Terry Wise - AWS global alliances vice president
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced its new AWS Solution Provider Program for AWS Partner Network (APN) consulting partners, along with new initiatives for technology partners to build and grow their AWS-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.
The channel program overhaul was revealed at the AWS re:Invent cloud user conference in Las Vegas on 28 November, with the vendor also revealing new features for the AWS Marketplace aimed at simplifying the purchasing and deployment of third-party software on the platform.
The new AWS Solution Provider Program, which will be available in early 2018, replaces the company’s existing Channel Reseller Program.
Specifically, the new iteration of the AWS channel program will offer a tiered incentive structure aimed at rewarding APN Consulting Partners that are innovating on behalf of their customers and have achieved competencies in the areas of migration, managed service provider (MSP), as well as DevOps.
AWS - which acknowledged Datacom as a new AWS Premier Consulting Partners on stage - said the program also provides more flexible contracting and support options for APN Partners in key competency areas, the company said.
Meanwhile, the new AWS SaaS Factory is aimed at providing a set of enablement content and collateral for APN Technology Partners with SaaS offerings.
AWS said the program includes reference architectures with best practices for building SaaS solutions on AWS, AWS Quick Starts which automate deployments for key workloads on AWS, and SaaS on AWS Training that delivers prescriptive guidance on building a SaaS business on AWS.
The AWS SaaS Factory and SaaS Accelerate Program will also be available in early 2018.
At the same time, due to customer demand, AWS is expanding its AWS Competency Program with two new competency areas for networking and machine learning.
This adds to the company’s current Competency Program list which includes 17 categories in solution areas such as IoT, DevOps and Big Data.
"As businesses of all sizes continue to move to AWS, the majority of the Fortune 500 companies and over 90 per cent of the Fortune 100 utilise APN Partners for specialised technology and expertise," AWS global alliances vice president, Terry Wise, said.
"In fact, in the past year we have added more than 10,000 new APN Partners to the APN, and more than 160 thousand active AWS customers are using software from AWS Marketplace.
“To support this growth, we are continuing to invest heavily in the APN Program to ensure that AWS customers have access to the best software and services for AWS and so that our partners can continue to build successful cloud businesses on AWS."
Alongside Datacom, of the other 15 new AWS Premier Consulting Partners named by the company during the re:Invent conference, other inductees included eCloudvalley, Deloitte, Flux7, ITOCHU, Silver Lining, Relus Cloud, HCL, Sturdy Networks, Stelligent, Contino, Cloud Kinetics and Powerupcloud.
The company said its AWS Premier Consulting Partner tier highlights the top APN Consulting Partners globally that claim significant AWS investments.
AWS Marketplace update
AWS has also introduced the preview of a new enterprise feature for sellers and buyers in the AWS Marketplace, the Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace. The new offering was designed by a working group of 30 enterprise software buyers and sellers.
The Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace is an agreed upon standardised contract template between enterprise software buyers and sellers that resolves challenging terms including liability, dispute resolution, IP protection, warranty, and more across multiple vendors.
According to AWS, participating customers using Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace are able to do away with lengthy procurement negotiations that can delay projects for months.
Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace is currently available in preview to interested enterprise customers and will be generally available to all sellers and enterprise buyers who choose to accept the standardised enterprise contract terms in the first quarter of 2018.
Participating software companies in the preview are AppDynamics, Barracuda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Checkpoint, Chef, F5, NetApp, Palo Alto Networks, Pitney Bowes, Snowflake, and Trend Micro.
Also introduced at the conference was the new Private Image Build offering, which lets users build and run custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) that combine their own IT-approved base operating system images with installable software provided by AWS Marketplace sellers.
AWS said that customers could better comply with their organisations' specific IT policies and internal security requirements by running third-party software on their own private images, while still taking advantage of all the conveniences of AWS Marketplace, including consolidated AWS billing, AWS Marketplace pricing and licensing models, and rapid, automated deployment.
AWS Marketplace's Private Image Build is currently available in preview to AWS Marketplace customers.
