AWS Partners Support the Migration and Modernization of Customers’ Most Strategic Workloads

By Chris Sullivan, Director, Worldwide Strategic Alliances at AWS

For more than a decade, customers have run their most strategic workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is due to AWS’s experience, maturity, reliability, security, and performance.

Strategic workloads running on AWS include applications like SAP, vSphere-based workloads such as VMware Horizon, SharePoint, and Citrix, and databases like Oracle, SQL Server, SAP HANA, and IBM Db2. Additionally, operating systems from Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical, and Microsoft all run on AWS to support vital business processes.

As customers have migrated these critical workloads to AWS, they have benefited from cost savings, platform and implementation speed, and enhanced security. They’ve benefited from the broadest and deepest compute platform; with choice of purchase model, storage, networking, operating system, and the latest Intel, AMD and Arm-based processors to help manage workload price and performance.

Customers also have access to the breadth and depth of over 175 native AWS services to further fuel innovation. This is why more SAP and Windows workloads run on AWS than any other cloud.

Customers can choose different options to modernize new or existing applications by running containerized workloads using Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) or Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), or they can go serverless with AWS Lambda.

While an increasing amount of customers are migrating their strategic workloads to AWS, the majority of businesses still run these critical workloads on-premises. AWS Partners serve as trusted advisors to many of these customers, supporting their migration and innovation journeys on the AWS Cloud.

SAP on AWS

Whether customers are looking to lift-and-shift legacy SAP landscapes or modernize on S/4HANA as part of a broader digital transformation, they can count on the experience of AWS running SAP on the cloud.

Our track record, combined with over 5,000 active customers running SAP on AWS, makes AWS the most proven and reliable cloud for SAP workloads.

Customers can reduce costs by right-sizing IT resources and take advantage of purpose-built infrastructure to securely run even the largest SAP landscapes. A recent IDC survey of 600 SAP customers found that more than 85 percent of AWS users see a significant or modest cost improvement by moving from on-premises to AWS for their SAP landscapes.

Windows on AWS

Customers have been running Microsoft workloads on AWS for over 12 years, longer than any other cloud provider. Our deep experience running Windows-based applications is why the number of customers using Amazon EC2 for Windows Server has grown more than 4x since 2016.

Customers choose AWS because we have the most experience with Windows-based applications in the cloud. We offer the best platform for running Windows Server and SQL Server thanks to higher performance and reliability, and greater security and identity services. This is in addition to migration support, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and flexible licensing options.

AWS supports everything you need to build and run your Windows-based applications, including Active Directory, .NET, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows desktop-as-a-service, and all of the supported versions of Windows Server.

We can help you lift-and-shift, refactor, or even modernize your Microsoft workloads on AWS. A 2019 IDC whitepaper dives deeper into the benefits customers experience while running Windows workloads on AWS, quantifying their journey through reductions in overall operating costs, increased developer and gross productivity, and five-year return-on-investment (ROI).

VMware Cloud on AWS

VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware’s enterprise-class Software-Defined Data Center software to the AWS Cloud. This enables customers to run production applications across VMware vSphere-based private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, with optimized access to AWS services.

With VMware Cloud on AWS, organizations can simplify and accelerate the migration of mission-critical production workloads to the AWS Cloud at scale without having to convert or re-architect workloads. Once migrated, customers can modernize applications with optimized access to 175+ native AWS services, from databases and containers to AI/ML and serverless.

VMware Cloud on AWS is widely adopted by customers who have realized the benefits of the jointly built, deeply integrated efforts between VMware and AWS over the course of the past four years.

Customers are realizing significant value by leveraging the VMware Cloud on AWS service to improve their IT infrastructure and provide scalability to their business. AWS Partners are building integrated solutions and business practices with VMware Cloud on AWS to accelerate their customer’s migration and modernization journey. We also continue to innovate on behalf of our customers with joint expanded offerings such as Amazon RDS on VMware.

A new Business Value of VMware Cloud on AWS study by IDC shows that by using VMware Cloud on AWS, customers reduced their IT infrastructure costs by 40 percent, reduced their total cost of operations by 43 percent, and will realize an estimated 479 percent ROI over five years. That’s why AWS is VMware’s preferred public cloud partner for all vSphere workloads, and VMware Cloud on AWS is our preferred service for all vSphere workloads.

Operating System Partners on AWS

At AWS, we collaborate with different Operating System (OS) partners to provide our customers with the choice to run their strategic workloads and modernize their applications and databases in the cloud.

