHub.

Technical documentation is openly accessible:

FAQ

Where does my software run?: Your software is available on every VSHN Application Marketplace-enabled CSP and Enterprise customer. You can filter the countries and regions in which you want your offering to be available. We can let the end-user choose between all available countries and regions where they want their instances to run.
Do I have to develop the software myself?: Yes, you know the business specifics of your software. VSHN can help with deployment automation, observability, and 24/7 support.
How will my software land in the Application Marketplace?: We need the software deployment configuration (e.g., Helm Chart) and software container images from you and together define the Marketplace offering in YAML in a shared Git repository. From then on, we can provision your software automatically on any infrastructure and cloud provider.
How do I make money with it?: In your offering definition, you define the price per instance for your software and support. In the customer sales price, we add the VSHN 24/7 operations support, the CSP infrastructure cost, and the sales margin for whoever sells to the end customer (yourself, VSHN, the cloud provider, a consulting partner, etc.).
What kind of support does VSHN provide for integration?: VSHN provides comprehensive support during the integration process, including technical assistance with packaging your application, creating Helm Charts, developing Kubernetes Operators, and integrating with Crossplane. Our team works closely with you to ensure a smooth onboarding experience.
What about data privacy and compliance?: VSHN operates under strict compliance standards, including ISO 27001 certification and ISAE 3402 audits. We ensure that data sovereignty is maintained according to Swiss-level security standards, for example, by never transferring your data abroad. This means your application and customer data are handled with the highest levels of security and compliance.
What are the contract terms and commitments?: Contract terms and commitments are flexible and can be tailored to your needs. We offer different marketing packages and integration options to suit your business model. Please contact us to discuss specific terms and conditions.
How is revenue sharing calculated?: Revenue sharing is based on the agreed-upon percentages or fees outlined in the pricing model. We work with you to define the customer list price, and from that total price, we determine the portions allocated to your software license, VSHN’s 24/7 operations support, and any sales margins for partners involved in the sale.
Can I choose the cloud provider or infrastructure?: Yes, you and your clients can choose the cloud provider, country, and region where your software runs. We can also onboard your application onto enterprise IT infrastructures.
Is my application suitable for the Marketplace?: If your application can be containerized and deployed on Kubernetes or OpenShift, or if it provides an API for integration, it is suitable for the Marketplace. We can assist you in assessing compatibility and making any necessary adjustments.