In the software industry, entrepreneurs have to go through 4 phases of innovation to build a product:
Idea: What change are they trying to make?
Design: How will their users interface with their product and services?
App: Build the core software using LLMs, and other building blocks
Product: Build the distribution engine to distribute their App to rest of the world
For the last mile to go from (Agentic) App to Product, organizations have to build multiple software distribution channels. The most common ones are OnPrem, BYOC, PaaS, SaaS and Agent-as-a-Service (AaaS).
The Control Plane is nothing but a software that automates distribution of your app across any channel by automating multi-tenancy, packaging, deployment, infrastructure, operations, billing and seamlessly connecting with SaaS and Agentic providers. It's like a CoPilot for your Platform teams.
At Omnistrate, we're solving the challenge of giving developers a platform to build their own control planes and deploy them in their own cloud accounts — making it easier to support any distribution channel. In other words, Omnistrate is a developer platform for building and scaling any distribution channel.
There are several types of distribution channels in the software industry and they are constantly evolving from:
OnPrem distribution channel
Many of us are familiar with the traditional on-premises distribution model, where the software provider asks clients to purchase a license (for proprietary software), visit an artifacts library, choose a version, download the software, install it, and then begin using it.
Day-2 operations — such as upgrades and troubleshooting — are manually managed by the client, often through direct coordination with the provider or via the community in the case of open-source software
Cloud OnPrem is also a type of OnPrem where the clients are going to deploy the software in their cloud account. However, it enables the distributor to constraint the environment and set of tooling that they have to support for their client base, making the distribution a lot easier with the standardization.
Similarly, Open source software (OSS) is also a special type of OnPrem distribution. Other examples include App Store, Microsoft Office disks are all examples of OnPrem distribution.
Startups that have built their application and are ready to go to market often begin with a basic OnPrem distribution model. This is typically the first step to gain field experience and gradually build more advanced distribution channels.
In many cases, OnPrem is not just a short-term solution — it becomes a long-term necessity, especially for reaching customers operating in air-gapped or private data center environments, where this is the only viable delivery method.
Common challenges in this model include:
- Packaging all the components together as one unit
- Generate 1-click install script for your customers with troubleshooting assistant
- Deployment templatization for your customers to customize deployments
- Managed upgrades with version management
- Tenant Database to store deployment configuration, version, licensing, pricing, operational context
- Enforce licensing to prevent unauthorized use
- Collect troubleshooting data locally
BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) distribution channel
If the provider wants to extend OnPrem model by automating deployments within the customer’s cloud account — across any cloud provider and region. Customers simply provide access to their cloud account, and the provider takes care of the rest.
In addition, there is an optional offline mode for customers to stay completely offline when they don't need any assistance on deployments, upgrades or troubleshooting. Examples: Databricks Cloud, StarTree BYOC, Redpanda BYOC.
Startups and SMBs that have scaled to a dozen or more deployments typically face the need to automate delivery across customer environments. BYOC is a natural evolution of the traditional OnPrem model — one that enhances the customer experience by removing deployment complexity, upgrade burden, and operational overhead.
Common Challenges:
- Automating deployments and seamless upgrades across clouds and regions
- Ability to be deploy in the customers account seamlessly
- Support Offline mode for security conscious customers
PaaS distribution channel
In this model, clients don’t need to coordinate directly with the software provider to deploy the product. Instead, they can self-serve: request a deployment on demand, configure it to their needs, and start using it immediately. In other words, this model enables Product-Led Growth (PLG) by removing manual bottlenecks from provisioning. Examples: AWS RDS, Confluent Cloud (Dedicated)
SMBs and enterprises that have found product-market fit and want to scale their PLG motion by building: self-serve deployments, usage-based billing and, automated operations at massive scale — reliably, securely, and cost-effectively
Common Challenges:
- Seamless tenant onboarding and self-serve deployments with guardrails
- E2E Usage-based metering and billing
- Automated operations to be able to operate at scale
- Supporting a wide range of customer journeys — from trials to enterprise-grade deployments without rebuilding distribution infrastructure at every stage
SaaS distribution channel
In this model, clients don’t even need to create or configure instances. They simply get an endpoint that just works — no need to create/customize/govern/manage deployments. The endpoint is smart enough to handle a broad range of use cases and automatically adjust based on usage to optimize for the cost, scale, performance without compromising on the security or reliability. Examples: Confluent Cloud (Standard/Enterprise), HubSpot, Rippling.
SMBs and enterprises that have already achieved product-market fit and want to scale their PLG motion, and deliver a frictionless, SaaS-native experience. For these companies, operating at scale in a reliable, compliant, performant, cost-effective way is necessary — but not sufficient. They want users to focus entirely on simply using the application without worrying about the underlying details. If you’ve already built a PaaS, the next step is to reimagine your customer experience: move away from deployment-centric thinking — and toward simply offering a usage endpoint.
Customers shouldn’t need to configure deployments or tune for scale, cost, or security. The endpoint they receive should be pre-optimized, auto-scalable, secure, and ready to evolve as their usage grows.
AaaS distribution channel
Traditional apps are static — users must manually navigate interfaces, trigger workflows, and interpret dashboards. But today’s users expect software to be proactive, context-aware, and autonomous — not just reactive. That’s where AI agents come in.
AI agents are autonomous software systems that can reason, plan, and adapt based on user input. Instead of requiring manual intervention, these agents execute tasks on behalf of users — interacting with APIs, orchestrating services, and adapting based on environment or intent.
To build dynamic workflows, agents are not optional — they are essential. But here's the challenge: Agents aren’t monolithic binaries or static microservices. They are iterative, context-driven, often multi-step systems.
That’s why agents need their own distribution model — one designed for autonomous systems, not just human-facing applications. This is the foundation of Agents-as-a-Service (AaaS).
How Omnistrate can help?
At Omnistrate, we are on the mission to build the developer platform for others to build their control planes (operating system of distribution channel) so that every company doesn't have to reinvent the wheel and build different distribution channels at scale from the ground up.
To truly appreciate the complexities of building these distribution channels at scale, check out these technical blogs: https://blog.omnistrate.com/posts/149 and https://blog.omnistrate.com/posts/150
Already started?, no problem. You can simply bring your existing stack and augment to unlock new distribution models or automate your existing distribution models. To learn more, please see: https://blog.omnistrate.com/posts/151
Here are some relevant Omnistrate demos from advanced to simple distribution channels:
- ▶️ Watch the PaaS & SaaS demo here (try out yourself: https://github.com/omnistrate-community/datalab)
- ▶️ Watch the PaaS (Hosted / BYOC) demo here
- ▶️ Watch the BYOC CoPilot demo here
- ▶️ Watch the OnPrem Installer demo here
Build vs Buy: Please see this blog on why platform teams choose Omnistrate for their Control Plane: https://blog.omnistrate.com/posts/134
Talk to us: If you are looking to build one or would like to see more demos or would like to discuss more on the topic, I would love to chat more. Here is our calendly: https://calendly.com/omnistrate
If you would like to stay connected, follow us here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/omnistrate/ or join our community group: http://saasmondays.com/
PS: Here is our pricing chart and calculator: https://www.omnistrate.com/pricing. We are open to working with you on the pricing terms and cater it to your needs.