EVOLVE 2025 Partner Summit: two cities, one playbook for growth

From year two in Paris to our first North American stage in New York, EVOLVE 2025 turned partner insight into action with a clearer Upsun story you can sell.

EVOLVE returned to Paris for year two and crossed the Atlantic for our first North American edition in New York. Same heartbeat in both rooms. Practical sessions, clear product direction, and a community of partners who build outcomes that customers trust. If you could not be there, this is the story of what happened and why it matters now.

Why we evolved

We relaunched as Upsun to give you a simpler platform you can explain in one meeting and scale for years. The mission did not change. What changed is the canvas. You keep the strength you know for CMS and commerce. You gain room for complex applications and AI-assisted work without adding operational drag.

The product conversation landed cleanly. One platform with two commercial models. Fixed gives predictability for steady workloads and stable budgets. Flex provides precise, container-level control with automated, transparent billing, allowing you to protect your margin as your customer base grows. Paired with guaranteed resources on Upsun Cloud, you can move the conversation from components to outcomes and remove friction in procurement.

What partners heard in the keynotes

Both cities heard the same talks, which brought everyone onto the same page. The roadmap is organised around six value pillars that buyers already recognise. Speed and simplicity for the teams that ship. Scale and standardisation for platform leaders. Security and sustainability for risk owners and procurement. We also showed what is arriving at the organisation layer. Analytics across FinOps, GreenOps, DevOps, and DevSecOps. Edge protection patterns that fit modern risk. Bring your own cloud paths for sovereignty and choice.

None of this lives only in slides. Console, CLI, and API performance continues to improve, so delivery teams feel the gains day to day.

Agency wisdom that travels

Paris flash talks set the pace with lessons you can apply on Monday morning. Use AI where it reduces toil rather than creates noise. Apply eco-design and accessibility checklists to existing sites, not just greenfield projects. Choose decoupled patterns that stay manageable. Treat digital sovereignty as a design choice when regulation or risk requires it. New York echoed those same themes through customer stories and community perspectives. Different skyline, same playbook. Build fast, remove friction, keep optionality.

Sponsors who powered the work

Thank you to Ibexa, Shopware, Pimcore, IBM, and BNPP. Your sessions helped partners move from ideas to implementation, whether that meant composing a sovereign DXP, de-risking commerce delivery, or packaging new service lines on top of Upsun.

Celebrating excellence

EVOLVE is about momentum, but it is also about the people who create it. We closed each city by recognising partners who turned strategy into customer value. The awards celebrate consistent delivery, healthier margins, and the kind of collaboration that raises the bar for everyone. If you are scanning this recap to see who set the pace in 2025, start here.

Paris award winners

• Innovation Excellence: NIJI
• Excellence in Expertise: Klee
• Top Rising Star: Gain
• Fastest Growing Partner: ANVIL
• Most Engaged Partner: 6Tématiq
• Ibexa Cloud Partner of the Year: OMMAX
• Shopware PaaS Partner of the Year: Basecom
• Symfony Cloud Partner of the Year: Sensio Labs
• Pimcore PaaS Partner of the Year: Basecom
• Adobe Commerce Cloud Partner of the Year: Dn’d
• Beacon of Excellence: Vanksen
• Upsun Pioneer Award: Epick One

New York award winners

• Innovation Excellence: Digital Convergence
• Excellence in Expertise: Proven, Bemeir
• Top Rising Star: Monarch Digital
• Fastest Growing Partner: Symetris
• Most Engaged Partner: Madden Media
• Top Magento Partner: Smart Solutions
• Shopware PaaS Partner of the Year: Above the Fray
• Beacon of Excellence: Interactive Strategies, Unleashed Technologies
• Top Collaborator: Rollin Studios, Vardot
• Upsun Pioneer Award: Charles River Web

What this means for your next customer meeting

If you already build on Upsun, bring both models to your account reviews and map each workload to the right fit. Fixed when predictability wins. Flex when dynamism pays. Use the six pillars to align with stakeholder goals without drifting into jargon. Package services with OEM partners and treat console extensions as a route to new value, not just a demo.

If you are evaluating Upsun, the takeaway is simple. You can launch faster with fewer moving parts. You can scale with confidence. You can keep control where it matters to your team and to your customers.

Watch the replay

Or take a peek behind the scenes into Paris and New York to relive the magic.

The road ahead

Year two in Paris showed momentum. The first North American summit showed scale. Across both cities, the message was consistent. When partners win, everyone wins. Now we build.

Learn more about our Agency Partner Program or find your strategic implementation expert for your next project.