Not sure if you have noticed or not, but partner program overhauls are sweeping the vendor ecosystem, a process that many vendors have said is essential for all involved to partake in the new IT economy, but also a process that hopefully has learned from past mistakes.

These overhauls have been a hot topic across the technology and networking space, with large vendors like Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Extreme Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and Solarwinds among many that have implemented partner program changes over the past several months.

Some of those have been tied to acquisitions, as in the case of HPE’s purchase of Juniper Networks, while others have been made to deal with changing market dynamics. The most oft-cited change is – of course – AI, with many noting the need to take into account what impact AI is having on both the procurement side as well as how AI-enabled services are being priced and sold.

Omdia recently released a report that predicts the worldwide total addressable IT market will grow 10% this year, hitting an overall market size of more than $6 trillion. (That’s “trillion” dollars!) The biggest driver of this surge is infrastructure, which will account for nearly 30% of this total, and which Omdia noted was being bolstered by AI-related investments.

So, the stakes are big, which puts pressure on vendors and their go-to-market partners to not screw it up.

There is a fine line between success and screw up. This was perhaps blazingly highlighted by Broadcom as part of its acquisition of VMware in late 2023. That deal included the Broadcom-ization of VMware’s long-standing and extensive partner ecosystem.

Broadcom’s moves ranged from slashing VMware’s bloated rack of service offerings that were seemingly devised at the whim of each individual deployment, to Broadcom rejiggering partner tiers and requirements to be included in those tiers. Most interesting looking back is that there was very little mention of AI in those initial changes. Good times.

Those changes, though, did cause an uproar among channel partners that showed Broadcom’s determined focus if also an admitted less-than-deft approach in explaining that focus to those most impacted by the moves. Those impacted were vocal in that impact, and I received dozens of emails from those partners expressing confusion and anger over the process, with the most prevalent complaint being tied to a lack of straight communication.

Those dark clouds seem to have since lightened a bit for those in the position to take advantage of the changes touting their support, though others remain on the outside looking in.

Have lessons been learned?

As such, the recent push toward partner program changes has drawn my keen interest, with the most keen focused on how these changes are being implemented, how they are being communicated, and if any of the vendors making changes learned from what was a messy Broadcom model.

From the people I have spoken to on these latest moves, which range from executives within these organizations, partners that are being impacted by these changes, and analysts tasked with helping quantify the overall impact, lesson learning seems mixed.

Kathy Contreras, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, outlined in a report late last year the growing complexity of these partner programs, and, “regrettably, my interactions with clients and nonclients continue to show that many organizations struggle to align on the foundational elements that drive partner ecosystem success.”

Joe Spencer, SVP of global channel and strategic initiatives at Extreme Networks, did cop to the fact that the vendor “had not been as predictable as we could have been, and what that does is that leaves the door open for partners to question how they make money, how much they make, and how to go to market with a vendor.”

Spencer, who recently came to Extreme Networks following similar stints at HPE, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Cisco, added that Extreme Networks has been working to make sure there is as much transparency as possible between the vendor and those partners, which ultimately “leads to trust that when they interact with us and they engage us in a transaction, that they know what the outcome is going to look like going into it.”

This trust is a significant issue for the technology sector, as witnessed by the VMware offering bloat that Broadcom quickly tackled. Choice is always good, but choice for choice’s sake just leads to confusion, and thus why I find comfort in shopping at a Costco where the quantity of an available product far outweighs the diversity of products offered.

Omdia, in its own report, also brought up an evolving angle. While the research firm predicts that overall IT spend will accelerate this year, the share of that spend going to a vendor partner will drop due to a bigger push from direct sales happening through hyperscalers.

This avenue has been a divisive road for many vendors. Being attached to and seemingly approved by one of the big names is always good, especially for smaller vendors that might not have a ton of market cache. But, it also lumps those vendors into hyperscale “marketplaces,” which can mute adoption.

Broadcom has been a good example of this as it has diminished VMware’s reliance on those hyperscale channels by aggressively reconfiguring those arrangements to gain control and with a bigger corporate push around private cloud deployments that mute the public-scale focus of hyperscalers.

Cisco has also moved down this road with its revamped 360 partner program. Bola Rotibi, chief of enterprise research at CCS Insight, recently told SDxCentral that the networking giant, along with many other players, are going to be looking at working closely with a small, close-knit group of strategic partners to come and go depending on the use case – a “roving band of partners” as the analyst put it.

Let us know how it’s going

I get it that change is inevitable and that these specific partner program changes are probably needed. But, does it need to be so difficult? As Spencer noted, “it's incredibly easy to make a program complicated. It's incredibly difficult to make it simple.”

So to all of you partners out there dealing with change, please let us know how it’s going. My inbox and LinkedIn are always open.