Ready To Get Serious With A Distributor?

Cloud distributors are just big CSPs with the reach and depth to produce tens or hundreds of thousands of seats, and who made the investments in automation and support capabilities that their scale requires, Paul said.

They're much more likely to have their own channels and be two-tier approved than rank-and-file CSPs are.

But it's important to keep in mind that a relationship with a distributor isn't right for every Microsoft cloud reseller.

Many CSPs have tools and capabilities to scale, but lack experience and, therefore, are more inclined to work with an experienced cloud distributor, and more likely to be referred to one by Microsoft.

Others, who already have help desks, advanced billing and other capabilities, may qualify to buy directly from Microsoft and feel they don't need an intermediary.