5 Trends Reshaping Partner Ecosystems in 2025

In the first segment, Jay McBain explains the massive influence of marketplace growth on new buyer dynamics. With the global IT and telecom markets projected to surpass $5.4 trillion, a significant shift is occurring, driven by millennial and Gen Z buyers. These digitally native buyers, accustomed to e-commerce and subscription models, expect convenient, flexible purchasing options and seamless marketplace experiences.

McBain notes the importance of best-of-breed purchasing, where companies no longer rely on a single vendor but instead select the highest-quality services from multiple vendors. This preference for diverse, high-quality solutions increases demand for integrated marketplaces, where technology, software, and hardware providers partner to offer comprehensive solutions. Darryl Oliver adds that Ingram Micro has strategically prepared for this shift, positioning itself to support multi-layered purchasing by enabling partners to bundle services, software, and hardware through their marketplace.

The segment also discusses how orchestrating diverse products from different providers allows for streamlined procurement and enhanced flexibility, essential for modern buyers who often require scalability and rapid adaptation. Ingram Micro’s role, therefore, is not only as a marketplace provider but as a critical partner in managing complex multi-vendor solutions to meet these evolving buyer needs. This trend highlights the importance of preparing for the shift toward platform ecosystems and ensuring the marketplace infrastructure can handle integrated, high-value solutions in a digital-first landscape.

The second section delves into the significant industry shift from co-selling to co-marketing and solution-based selling. Darryl Oliver shares insights on how co-marketing has replaced traditional co-selling, enhancing the focus on bundled, multi-vendor solutions. This shift is more than just a strategic adjustment; it’s a response to the increased demand for solutions that integrate software, hardware, and cloud services to create comprehensive offerings.

Jay McBain elaborates on this transition, noting that today’s customers seek a “solution sell” approach that includes pre-sales, technical guidance, and partner support. This shift is particularly evident in cybersecurity and data management, where complex solution stacks require multiple vendors to work seamlessly together. The segment also highlights Ingram Micro’s role in equipping partners with the necessary resources to co-market effectively. By bundling solutions in cybersecurity and infrastructure, Ingram enables partners to stand out and compete with higher value propositions.

This move from co-selling to co-marketing represents a broader trend in solution selling, which requires extensive collaboration and support across vendors and partners. Co-marketing ensures that partners can present a unified message, align strategically with Ingram Micro’s ecosystem, and effectively communicate value to potential buyers. Through such solutions, Ingram Micro and its partners can offer clients a streamlined experience, delivering innovative solutions that address specific needs while reinforcing long-term relationships.

With the adoption of multi-cloud environments, orchestrating partnerships within a single, unified solution is a growing challenge. Jay McBain points out that as businesses increasingly commit to multi-cloud solutions with providers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud, new complexities in integration and orchestration are introduced. He emphasizes that orchestrating partnerships across multiple cloud providers is essential, yet it requires effective collaboration and expertise in multi-cloud environments.

Darryl Oliver adds that Ingram Micro’s strength lies in navigating these complexities for its partners. Ingram offers a seamless integration framework that allows partners to deliver and manage multi-cloud solutions cohesively. By controlling these multi-vendor engagements, Ingram helps partners handle multi-cloud integration's technical and logistical challenges, particularly in complex fields like cybersecurity and data management.

This section underscores how multi-cloud orchestration enhances service offerings and provides partners with competitive advantages. With this support, partners can address client needs more effectively, tapping into the strengths of multiple cloud platforms to create optimized, tailored solutions. The orchestration of multi-cloud and multi-partner solutions is vital for businesses seeking a hybrid, scalable approach to their IT infrastructure. Ingram Micro’s orchestration capabilities ensure that partners can deliver these solutions seamlessly.

As cybersecurity becomes increasingly integral to partner ecosystems, Jay McBain and Darryl Oliver highlight its role in the evolving marketplace. With most IT spending directed toward securing digital assets, partnerships in cybersecurity are essential. The collaboration between companies like CrowdStrike and Fortinet illustrates how alliances bring together best-in-class solutions across hardware and software to tackle cybersecurity threats.

McBain emphasizes that with 91.5% of the cybersecurity market dependent on channel partners, distributors like Ingram Micro are essential to orchestrating partnerships across this space. Ingram helps MSPs, cybersecurity vendors, and other channel partners by connecting them within the Ingram ecosystem, allowing seamless integration of cybersecurity solutions into multi-cloud environments.

Oliver further explains that Ingram’s role enables partners to offer end-to-end cybersecurity solutions covering everything from hardware to cloud infrastructure. By facilitating these partnerships, Ingram empowers vendors to present cohesive, secure offerings to clients, which is crucial in today’s threat landscape. This shift highlights how cybersecurity partnerships address critical security needs, enhance customer trust, and create value across the ecosystem.

In the final segment, Jay McBain and Darryl Oliver discuss data’s growing role in shaping the future of partner ecosystems. McBain explains that as businesses increasingly focus on data-driven decision-making, particularly in sectors like AI and edge computing, partners must deliver solutions that help customers capture, manage, and analyze data. The data-centric approach is essential for meeting regulatory requirements and fueling innovations that offer tangible benefits.

Ingram Micro’s strategy, as Oliver explains, emphasizes data management and the importance of customer success in maintaining long-term relationships. In today’s subscription-based economy, the focus has shifted from one-time sales to ongoing customer success. Ingram provides tools and support to ensure that partners can deliver continuous value, which is critical for retaining customers in a competitive market.

The section concludes with a look at how customer success strategies, reinforced by data insights, are essential in helping partners deliver on customer expectations. These strategies create sustained value through ongoing engagements, ensuring that customers continue to see value from their investment in multi-vendor solutions. Integrating customer success into its partner ecosystem, Ingram Micro sets the stage for a future where customer loyalty and trust drive ecosystem growth.