See What’s New for AWS Marketplace Sellers

By Brad Lyman, Principal Product Manager at AWS

AWS Marketplace released more than a dozen major features in 2017, as well as many other enhancements and updates. These releases make it easier for Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers to discover and procure software, and for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to sell their products on AWS Marketplace.

AWS Marketplace currently offers more than 4,200 software listings from nearly 1,300 ISVs spanning 35 categories. More than 160,000 active AWS customers use 481 million hours a month of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for AWS Marketplace products. That’s a lot of activity, and I will describe how our new features enable you, as a seller, to enhance your offerings to AWS customers.

Did you know we continually update our documentation, including the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide? Or that we post new announcements on the AWS Marketplace Management Portal (AMMP)? In case you missed any announcements, here’s a recap of new features that are relevant to ISVs and AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners.

This post also assumes you have access to AMMP as a registered seller. If not and you want to become a registered seller, here’s how to begin the registration process.

Global AWS Marketplace Metering Service Availability

When we launched the AWS Marketplace Metering Service (MMS) in 2016, we focused on just a few regions. Last year, we completed our global rollout so you can send metering records for Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) or software-as-a-service (SaaS) products to any public AWS region. If you were already sending metering records, this feature was automatically enabled.

Self-Service Listings for Editing Existing Products

We have enabled you to edit many of your existing products using self-service tools within AMMP. Previously, you had to use a spreadsheet to upload or modify products. To access Self-Service Listings, log in to AMMP and choose the Listings tab.

Tax Calculation Service

This feature enables AWS to calculate and collect sales and use tax on your behalf. Log in to AMMP to take advantage of this feature; under the Settings tab, choose Tax Calculation Service. Once configured, we automatically calculate and collect sales and use tax based on your customers’ location, and provide you with tax data through the U.S. Sales Tax Report.

SaaS Contracts

We announced SaaS Contracts during the AWS Summit in San Francisco. This feature enables customers to enter into long-term (monthly, 1-, 2-, or 3-year) contracts for SaaS products. Customers can increase the size of their contract, and AWS Marketplace automatically calculates the prorated upgrade price. It’s also easy for customers to agree to automatic renewals. Check details using AWS Marketplace APIs, and for more information see our SaaS Onboarding Guide, available in AMMP.

Log Metering Records with AWS CloudTrail

We heard from SaaS sellers that you need better visibility into the metering records you send to MMS. That’s why we integrated MMS with AWS CloudTrail, so now every successful metering record is logged and stored using AWS CloudTrail. If you are a SaaS seller that has enabled CloudTrail, this feature was automatically enabled. Learn more about our AWS Marketplace Metering Service API.

Self-Service Listings for SaaS Products

When we launched SaaS Contracts, sellers still had to rely on a spreadsheet for uploading product details. Self-Service Listings enables you to take advantage of self-service tools to manage listings. You can find more by logging into AMMP and choosing the Listings tab.

GovCloud Deployments

In 2017, we launched support for GovCloud deployments. AWS GovCloud (US) is an isolated AWS region designed to allow U.S. government agencies and customers to move sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing specific regulatory and compliance requirements. This feature enables sellers to offer products to GovCloud users by simplifying the discovery of GovCloud-accessible products and easing the deployment of these into the region. To take advantage of this feature, you must show that your product has the proper clearance. For more information, read our AWS GovCloud (US) User Guide.

Cost and Budgets Support for AWS Marketplace

As customers move more of their workloads to the cloud, it’s important to understand how budgets are being used. Customers can now visualize their AWS Marketplace costs and usage in Cost Explorer, dive deeper into usage patterns using Cost and Usage Reporting, and set budgets on their AWS Marketplace costs and usage. This feature is automatically available for your products and requires no additional work from you. Customers received this feature automatically at no charge.

Multi-AMI Solutions

This feature enables you to offer solutions that contain multiple AMIs. Customers will be able to browse your multi-AMI solutions on AWS Marketplace, subscribe with one click, and deploy using AWS CloudFormation templates that you provide. For customers, subscribing to a single solution entitles them to use all AMIs contained in that solution and pay based on the pricing model set for each AMI. More information is available in the guide for AMI-Based Product Delivery Using AWS CloudFormation.

Seller Private Offers

This feature enables you to offer products on AWS Marketplace with customer-specific pricing and legal terms. Using a public product as a starting point, you can change prices and upload a PDF of the legal terms for a specific purchase. This feature is only available for sellers in the AWS Marketplace Enhanced Data Sharing Program, which is reserved for sellers who compensate their salespeople for AWS Marketplace purchases.

AWS PrivateLink on AWS Marketplace

AWS PrivateLink enables customers to pass data to a SaaS application without ever leaving the Amazon network. AWS Marketplace makes it easier for customers to find your products that support AWS PrivateLink, and configure a PrivateLink connection by providing seller-specified DNS names. This feature requires you to configure your SaaS application for PrivateLink. Learn more in the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.

Seller Reporting Enhancements

We have made several enhancements to AWS Marketplace seller reporting. This includes reporting updates for new features types, such as adding support for Multi-AMI Solutions, SaaS Contracts, and Private Offers. We also made updates to the reports we offer for registered Channel Partners. This additional information is automatically available through seller reports. To view your reports, log in to AMMP and choose the Reports tab. Documentation for each report is available in the Data Dictionary.

Managed Rulesets on AWS Marketplace

When AWS launched AWS WAF, a web application firewall that lets you monitor HTTP and HTTPS requests, AWS Marketplace added support for Managed WAF Rulesets. Sellers on AWS Marketplace can now provide customers with rulesets that are deployed directly in a customer’s fully managed solution. Learn more about how to vend a managed ruleset at AWS Marketplace Rule Groups.

Enhanced Product Detail Page

We added support for rich media content on our product detail page, including adding up to five videos and/or screenshots for helping customers understand your product. The rich media features are currently limited to sellers participating in the beta program, as it requires sellers to provide additional content. The self-service tools are in development and the feature will be available to all AWS Marketplace vendors once the toolset is finalized.

All in all, we have launched a host of new features and enhancements for AWS Marketplace customers and sellers. Let us know if there are features you’d like to learn more about or if you have an idea for a feature we should consider adding. The AWS Marketplace team is already hard at work on the features we’ve heard our customers want to see in 2018.

Stay tuned for more announcements!