Getting Started as an APN Technology Partner

Getting Started as a AWS Technology Partner is easy. Below are three key steps that many partners follow in launching their business on AWS as a Technology Partner:

STEP 1: Choose a Business Model

AWS allows for a variety of business models to distribute software solutions to customers via the AWS cloud. Below are examples of the most popular models for Technology Partners to leverage:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

  Technology Partners can expand their market penetration and improve their customer’s experience by providing a solution through a SaaS model. The financial benefits of a successful SaaS offering include instance access to the solution with no on-premise installation and configuration, speed to market, predictable annuity revenue, and simplified platform management while lowering engineering costs associated with supporting legacy operating system and hardware platforms.

  Using traditional infrastructure, the cost of bringing a new SaaS offering to market can be prohibitive. For traditional Technology Partners with mono-tenant applications, they face the challenge of re-architecting and in many cases re-writing their application to support multi-tenancy. In addition, there is a significant capital expense associated with building out the infrastructure to support the hosted SaaS offering, along with ongoing operational cost to support the environment.

  AWS provides a unique solution that allows Technology Partners to leverage their existing applications to provide multi-tenant efficiencies, while leveraging their existing mono-tenant applications. The elastic nature of AWS allows Technology Partners to easily launch new instances of their application in the cloud for each customer they onboard. Leveraging the on-demand and elastic nature of AWS allows Technology Partners to tightly control costs associated with utilization, while ensuring ultimate availability when faced with unexpected demand.

  In a SaaS mode, AWS is completely abstracted from the end user. As such, the Technology Partner can set their pricing model in any manner that best suits their business. AWS provides scalable and secure on demand infrastructure in a utility cost manner.

  For more insights, Read the AWS SaaS Whitepaper

  Examples include: Good Data, Appian, Pervasive Software, Infor, Engine Yard, Heroku.
• Development/Test/Evaluation

  The simplest model for providing immediate access to Technology Partner software applications is through a zero cost license model. The end user pays any applicable fees for AWS services utilized, but there is no additional charge for the Technology Partner software. This model is good for demonstrations and product evaluations since the end user has instant access to the software without lengthy and costly procurement cycles associated with hardware, datacenter space, and deployment. It is important to make sure the end user is aware of the licensing restrictions associated for use of the Technology Partners software in this model.

  Examples include: IBM, Oracle, SugarCRM.

• Bring Your Own License (BYOL)

  This is license portability. End users procure the software licenses through traditional channels and are given the right to deploy the software on Amazon EC2, similar to deploying on physical hardware. This model is advantageous for the Technology Partner, as no change is required to existing channel models, sales compensation plans, marketing, and revenue reorganization practices. Depending on the existing perpetual license or subscription model, the Technology Partner may have to create a method for converting licenses to the unique aspects of the AWS environment. For example, if the Technology Partner currently licenses on a per CPU basis, it is important to understand how that maps to AWS Elastic Compute Units (ECU) (Learn more via the Amazon EC2 page). In most cases this is a simple exercise in matching up physical compute resources to the AWS infrastructure. This model is well suited for easy onboarding of existing customers, along with customers who plan to run systems in a steady state manner. This model does not take into account the elastic nature of the Amazon Web Services computing environment. For example, an end user running twenty EC2 instances one month and only one EC2 instance the following month.

  Examples include: IBM, Oracle, Informatica, Citrix.

• Utility Pricing

  This model allows the end user to take full advantage of the elastic nature of the AWS computing environment. Technology Partners license the use of their software in a manner that maps to one or more of the variable on demand pricing dimensions that AWS charges for Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. End users consume the Technology Partner solution on a utility basis and pay for only the amount of time, bandwidth and/or storage they actually consume. This is ideal for end users who anticipate variable use patterns, looking to avoid upfront capital expense, and require immediate access to the Technology Partner’s software. When considering this model, Technology Partners need to determine how to convert existing perpetual or subscription based pricing to a utility model (i.e. hourly).

  Perpetual Software License Conversion

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  Here is a simple example of how to convert a perpetual software license which includes 25% maintenance into to an hourly model:

  License Fee:	$1,000
  Annual Maintenance:	25%
  Planned breakeven point: (i.e. if customer runs hourly offering 24x7x365)	3 years
  License & Maintenance Review over 3 Years: $1,000 + ($250 x 3)	$1,750
  Number of hours in 3 years: 8760 hours/year x 3 years	26,280 hours
  Hourly price for software license: $1,750/26,280 hours = $.067/hour x 1.20* *20% premium for convenience of utility consumption	$0.08
  Final cost to the end user
  M1.S Linux instance:	$0.085 per hour
  Technology Partner price for software license:	$0.08 per hour
  Total combined cost:	$0.165 per hour

  AWS provides DevPay and FPS as offerings to help Technology Partners bundle their software with the base Amazon EC2 AMI instances to create combined offering, with an aggregate price. Learn more about: DevPay and FPS.

  

  Examples Include: IBM, Informatica, Red Hat, Gigaspaces

STEP 2: Build Your Solution

Most Technology Partner solutions work on AWS without any re-architecture. If there are identifiable blockers, such as the requirement of hard-wired network addresses, then it is advised that Technology Partners examine ways to make the application more flexible.

To get started building a Technology Partner solution on AWS, there are extensive technical resources in the Resources section of the AWS site. The online forums are also excellent resources that provide direct access to an AWS community of experts. The list below contains the most common requests from Technology Partners: