Smarter Marketer: Hyperscalers Are Not Just Another Partner Category

Smarter Marketer Series: Hyperscalers Are Not Just Another Partner Category

In this Smarter Marketer feature, Marion, an Ambassador for Partner Marketing Leaders Community, explains why AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud shouldn’t be managed as just another partner category. She shows how connecting them with your GSI and technology partners can open up funding, marketplace deals and joint campaigns that no single team could run on its own. She also shares how AWS MDF helped fund a series of six executive roundtables with a cybersecurity ISV and a GSI.

Hyperscalers Are Not Just Another Partner Category:

Turning hyperscaler partnerships into ecosystem-wide growth

I've heard hyperscaler partnerships described as an “internal start-up”—a team expected to build its own processes, operate independently, and figure things out separately from the rest of the partner ecosystem.

I understand why these partnerships require specialized expertise. AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud each have their own programs, funding opportunities, marketplace requirements, and co-sell motions. They need dedicated attention.

But specialization doesn't have to mean isolation.

Hyperscalers shouldn't be treated as just another partner category, managed separately from the rest of the ecosystem. Their funding, marketplace capabilities, customer relationships, and go-to-market motions can create value across GSI and technology partnerships.

Here's where I see the biggest opportunities.

1) Make Hyperscaler Funding Part of the Plan

Marketing development funds (MDF) are one practical reason to bring hyperscaler teams into broader partner marketing discussions.

Depending on the provider and program, funding opportunities may include cash reimbursement, credits, line-of-business initiatives, or funding tied to specific competencies. Each comes with its own eligibility requirements, approval processes, and deadlines.

Planning ahead provides the opportunity to understand what's available before campaign plans and budgets are finalized.

Imagine a GSI team planning an executive event while a hyperscaler team looks for opportunities to deploy available MDF. A technology partner with a complementary solution and a shared target audience could bring those teams together to coordinate funding and create a more impactful initiative than either team could support independently.

The result might be an executive roundtable, an industry campaign, a joint webinar, or an account-based marketing program.

The key is to connect the right teams early, align on shared priorities, and determine which funding sources can support the initiative.

Don't wait until a campaign is already planned to explore how a hyperscaler relationship could help make it happen.

2) Connect Marketplace Strategy to Partner Marketing

Cloud marketplaces offer another opportunity to connect hyperscaler relationships with the broader ecosystem.

Many enterprise customers have cloud spending commitments. Depending on the customer's agreement, provider rules, and product eligibility, purchases through a cloud marketplace may count toward those commitments.

For customers, this can create a convenient purchasing path and help them make use of eligible cloud spending. For software companies, marketplace transactions can offer another route to market and a reason to coordinate more closely with cloud providers.

Partner marketing can help turn opportunity into action.

Consider where existing GSI and technology partners have relationships with customers who are evaluating solutions, managing cloud commitments, or looking for ways to simplify procurement. Joint campaigns can help educate those customers about marketplace purchasing and connect them with the right sales teams.

Questions worth asking include:

• Which joint accounts could benefit from a marketplace purchasing option?
• Which partners can help us reach the relevant decision-makers?
• How can marketing and sales coordinate to move interested customers toward a transaction?

Marketplace strategy shouldn't be isolated from partner marketing. It should be part of how teams plan campaigns around customer needs and buying behavior.

3) The Power of Three: Hyperscaler + GSI + Software Company

Some of the most compelling opportunities emerge when a hyperscaler, a global systems integrator (GSI), and a software or services company work together.

I think of this as the Power of Three.

Each brings a different strength:

• The hyperscaler contributes cloud expertise, brand recognition, marketplace capabilities, sales relationships, and potentially eligible marketing funding.
• The GSI brings industry knowledge, consulting and implementation capabilities, and established customer relationships.
• The software or services company contributes a solution that addresses a specific customer need.

Together, they can tell a more complete story about solving a customer problem—and bring complementary expertise, audiences, and sales relationships to the table.

For a software company with less brand recognition, being part of a credible joint initiative with a major cloud provider and GSI can help open doors. For the other partners, the collaboration can strengthen their customer proposition and create opportunities to identify and pursue business together.

Where program rules permit, partners may also be able to coordinate eligible marketing investments to support a shared campaign.

The value isn't simply putting three logos on a slide. It's giving customers a compelling reason to engage with the partners jointly.

4) The Power of Three at Work

I once led a series of six executive roundtables bringing together a cybersecurity ISV, a GSI, and AWS to discuss how AI was changing the cybersecurity landscape.

We brought thought leaders from the participating companies together, used AWS MDF to support the events, and leveraged AWS branding. That funding helped make a series of executive roundtables possible at a scale we couldn't have otherwise afforded.

The hyperscaler's contribution doesn't always have to be a speaker or presenter. Eligible funding, branding, and access to its broader ecosystem can also help make a joint initiative possible.

The topic was timely, the audience was senior-level, and each organization had a reason to participate. After the events, the ISV and GSI worked their attendee lists to identify co-selling opportunities.

The value came from combining shared investment, complementary expertise, executive access, and a clear follow-up plan. That's the Power of Three: not three logos on a slide, but three organizations combining their strengths to create an opportunity they couldn’t have created as effectively alone.

5) Start by Connecting the Teams

Making this work doesn't require reorganizing the entire partner function. It starts with changing how teams plan and collaborate.

Bring partner teams into planning early. Include hyperscaler, GSI, and technology alliance teams in annual and quarterly planning discussions. Look for shared audiences, customer priorities, and complementary initiatives before budgets are committed.

Map available resources. Understand each provider's MDF programs, funding requirements, deadlines, and eligible activities. This gives teams a realistic view of what they can support together.

Build around customer needs. Identify problems that multiple partners are well positioned to solve. Start with a relevant customer outcome, then determine which partners and resources can bring the strongest solution to market.

Align marketing with sales. Agree on target accounts, messaging, partner responsibilities, and follow-up. A successful joint campaign needs a path from engagement to meaningful sales conversations.

Measure the combined impact. Alongside campaign performance, track relevant partner-sourced and partner-influenced opportunities, marketplace activity, account engagement, and progress on joint sales motions.

Not every initiative needs three partners, and not every funding program can be combined. The goal isn't to force collaboration where it doesn't make sense. It's to recognize where existing relationships can collectively add value.

Make the Ecosystem Work for the Business

Don’t silo your hyperscaler partnership.

AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud bring capabilities that can strengthen a company's broader partner strategy. GSIs and technology partners bring complementary expertise, customer access, and solutions that can extend the value of those cloud relationships.

When these teams connect, companies can coordinate investments, reach customers in new ways, build stronger joint go-to-market initiatives, and create more opportunities for their sales teams.

When you're building your next partner marketing plan, don't just ask what you can do with each partner independently. Ask what you could accomplish together—and how your hyperscaler relationships could help make it happen.

Hyperscalers are not just another partner category. They're a strategic connection point across the ecosystem, with the potential to help the entire business reach its goals faster.

Keep the conversation going

Partner Marketing Leaders is a community for partner and channel marketers. Get the details on the next session, share what’s working, and meet your peers. Join us at https://partner-marketing-leaders.circle.so/c/getting-started/welcome-to-partner-marketing-leaders