Recently I was on a support call with a client that buys Microsoft 365 through Rackspace. The difference was obvious almost immediately. We had a real person on the line in under a minute. No endless phone tree. No getting handed off three times. The person who answered could actually help with both the Rackspace side and the Microsoft 365 side, which meant we spent our time solving the issue instead of retelling the problem.
That call reminded me of something I think a lot of IT people already know: third-party resellers still matter. Not because buying a license is complicated. Buying is the easy part. Support is the hard part.
Support is where the value shows up
One reason the reseller model still matters is simple: technology keeps getting more complex, not less. A lot of businesses still choose resellers because they do more than sell a product. They bring experience, guidance, and support that can save time when something breaks. That is not a dying model. It is proof that outside expertise still has real value.
The broader services market tells the same story. Omdia says IT managed services revenue in the channel is forecast to grow about 13% in 2025 to reach $595 billion globally. We have also directly heard from representatives of larger companies stating a need for managed services as part of their partner procurement process. Customers are not just shopping for products. They are shopping for someone who can help run, support, and optimize those products after the sale.
This is bigger than Microsoft
This is not just a Microsoft thing. Microsoft says CSP partners deliver personalized, end-to-end services and can provision, bill, and support Microsoft services for customers. Google Cloud has a partner-led support model specifically built for resold customers, where the partner triages and troubleshoots issues and can file cases with Google Cloud Support on the customer’s behalf. AWS says its MSP program validates partners that deliver end-to-end managed services across planning, migration, ongoing operations, and optimization. Big vendors still invest heavily in partner ecosystems because the support and services layer still matters.
Going direct does not automatically mean better support
To be fair, large vendors do offer direct support. Microsoft 365 Standard Support is included and covers Microsoft 365 cloud services, billing and subscription management, basic installation, setup, general technical usage, and phone and web incident submission. Microsoft also says more advanced technical support is available with a paid support plan, and its Unified Enterprise offering is priced based on a percentage of total license spend. Hey this is great, its maybe not as great as my experience I talked about in the first paragraph, getting an expert on the line in minutes without the deep call tree, without talking to an AI agent first, without saying “yes I read your FAQ’s”, and without making a detailed tier 1 ticket with steps to reproduce and a screenshot… but yes, they do still have good support!
Google Cloud support is also tiered, and this is where wording matters. Standard Support is the greater of $29 per month or 3% of monthly cloud charges. Enhanced Support is the greater of $100 per month or a tiered percentage of cloud charges. Premium Support is the greater of $15,000 per month or a higher tiered percentage of monthly cloud charges. That $15,000 number is the minimum monthly fee for Google Cloud’s Premium Support tier, not a baseline charge for ordinary customers and not a simple usage threshold.
Salesforce includes its Standard Success Plan in all licenses, while Premier is priced at 30% of net license fees. AWS Business Support+ is the greater of $29 per month per account or a percentage of AWS charges, and Enterprise Support is the greater of $5,000 per month or a percentage of AWS charges. HPE makes the same broader point from the infrastructure side: its Tech Care positioning emphasizes faster access to product-specific experts and eliminating complex escalations. Support itself has become a differentiated service.
That is why I do not buy the idea that going direct automatically means better support. In a lot of vendor ecosystems, the deeper support experience is its own paid offering anyway. Too often, going direct means opening a ticket, waiting in a queue, and hoping the handoff chain lands you with the right person.
The real difference is ownership
The support trend more broadly is toward more self-service and automation, which means the human-assisted cases that remain are usually the harder ones. Gartner said in 2025 that with many simple customer service cases now resolved in self-service, the remaining assisted interactions are more complex. That is exactly where a good reseller earns its keep.
That is the support value I see in a good reseller. A good reseller is not just reselling a SKU and marking it up. They are shortening the path from “we have a problem” to “someone qualified owns it.” They understand the licensing, the environment, the vendor boundaries, and the business context. They reduce handoffs. They reduce repeated explanations. They reduce the wasted time that comes from being bounced between teams that each own only one slice of the issue.
To be clear, not every reseller adds value. Some absolutely do just add another layer. If they are slow, hard to reach, or technically weak, there is no magic in the model. The value shows up when the reseller actually owns the relationship and can support both the service they sell and the vendor ecosystem behind it.
That is why this recent Rackspace call stood out to me. Rackspace’s Microsoft 365 offering explicitly includes 24x7x365 support, rapid managed escalation to Microsoft, and access to a premium admin portal. That is exactly the kind of thing that makes a third-party relationship worth it when something breaks.
The big idea is pretty simple. In a world where software and hardware are easier than ever to buy, the real differentiator is often not the product. It is the support experience attached to the product. That is why I still see real value in third-party resellers. When they are good, they do not make the relationship more complicated. They make it a lot easier to get real help, from a real person, when it actually matters.
References (some I only grabbed a minor idea, others just verifying my own ideas, and yet others I pulled actual stats from.. but the most important reference really is my own experience in rackspace, google cloud and microsoft!)
GTIA: www.gtia.org/press-releases/ai-cybersecurity-spell-channel-opportunity-amid-economic-and-it-workforce-challenges-new-research-from-gtia-reports
Omdia: omdia.tech.informa.com/blogs/2025/jan/msp-trends-and-predictions-2025—executive-summary
Microsoft Partner: partner.microsoft.com/en-US/partnership/cloud-solution-provider
Microsoft 365 Support: www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-for-business-support-options
Google Cloud Support: cloud.google.com/support/premium
Salesforce Success Plans: www.salesforce.com/services/success-plans/
Gartner: www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-08-27-gartner-survey-finds-self-service-and-live-chat-will-surpass-traditional-channels-as-top-customer-service-technologies-by-2027
Rackspace Microsoft 365: www.rackspace.com/applications/microsoft-365
