With Broadcom, SAP, and Oracle all shifting their service agreements and moving towards their next-generation products, third-party support providers are becoming an increasingly popular partner for many organizations. One such provider, Spinnaker Support, has experienced double-digit growth due to the numerous market changes it has faced.
Channel Insider spoke with CEO Matt Stava to learn more about what his company offers and why his business is primed to take advantage of the demand for the long haul.
Why third-party support is gaining ground amid OEM licensing changes
Spinnaker’s set of offerings includes supporting customers of Broadcom’s VMware, SAP, and Oracle through software maintenance and a set of managed services for those environments. Now, as many face steep increases in costs, shifts to long-term licensing subscriptions, and cloud-native technology roadmaps that encourage, if not demand, upgrades to legacy systems, Spinnaker is seeing more demand than ever before.
“Our goal is to unlock the forced paths that many OEMs are pushing companies down,” Stava said. “In the spirit of independence, many companies don’t want to follow these huge players down the road of more expensive licensing or of having to move to the latest cloud system. We can maintain and support the systems they have in place today, regardless of what the OEM has in its roadmap.”
In July 2024, Spinnaker launched its VMware support option in response to market demand for innovative, up-to-date, and flexible support offerings. Interest remains high as VMware customers face potentially higher costs and additional partners are removed from eligibility to participate in incentive-based programs.
Advantages of switching to Spinnaker’s VMware offering, the company says, include the avoidance of forced subscription models and the maintenance of security and compliance requirements.
“We’re seeing a lot of frustration, and even almost anger, in the market right now as companies realize they are paying more and not even owning their stuff anymore,” Stava said. “Honestly, that agitation in the market is good for us. It gives us a way to come in and show how much value we can provide to support SAP ECC 6.0 or other systems that are going to become more expensive to service.”
The channel partnerships adding fuel to the rocket ship
As Oracle, SAP, and VMware customers are being pushed toward subscription licensing, consultancy, software, and licensing partner companies are incorporating Spinnaker’s support into their own technology advisory offerings.
New channel-focused vendor partners include Avanade, SoftwareOne, Preo-Soft, 2Data, which are joining Prolicense and other global vendors to enable their customers to take control of their digital future.
“We look for channel partnerships where our offerings can unlock additional value for those partners’ customers and drive their mission further,” Stava said. “The power of channel partners for us is in the win-win situation. They don’t always publicly say they leverage us for support, but when the customer gets the support and advising they need, that’s a successful outcome.”
Stava says Spinnaker collaborates with numerous systems integrators worldwide to deliver managed support and services offerings to shared customers. These “win-win” relationships, Stava says, are key to Spinnaker’s growth.
“If I jumped out a year from now, I would hope we have a handful more partners,” Stava said. “We aren’t looking to add large amounts, but we will pursue a few more relationships that will help us create and meet demand that we can’t do on our own. Channels remain a very important part of our go-to-market approach.”
Managed services and security are more crucial to success than ever before
In March 2025, the company launched Spinnaker Cloud Managed Services—a new offering that enables an organization to actualize its cloud strategy without having to move away from the legacy systems upon which its business is built.
Spinnaker Cloud Managed Services supports Oracle and SAP environments across both legacy and cloud platforms, delivering a high-touch service with expert management.
“Like most of our additions, this came from our customers asking if we could provide this solution on top of what we already do for them,” Stava said. “Software maintenance and cloud support go together really well, and now we can help customers with what they have brought to us as an opportunity.”
As the digital world is increasingly under attack from cyber threats, companies are closing ranks and keeping their data on-premise, or at the very least, hosted in their home country.
This is sometimes at odds with the major software vendors driving applications onto their cloud platforms. Spinnaker can keep its customers’ data secure and optimized on-site, avoiding risky migrations and unknown threats.
“We’ll continue to focus on security because it’s so crucial to our customers,” said Stava. “I expect to see additional partnerships in our Spinnaker Shield offering over the next year.”
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