Cloud GTM is the go-to-market motion where software is sold, transacted, and billed through cloud marketplaces and cloud provider co-sell programs rather than only through direct contracts. This glossary defines the forty terms that motion runs on, grouped by the stage of a deal where you first meet them.
Cloud GTM has a vocabulary problem. Three clouds invented the same concepts independently, gave them different names, and abbreviated all of them. The result is a field where a new alliances hire spends their first month decoding acronyms rather than building anything.
This is the decoder. Terms are grouped by deal stage — landscape, listing, offers, committed spend, co-sell, channel, money — because that is the order you actually meet them in.
The landscape
Cloud GTM is the go-to-market motion where software is sold and billed through cloud marketplaces and cloud provider co-sell programs. It sits alongside direct sales rather than replacing it, and it changes who the customer contracts with, not who they buy from.
A cloud marketplace is a cloud provider’s storefront where customers find, buy, and deploy third-party software, billed through the cloud account they already hold. AWS Marketplace, Microsoft Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, Snowflake Marketplace, Alibaba Cloud Marketplace, and Oracle Cloud Marketplace are the ones ISVs sell on today.
An ISV — independent software vendor — is a company that builds and sells its own software. On a marketplace, the ISV is the seller.
A hyperscaler is one of the largest cloud providers: AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud. The term matters because co-sell programs exist at all three, while marketplace listings extend further.
A cloud marketplace platform is third-party software that operates marketplace listings, offers, metering, and co-sell from one system instead of one console per cloud. How to choose a cloud marketplace platform covers the evaluation criteria.
Buy with AWS lets a buyer start an AWS Marketplace purchase from the seller’s own website rather than from the marketplace listing, keeping the transaction on marketplace rails while the discovery happens on your site.
Getting listed
A listing is the product page plus the commercial configuration that makes your software buyable on a marketplace. It is not just a description — the pricing, dimensions, and legal terms live there too.
A listing type is the delivery and pricing shape of a product: SaaS, AMI or virtual machine image, container, professional services, or data. Fees, contract mechanics, and buyer experience all differ by type.
BYOL — bring your own licence — is a listing where the customer deploys software they licensed from you directly. The marketplace provides distribution, not the transaction.
A free trial is time-limited or usage-limited free access granted through the listing, after which the buyer converts to a paid subscription. Free trials on cloud marketplaces covers how each cloud implements them.
A technical review is the cloud’s assessment of your product before it can be listed or achieve certain designations — AWS’s Foundational Technical Review (FTR), Microsoft’s Partner Center certification, and Google Cloud’s architectural review are the three you’ll encounter.
A seller console is the cloud’s own interface for managing listings and offers: the AWS Marketplace Management Portal, Microsoft Partner Center, and Google Cloud’s Producer Portal. Every cloud has one, and none of them talks to the others.
Offers and agreements
A public offer is the pricing and terms visible on your listing to every buyer. Also called list price.
A private offer is a custom, non-public deal extended to one specific buyer, with negotiated pricing, a chosen term, and often custom legal terms. It is the construct most enterprise marketplace revenue closes on.
An express private offer is AWS’s automated version: the buyer requests an offer from the listing and AWS generates it from rate cards the seller configured in advance. Express private offers, explained covers the setup.
A private plan is Microsoft’s construct for a hidden pricing plan inside a public listing, visible only to tenants you nominate. Unlike a private offer, it inherits the public listing’s legal terms.
An agreement is the contract record created when a buyer accepts an offer. It is the object your renewals, amendments, and cancellations act on.
An entitlement is the record of what a buyer is entitled to use after purchase — the seats, units, or capacity your product should provision and meter against.
A EULA — end user licence agreement — is the licence terms the customer accepts. A private offer can carry a custom EULA for that transaction; a public listing carries one for everybody.
A standard contract is the cloud’s pre-negotiated legal template, offered so buyers and sellers can skip a redline cycle. Accepting one trades legal control for procurement speed.
Committed spend
Committed spend is money a customer has contractually promised to spend with a cloud provider over a term. It is the single strongest reason enterprise buyers prefer marketplace transactions.
EDP — the AWS Enterprise Discount Program — is AWS’s committed spend agreement, where a customer commits to a spend level in exchange for discounts. AWS EDP: what sellers need to know covers the seller’s angle.
MACC — the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment — is Microsoft’s equivalent. What is a MACC? explains how marketplace purchases apply to it.
