A marketplace is essentially a cloud-based online storefront. Each of the big cloud services has one. Some speciality cloud providers run their own marketplaces as well. These marketplaces let customers find and access software and services from multiple different providers that will run on that cloud platform. Those apps and services can be purchased directly from the company running that marketplace. Free trials and bundles might also be available.
But it is not just about buying. Marketplaces are a fantastic resource for researching a product area with which you are not familiar. You can read user reviews and get an instant overview of the subject area. Just as using Amazon can help you learn about teenage vampire fiction or regional Chinese cookbooks, a marketplace shows you what is available to purchase and what your peers think.
Many cloud-based services, including the big three cloud providers — AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform — offer users the ability to install purpose-built applications and services available in the provider’s marketplace directly into their cloud architectures. For example, the Barracuda CloudGen family offers a variety of solutions, either virtual in-the-cloud or Software-as-aService (SaaS), that satisfy organisations from branch offices up to headquarters and data centres.