For more than a decade, thousands of customers have run Linux and Windows operating systems on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and have benefited from the service’s cost effectiveness, scalability, and flexibility. Whichever OS the customer chooses, they can rely on AWS Premium Support and the backline support of our partners.

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AWS Partner Success

The AWS Partner Network (APN) includes thousands of systems integrators (SIs) who have built practices around AWS, but also independent software vendors (ISVs) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers who adapted their technologies to work on AWS and support the migration and modernization of strategic workloads.

Partners who achieve status in APN programs like AWS Competency and the Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) have shown bar-raising technical capabilities and a commitment to customer experience. AWS SAP Competency Partners, for example, are 3x more likely to be brought into an AWS-led opportunity than non-Competency partners.

Here are a few examples of AWS Partners helping customers migrate their strategic workloads to AWS:

Capgemini & Deluxe Entertainment

Deluxe Entertainment modernized their digital content supply chain by migrating and running SAP on AWS with Capgemini, an AWS Premier Consulting Partner with the SAP Competency.

“We just decided to go for it, working with Capgemini on the migration and the management of the SAP environment on AWS. That was two years ago, and we haven’t had one issue. The migration was seamless; it was a non-event for internal users. We assumed the process would be harder. The fact that we took a large-scale ERP and migrated it to AWS with no issues is pretty amazing.” — Cindy McKenzie, Chief Information Officer at Deluxe Entertainment

9Logic & TLCengine

TLCengine scaled to add 25,000 new users by moving Windows workloads to AWS with help from 9Logic, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner with a service validation in Amazon EC2 for Microsoft Windows.

“The scalability TLCengine can achieve on AWS will better prepare the company for business growth and other upcoming initiatives. We can scale to meet demand without worrying about performance.” — Krishna Malyala, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at TLCengine

Computacenter & William Hill

William Hill accelerated their cloud migration with Computacenter, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and VMware Cloud on AWS.

“We’ve really grown our relationship [with Computacenter]. We rely on each other as partners; we share ideas, we share solutions and we share roadmaps with each other to get the best out of the relationship.” — Sarah Lucas, Head of Platforms & Infrastructure at William Hill

AWS Competency Program

The AWS Competency Program is designed to identify, validate, and promote AWS Advanced and Premier Tier Partners with demonstrated technical expertise and proven customer success.

Attaining an AWS Competency helps partners market and differentiate their business to AWS customers by showcasing skills in specialized areas across industries, use cases, and workloads. AWS Partners are vetted, validated, and verified against a high bar to achieve the AWS Competency designation.

AWS Competencies are available for SAP, Microsoft Workloads, and Migration. Partners in the Competency program benefit from increased customer visibility, go-to-market (GTM) support, access to additional funds and discounts, and the promotion of your business at AWS events.

AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP)

The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) provides customers with consulting support, training, and services credits to reduce the risk of migrating to the cloud. The MAP program also helps customers build a strong operational foundation, and helps offset the initial cost of migrations.

AWS Partners who have achieved the AWS Migration Competency and have a migration methodology consistent with AWS best practices can apply to participate. Additional incentives are available through MAP for Windows and SAP migrations.

Summary

We are excited to enter 2021 with strong partner momentum to support our customers’ strategic workloads, and we continue to invest in customer-focused programs that AWS Partners can benefit from.

We encourage you to consider the opportunities that SAP, Windows, VMware, and other strategic workloads can bring to your business. Continue to build with us and together we can support customers in their migration and innovation journeys on AWS.

AWS re:Invent Recap for Partners

Thank you for joining us at AWS re:Invent 2020. All of the keynotes, leadership sessions, and breakouts from re:Invent are now available on-demand, including our Global Partner Summit sessions. To watch, log in using the credentials you created during registration.

Don’t miss these on-demand sessions to learn more about AWS opportunities for strategic workloads:

Looking beyond infrastructure to drive your SAP business (GPS206)
Future-proof your enterprise: Why SAP customers choose AWS (ENT202)
Win the market opportunity for Microsoft Workloads on AWS (GPS219)
Architectural patterns and best practices for running workloads on VMware Cloud on AWS (ENT309)
Build, run, manage, connect, and protect hybrid clouds with VMware (ENT285-S)
Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (CON211)

If you missed anything from re:Invent or just want to recap, we have rounded up the most relevant launches, program updates, and educational content available for AWS Partners.

Check out our re:Invent recap on the APN Blog >>

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		Chris Sullivan Chris Sullivan is Director, Worldwide Strategic Alliances at AWS.
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