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Starburst case study

Starburst triples its customer base with help from the Microsoft commercial marketplace and Marketplace Rewards

A data analytics solution in search of more customers

Starburst, a Microsoft partner, was looking to reach more customers and wanted to speed purchases of its solutions, which enable fast data analytics on Microsoft Azure.

Online marketplace selling offers benefits galore

Starburst found that the Microsoft commercial marketplace offers streamlined transactions, access to existing customers, increased field seller visibility, and Marketplace Rewards.

With customer base tripled, targeting an even bigger future

Starburst tripled its customer base with the help of low-margin deals and private offers in the Microsoft commercial marketplace, from which it projects to receive 90 percent of future business.

Starburst empowers customers with fast, secure, single point of access to distributed data

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Starburst helps organizations extract value from big, distributed data and turn those insights into actionable business initiatives that drive revenue. The company enables customers to run fast analytics on Microsoft Azure Data Lake Storage and integrate data across multiple systems without the need for costly data movement, all thanks to Starburst Data - Distributed SQL Engine on the Azure Marketplace. This cost optimization, scalability, and efficiency allows customers to make Microsoft Azure the center of their data gravity.

“Azure makes deploying Starburst clusters a seamless experience by providing a fully managed Kubernetes infrastructure that is fault tolerant and easy to set up and administer for our customers,“ said Tom Nats, Director of Solutions at Starburst. “With constant new features and improved performance, Starburst customers can deploy and query all of their data in Azure with ease and confidence.”

Expanding sales and marketing network with the Azure Marketplace and Marketplace Rewards

Despite being a small, unmanaged Microsoft partner, Starburst had driven significant cost savings to large customers across multiple industries by offering an innovative approach to Azure Kubernetes Service. It wanted to expand its customer base and turned to the Microsoft commercial marketplace, which offers myriad benefits to partners.

Starburst benefits from promoting private offers through the Azure Marketplace and accelerating low-margin deals. It also can offer customers the opportunity to draw down their MACC (Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment) by purchasing through the Microsoft commercial marketplace. The company has also taken advantage of Marketplace Rewards, increasing visibility to its marketplace offer by being featured in an Azure Marketplace Blog post as well as reaching Microsoft sellers directly with an article on an internal field communications site.

Transacting via the trusted Azure Marketplace, Starburst has tripled its customer base, scored numerous six-figure deals with major telecommunications, retail, and healthcare clients, and catapulted its Azure Consumed Revenue into the high six figures. By utilizing the marketplace’s ability to streamline customer transactions, offer access to existing Microsoft customers, and increase field seller visibility, Starburst has flourished and is targeting 100 percent year-over-year growth. It also projects 90 percent of its future business will come from the Microsoft commercial marketplace.

“Starburst has secured numerous six-figure deals and has grown its customer base by three times since launching on the Microsoft commercial marketplace. Through Azure Marketplace, Starburst prospects can take advantage of a free trial, and they can transact without needing to go through a procurement process. Customers also benefit by burning down their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment through deployment of Starburst.”

—Harrison Johnson, Head of Technology Partnerships, Starburst

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