How EdTech and workforce development companies drive business success through AWS Marketplace

Educational institutions around the world seek reliable options that allow administrators, professors, teachers, and students to maintain connectivity and productivity on- or off-campus. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace provides a curated digital catalog to help institutions navigate evolving situations and quickly deploy solutions. In 2023, more than 2,000 education customers around the world subscribed to software in AWS Marketplace. These customers highlight three main advantages of procuring software through AWS Marketplace: speed, security and governance, and economic benefits.

Recognizing the value that public sector and education buyers can realize through AWS Marketplace, an increasing number of education technology (EdTech) and workforce development companies are listing their products on AWS Marketplace. There are more than 100 sellers listed in the education and workforce development vertical, which encompasses solutions that are built to serve K-12 school districts, higher education institutions, and enterprise customers. In this post, we feature some of our top education and workforce sellers and highlight how listing on AWS Marketplace has positively impacted their business growth and goals. 

What is AWS Marketplace?

AWS Marketplace is an online store for businesses and public sector organizations to find, test, buy, and deploy software and data products that run on AWS. AWS Marketplace brings ease and speed to the procurement process, enabling customers to purchase software from 15,000 listings across 65 categories more quickly, all while utilizing their AWS commitments. 

Coursera provides education customers with a streamlined procurement process through AWS Marketplace

Coursera partners with top universities and organizations to offer courses and degree programs online. Worldwide, more than 550 governments and 3,100 higher education institutions use Coursera’s enterprise learning platform to equip their students, citizens, and government employees with in-demand skills and prepare them for job success. By listing on AWS Marketplace, Coursera has been able to extend the adoption of its targeted content and engaging learning formats to foster continuous skill development for lifelong learners.

“Thousands of universities and colleges around the world use Coursera for Campus to provide job-relevant courses and micro-credentials from industry leaders, including AWS, to their students and faculty,” says Zac Rule, vice president, global enterprise sales and channel partnerships at Coursera. “AWS has been a key partner in helping us streamline the procurement process, allowing higher education institutions to purchase Coursera seamlessly through a platform they’re already using, so they can prepare for a world of accelerating change.”

Co-selling with the AWS Partner Network on AWS Marketplace has helped Udemy drive five times the deals

Udemy Business is an integrated learning solution that enables effective talent development across all functions, levels, and learning needs to help organizations increase employee engagement and achieve business goals. Udemy offers a comprehensive collection of more than 11,000 technical and business courses in English and 14,000 international courses taught across 14 languages by local experts. The courses span critical professional skills such as project management, development, leadership, and more. Their upskilling solutions promote advanced technical skills, such as IT/cloud certifications, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), for all levels, and innovative business skills to help organizations stay competitive.

“With the support of the AWS Partner Network, the number of Udemy Business deals transacted through AWS Marketplace has grown fivefold year over year. We view the AWS Marketplace as a core pillar of how we engage with customers,” says Ben Sangree, director of partnerships at Udemy. “The partnership adds massive value for joint customers who need to upskill and reskill their workforce or prepare them for AWS certifications through the Udemy Business certification prep center. Together, we are helping customers keep up with the rapid pace of change and transition to a skills-based organization.” 

Kaltura scales business globally to reach education customers across geographies using AWS Marketplace

Kaltura provides live and on-demand video software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to thousands of organizations around the world and uses AWS Marketplace to reach customers across geographies. With Kaltura Video Cloud for Education, Kaltura helps institutions modernize the way they communicate and collaborate internally.

“Our goal is to power organizations’ virtual experiences, from webinars to events, video portals, and virtual classrooms. Recently, we were working on a significant deal with one of our top EdTech customers in EMEA. By working with AWS and streamlining the deal through AWS Marketplace, we were able to save valuable time and provide added value to our customer—faster,” says Maya Levin, AWS alliance lead at Kaltura. “With AWS Marketplace, Kaltura has enjoyed a smooth and quick sales process, but more importantly, a cost-effective and efficient process based on our customers’ needs.” 

Pluralsight customers enjoy simplified billing and access to volume discounts through AWS Marketplace private offers

Pluralsight is a technology skills development company that has trained millions of technologists across more than 20,000 businesses, including 70 percent of the Fortune 500. Pluralsight customers include most of the top US federal civilian and Department of Defense (DOD) agencies, all 50 US states, and many of the largest educational institutions in the US and Canada. Pluralsight provides a robust library of engaging cloud courses, certification practice exams, hands-on labs, and cloud playgrounds that simulate real-world work environments. In 2023, Pluralsight added 14 new AWS Marketplace listings, bringing their total to 20 technology skill development services.

“Migrating to AWS requires developing a new set of skills at a rapid pace. To remove friction and accelerate adoption, customers are accessing Pluralsight through the AWS Marketplace to immediately purchase, deploy, and scale a skills development program to an entire organization. The click-through purchasing allows enterprises to start their cloud transformation today instead of waiting weeks or months for procurement and legal approval,” says Jonathan Barron, executive vice president of sales at Pluralsight. “The streamlined AWS Marketplace experience also allows our customers to benefit from simplified billing while still getting access to volume discounts through private offers, together with the ability to apply a portion of their AWS committed spend directly towards the procurement of their Pluralsight purchase.” 

Where to start

Forrester identified AWS Marketplace as a leader in its most recent SaaS marketplaces Wave. The study found the following key benefits for Channel Partners selling in AWS Marketplace:

• Richer deal sizes – Sellers reported a 4–5 times increase in deal size when reselling third-party software through Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO).
• Increased net new business – Interviewed sellers saw private offers growing more than 133 percent year over year, with 40 percent of these private offers coming from net-new business.
• Accelerated sales cycle – Sellers reported 50 percent faster time to deal closure when selling in AWS Marketplace.

More than 4,500 EdTechs globally turn to the scalability and security of AWS to deliver their solutions. If you’re an education or workforce company looking to list on AWS Marketplace, start with this step-by-step guide and begin exploring education and learning solutions in AWS Marketplace.