Our Suppliers

AvePoint

Data management, governance and backup for Microsoft 365 and Teams

AvePoint is one of the largest independent providers of data management, governance and backup for the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The Confidence Platform includes Cloud Backup, Policies & Insights, Opus (records management), and migration tools. For organisations heavily reliant on SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive, AvePoint is often the de facto choice as Microsoft itself does not offer a complete native backup. The pricing structure operates with per-user or per-GB subscriptions, depending on the product. Contracts typically run for 1 or 3 years and are often linked to Microsoft EA renewals. This results in procurement seamlessly scaling alongside the M365 landscape without a clear moment to revisit the AvePoint strategy.

Tenable

Vulnerability management, Nessus and exposure management for enterprise security

Tenable is the market leader in vulnerability management and exposure management. Its best-known product is Nessus — one of the most widely used vulnerability scanners worldwide — along with the enterprise platforms Tenable Vulnerability Management (formerly Tenable.io), Tenable Security Center, and the overarching Tenable One. For organisations with NIS2, DORA or ISO 27001 obligations, a toolset like Tenable has become virtually standard. The licensing model is based on the number of assets (IP addresses, cloud resources, identities). This sounds straightforward, but the counting is notoriously tricky: IoT devices, container instances and ephemeral cloud workloads can quickly drive up the asset count. Organisations that do not actively manage their asset inventory see their Tenable invoices rise year on year without a corresponding increase in security level.

Adobe

Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud

Adobe is the market leader in creative software and document management. Most organisations use Adobe via a Creative Cloud subscription — a flexible but costly model that renews automatically each year. Adobe has implemented significant price increases in recent years, often without proactive communication to existing customers. For enterprise organisations, named user licences and shared device licences are the two main contract types. The distinction is crucial: a named user licence is tied to an individual, whereas a shared device licence is linked to a device. In practice, these are often confused, leading to compliance risks and unnecessary costs.

Barracuda

Email security, firewalls, SASE and backup for mid-market and enterprise

Barracuda Networks is a broad security provider offering products for email security (Email Protection), network security (CloudGen Firewall, SecureEdge SASE), application security (WAF-as-a-Service) and data protection (Backup). Barracuda is particularly strong in the mid-market sector and is sold through a partner model. Since its acquisition by KKR in 2022, the product range has been rapidly consolidated into subscription suites. The licensing model mostly works on a per-user basis (email, SASE) or per appliance (firewall, WAF). Over recent years, Barracuda has steadily increased prices and actively pushed multi-year contracts. Customers who do not renegotiate in time thus face regular price increases of 10-20% on each renewal.

Figma

Collaborative design platform for product and UX teams

Figma is the leading design and prototyping platform for product and UX teams. Following the attempted acquisition by Adobe (which ultimately did not proceed), Figma has remained independent and has significantly increased its enterprise pricing. The tool is popular due to its browser-based collaboration, but the licensing structure is complex and costs escalate rapidly as teams grow. Figma operates with editor seats (paid) and viewer seats (free or paid depending on the plan). In practice, viewer seats are often converted to editor seats without central oversight, leading to unexpected invoices.

Zoom

Video conferencing, webinars and business telephony

Zoom has evolved from a video conferencing tool into a full communications platform with telephony, webinars, contact centre solutions and AI features. After the explosive growth during the pandemic, many organisations have been left with oversized Zoom contracts that were never reviewed. Zoom operates on a user-based licensing model. Most organisations pay for more hosts than they actually need. Moreover, add-ons like Zoom Phone and Zoom Webinar are frequently purchased separately without a strategic approach.

Atlassian

Jira, Confluence, Trello and the rest of the Atlassian ecosystem

Atlassian is the provider behind Jira, Confluence, Trello, Bitbucket and a range of other development and collaboration tools. In 2024, Atlassian completely discontinued the Server version and forced all customers to migrate to Cloud or Data Center. This has resulted in substantial price increases for many organisations still using Server. Atlassian operates a tier-based pricing model: as the number of users grows, you pay for each additional tier. This makes budgeting difficult and often leads to unexpected jumps in the invoice when teams expand.

Palo Alto Networks

Next-gen firewall, SASE and cloud security platform

Palo Alto Networks is one of the leading players in enterprise cybersecurity. The portfolio includes next-generation firewalls (NGFW), the Prisma SASE platform, endpoint protection via Cortex XDR, and a wide range of cloud security services. Palo Alto has aggressively acquired companies in recent years, pushing customers towards an integrated platform model. The licensing structure is complex: hardware appliances are combined with software subscriptions and cloud services, each having their own durations and renewal dates. This makes oversight and budgeting difficult without active contract management.

VMware (Broadcom)

Virtualisation and cloud infrastructure, now part of Broadcom

VMware, part of Broadcom since 2023, is the market leader in server virtualisation and cloud infrastructure. The acquisition by Broadcom has resulted in drastic changes to the licensing model: perpetual licences have been discontinued, partner ecosystems have shrunk, and customers are forced to switch to expensive subscription bundles. For many organisations, the move to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) means a cost increase of 200-600% compared to the previous situation. This has led to a widespread reconsideration of VMware strategy among enterprise customers worldwide.

DocuSign

E-signatures and contract lifecycle management

DocuSign is the market leader in e-signatures and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM). The tool is widely used in legal, HR, and sales processes. DocuSign operates with envelope-based pricing: you pay per sent document for signing. For high volumes, enterprise plans with a fixed fee are more cost-effective. A common issue is that organisations purchase envelope packages based on peak volumes, while average usage is much lower. This leads to structural over-purchasing.

Veeam is a market leader in backup and recovery solutions for virtual, physical and cloud environments. The software protects workloads on VMware, Hyper-V, AWS, Azure and more. Veeam offers both perpetual and subscription licences, which makes switching between contract types complex. Following the acquisition by Insight Partners and collaborations with Broadcom/VMware, Veeam’s licensing structure has changed further. Customers migrating from VMware to an alternative must also review their Veeam licences.

Miro is the most popular online whiteboard platform for remote and hybrid teams. The platform is especially popular within product, design, and agile environments. In recent years, Miro has entered the enterprise market with a more serious offering, but for many organisations it remains a shadow IT tool that has grown bottom-up without central licence control. The licensing model distinguishes Members (paid) from Viewers (free). Similar to Figma, it’s tempting to add people as Members, whereas Viewer access suffices for most users.