Introduction

Introduction to the commercial marketplace

Microsoft’s commercial marketplace is a catalog of solutions and services from our partner network. While we talk about a commercial marketplace, there are a number of “storefronts” including the Azure Marketplace, AppSource as well as in-product integration such as within the Azure Portal (which surfaces offers from the Azure Marketplace).

Microsoft partners can publish their solutions and services offerings in the commercial marketplace. Solutions are listed in Microsoft’s online stores, alongside Microsoft’s own solutions, connecting you with businesses, organizations, and government agencies around the world. Which storefront(s) host the offer is determined by the offer type and factors such as the listing category, industry etc.

This lab will introduce you to some of the essential concepts and terminology of the commercial marketplace with a particular focus on ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) building solutions on Azure. The focus will be on apps rather than services; in other words, how the commercial marketplace caters for cloud solutions built on Microsoft Azure and how to go about publishing them.

Resources

Overall Structure

This lab introduces some fundamental concepts and how to choose the best offer type to match a particular solution. The accompanying labs will take you through the steps to create and publish an offer on the commercial marketplace.

Introduction Sections

Terminology

A glossary of key terms used in the commercial marketplace

Offer Types

Commercial marketplace offer types