AWS vows to double channel investment in 2015

Vendor promises 'most significant' programme updates ever

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its partner programme a makeover ahead of the new year, when it promises to double its investment in partners.

At its re:Invent event in Las Vegas, the cloud vendor unveiled a tranche of new Amazon Partner Network (APN) benefits along with a new managed services programme and new partner training courses too.

It said that this week's updates will come ahead of even more channel-friendly changes coming in the new year.

"Moving into 2015, we plan to more than double our investments in our APN Partners with the most significant set of updates, enhancements, and new benefits to the APN since its inception," the firm said.

As part of the new benefits package unveiled at its US event, AWS will offer to fund up to half of professional services fees for eligible Advanced and Premier partners, and all their AWS usage fees for eligible customer proof-of-concept projects.

On top of this, the firm launched two new partner programmes: AWS Managed Services and APN Consulting Parnters, which will offer partners more specialised support and training.

The firm has also beefed up its training offering across the board – it announced the arrival of a range of new "boot camp" training events for its Premier, Advanced and Consulting partners.

AWS claims its partner network has grown 75 per cent in the past year, which its global director of partner ecosystems Terry Wise said proves his firm's commitment to partners.

"The growth in the APN programme over the last year and in the capabilities of our APN partners highlights just how critical APN Partners are to our customers' success," he said.

"As the cloud increasingly becomes the default platform for businesses of all sizes, there has never been a better time to be an APN Partner. We are very excited to work with our ecosystem to help them grow their businesses, differentiate their offerings, and drive success for our joint customers."

Joseph Spear, head of marketing AWS Premier partner Smart421, said he is optimistic about the year ahead with the firm.

"AWS is maturing its partner programme every year," he said. "It's a rigorous programme and it isn't just open to anybody – we like that and especially how pragmatic they are.

"They are tremendously interactive with us and their other partners... and they have mastered what they are doing."