‘The biggest growth opportunity around AWS is in marketplace'
Jack Watson, managing director, Bytes Software Services
Where does AWS now sit in your vendor hierarchy, and can you give us an idea of how that's changed?
AWS now sits comfortably in our top 10 vendors and profits have doubled in the last year.
Where are you seeing the biggest growth opportunity around AWS right now?
The biggest growth opportunity for our AWS business is in marketplace as the consumption rates for cloud workloads and subscriptions are relatively low for the energy used to identify, migrate and manage them.
Name one thing AWS should work on if it is to gain further traction in the channel?
A commitment to not directly approach partners' staff would I think benefit the whole community albeit we haven't experienced this ourselves
The best thing AWS could do would be to simplify consumption rebates; pay channel partners a good basic rebate for AWS cloud consumption regardless of size, whether it is a new or old subscription or EDP [the AWS Enterprise Discount Program] client. In our experience, having a consistent basic rate that's attractive to the channel creates clarity and confidence in partners committing more resources upfront to migrate new workloads and grow existing. Accelerators on top of this for the services and growth AWS want would then create more sustainable profits as consulting partners skill up. A commitment to not directly approach partners' staff would I think benefit the whole community albeit we haven't experienced this ourselves.
How big is your AWS team?
Bytes AWS has expanded to more than 20 technical consultants across the world.
How would you assess the margin opportunity around AWS, particularly when compared with public cloud alternatives?
AWS margins are low due to the complexity of the model. The energy expended to hunt for best funding and rebates could be used to drive more customer engagement. In comparison to Microsoft, AWS are behind their CSP model, but both of their direct models compete with as much as they complement channel engagements.
How do you position AWS against the other public cloud and traditional on-premises infrastructure vendors you carry?
A hyperscale provider with a diverse array of service capability that complements a well-rounded infrastructure design. We see a lot of positive relationships and interaction with ISVs
To what extent is AWS' direct sales background an obstacle to the relationship?
I think they've been very supportive of the channel.
"A focus on partner profitability and making a market for MSPs would be received well". See next page to discover which partner CTO made this plea...
