AWS Puts Generative AI In the Spotlight for Partners

AWS SUMMIT LONDON— AWS is jumping on the hype train that is generative AI with a series of technology updates, targeted at both customers and partners.

Antonio Alonso Lopez, director of partner sales EMEA, AWS, spoke to Channel Futures at the AWS Partner Summit in London this week. He said AWS wanted to democratize access to generative AI for customers.

As such, he said AWS is “very focused” on talking to partners about the opportunities around generative AI. The cloud giant is also looking to onboard partners onto Amazon Bedrock, a managed service for building and scaling generative AI applications.

The exec also cited the launch of Amazon EC2 Inf2 instances for deep learning (DL). AWS claims Inf2 instances offer up to a 40% cost saving compared to other comparable Amazon EC2 instances. Lopez pointed to elsewhere in AWS AI portfolio too, with CodeWhisperer which helps developers apply generative AI to create code.

Embracing the Partner Ecosystem

Elsewhere, AWS is recognizing the increasingly blurred lines between partners in the expanding ecosystem. AWS has more than 100,000 partners worldwide, with 70% outside of the U.S.

Lopez said AWS is helping partners to differentiate their businesses through competencies and technological capabilities. As of 2022, AWS enables partners offering consulting, professional, managed and/or value-added resale services to enroll in one or more Partner Path programs. This is to avoid typecasting partners as just consulting or technology companies, said Lopez.

AWS’ Antonio Alonso Lopez

“We found that many consulting companies were implementing, [and] many software companies were interested also in expanding into the consulting area. So with Partner Paths you can belong to a hardware path, a software path, a distributor path, or a mix. This gives them a road map to how to better interact with us.

“The feedback we’re getting from the from partners is that cloud computing sales are moving into this ecosystem. So system integrators need to work with ISVs, [and] system integrators are also developing solutions on the top of AWS that they can package. So it makes sense to them to be a technology partner, software path partner, and also a consulting partner at the same time.”

Selling Alongside Partners

A profitability study conducted by Canalys for AWS shows can achieve a $6.40 multiplier per $1 AWS sold. Sixty percent of that is capitalized in the first year.

“This brings a great opportunity with AWS technology to have a profitable business,” said Lopez.

Lopez stressed AWS’ co-selling efforts with partners, particularly within its ISV Accelerate program.

“Our partners – especially the ISVs – are demanding that we sell together with them. That we connect our sales teams with their sales teams,” said Lopez. “ISV Accelerate is very important for us because if ISVs are part of this program, and we help them to progress their solutions in AWS, it enables the sales teams to work together.”