Universal Cloud Credits are Oracle’s committed spend construct, drawn down by Oracle Cloud Marketplace purchases.
Drawdown is the act of applying a marketplace purchase against a customer’s committed spend. It is why “buy it through the marketplace” turns a budget request into an allocation decision.
Co-sell
Co-sell is selling jointly with a cloud provider’s own field team, where the cloud’s sellers are compensated for driving your product into their accounts.
ACE — APN Customer Engagements — is AWS’s co-sell system, where opportunities are shared between partner and AWS. AWS ACE: a practical co-sell guide covers how sharing actually works.
An opportunity share, or referral, is the record you send a cloud provider describing a live deal, so their field team can engage. The quality of that record decides whether anyone does.
Partner-sourced revenue is revenue on deals a partner or cloud originated. Partner-influenced revenue is revenue on deals a partner materially helped close but did not originate. Confusing the two is the most common cause of channel attribution arguments.
MDF — market development funds — is cloud provider money for joint demand generation: campaigns, events, and content. AWS partner funding programs covers MDF alongside the other incentives.
Channel
A channel partner is a third party that sells your product to end customers — a reseller, a systems integrator, or a managed service provider.
CPPO — Channel Partner Private Offer — is AWS’s construct for a partner-transacted marketplace deal, built from a base offer the ISV creates.
A multiparty private offer (MPO) is Microsoft’s equivalent, where a channel partner sells and Microsoft invoices the customer.
A reseller private offer plan is Google Cloud’s version: the ISV publishes a plan the reseller accepts once, and the reseller creates customer offers from it. CPPO vs MPO compares all three.
Deal registration is the process where a partner formally claims an opportunity with you, protecting it from conflict and locking in their commission. Deal registration software for ISVs covers the lifecycle and where it breaks.
Money
A listing fee is the percentage a marketplace takes from a transaction. On AWS it varies by product type, offer type, and total contract value — what a marketplace dollar actually costs you works through the arithmetic.
A disbursement is the payment the marketplace sends you after collecting from the buyer, net of fees. It arrives on the marketplace’s schedule, not your invoice’s, which is a working-capital question as much as an accounting one.
Metering is reporting usage to the marketplace so it can bill a usage-based product. A metering dimension is the unit that usage is measured in — API calls, seats, gigabytes — and choosing it badly is expensive to undo.
The seller of record is the party legally selling to the buyer. On a marketplace transaction, that is generally the cloud provider, which is what changes your tax treatment, your revenue recognition, and who the customer’s contract is with.
Frequently asked questions
What does Cloud GTM mean? Cloud GTM is the go-to-market motion where software is sold and billed through cloud marketplaces and cloud provider co-sell programs. It changes who the customer contracts with and how the purchase is funded.
What’s the difference between a public offer and a private offer? A public offer is the list price visible to everyone on your listing. A private offer is a custom, non-public deal for one buyer, with negotiated pricing, term, and often custom legal terms.
What does drawdown mean on a cloud marketplace? Drawdown is applying a marketplace purchase against money the customer already committed to spend with the cloud provider — an AWS EDP, a Microsoft MACC, or Oracle Universal Cloud Credits.
What is the difference between an agreement and an entitlement? An agreement is the contract record created when a buyer accepts an offer. An entitlement is the record of what they can actually use — the seats, units, or capacity your product provisions against.
What is a metering dimension? The unit a usage-based marketplace product bills on: API calls, seats, gigabytes, or similar. It is defined at listing time and expensive to change afterwards, so it deserves a real design decision.
Who is the seller of record on a marketplace deal? Generally the cloud provider, not the ISV. That changes tax treatment, revenue recognition, and whose paper the customer signs — which is why finance needs to be in the room early.
Takeaways
- The same concept has a different name on each cloud. Learn the concept — custom deal, committed spend, partner-transacted offer — and the acronyms sort themselves out.
- Committed spend is the centre of gravity. EDP, MACC, and Universal Cloud Credits explain most enterprise marketplace behaviour.
- Agreement, entitlement, and offer are three different objects. Teams that treat them as one cannot reconcile revenue.
- Partner-sourced and partner-influenced are not synonyms, and the difference is worth defining before your first commission dispute.
- Seller of record is a finance question disguised as a legal one. Raise it before the first marketplace deal, not after.
New to the motion? The complete guide to Cloud GTM for ISVs puts these terms into the sequence a real marketplace program runs in.
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