Company Case Studies

Dynatrace's Partner Strategy (2005-2025): From Direct Sales to Platform Ecosystem Leadership

How Dynatrace transformed from a direct-sales Austrian monitoring company, through acquisitions and a private equity spin-out, to a $1.7B/year partner-driven platform by treating partners as application builders rather than distributors.

Pure Storage's Partner Strategy (2009-2025): The Channel-First Flash Revolution

How Pure Storage built the first 100% channel-driven data platform, using subscription economics and telemetry-driven partner intelligence to transform resellers from sales channels into extensions of their product platform.

Red Hat's Partner Strategy (1993-2025): The Open Source Partnership Paradox

How Red Hat evolved from selling boxed Linux distributions to a $34B IBM acquisition by solving the open source monetization challenge through strategic coopetition—building profitable partner ecosystems around free software while maintaining neutrality with competitors.

How Palo Alto Networks built a $9.2B/year cybersecurity platform with 95% channel-driven revenue—treating partners as delivery mechanisms rather than distributors to build comprehensive security ecosystems spanning network, cloud, and endpoint protection.