The Cloud Marketplace of the Future

How a technology company listens to partners often determines whether growth compounds or stalls.

Pax8 is putting that idea into practice by renewing its Partner Experience team and tightening how it gathers, evaluates, and acts on partner feedback across its marketplace.

Pax8 pioneered the partner marketplace concept, offering partners a critical pathway to growth, a way to leverage managed intelligence, and an easier process to craft solutions for customers. Now, Pax8 is refining the experience more.

An Expanded Partner Experience

The company recently announced an expanded Partner Experience organization led by Rob Rae, corporate vice president of community and partner experience, reporting to Chief Experience Officer Craig Donovan. The structure formalizes what has long been part of the Pax8 operating model: building the marketplace alongside its partners, not apart from them.

“We have always listened to our partners since the company began – partner feedback has been instrumental in how we’ve built the Marketplace and created existing support and enablement programs,” Donovan said.

The renewed focus shows up in several concrete changes:

• Pax8 Partner Voice Network — A new structured partner feedback program and system that continually gathers input from the partner community and lets partners compare experiences with peers.
• Refreshed Partner Advisory Council (PAC) — The council has a revised format, updated participation guidelines, and will be led by the expanded partner experience team. It is now a fully global program. The PAC brings partners together to aim their feedback at improving the Pax8 Marketplace, strategy and partner experience.
• Expanded Facebook community engagement — The partner experience team will increase two-way communication on the Pax8 Facebook page to give partners additional ways to engage.

These are all strategic additions for those enrolled in the Voyager Alliance Program.

“The Pax8 Partner Advisory Council has been a space for meaningful, candid dialogue between partners and leadership,” said one Pax8 partner, Katherine Gray, Operations Manager at Warren Averett.

“It goes beyond feedback; it’s having a voice in ensuring that ‘what’s next’ is built to help MSPs scale effectively and that innovation is driven by real-world needs. For us, the PAC is a vital way to contribute our perspective while gaining insights from peers at different stages of growth,” she said.

How Scale Impacts It All

Scale makes this work harder—and more important. Pax8 now supports more than 43,000 partners worldwide. At that size, partner experience becomes inseparable from platform value. And that means stronger communication and feedback.

Pax8 is pairing this feedback-driven approach with practical updates, including new marketplace capabilities like Public Storefronts and the Integrations Hub. The goal is not novelty, but usefulness—tools shaped by how partners operate day to day.

A Straightforward Takeaway

For partners reviewing and considering marketplaces, the takeaway is straightforward: look at more than just the catalog. Consider the lines of communication and the partnership itself.

Think about how feedback is gathered, whether issues are revisited, and if it actually drives change. Pax8’s renewed Partner Experience effort points to a marketplace focused on alignment rather than transactions.

More details on the renewed Partner Experience are available here.