As an AWS Premier Partner and audited, authorized APN Managed Service Provider (MSP), 2nd Watch offers comprehensive services to help customers accelerate their journey to the cloud. For many of our customer we not only provide robust Managed Cloud Services, we also resell Amazon products and services.
What are the advantages for customers who purchase from a value-added AWS reseller? Why would a customer do this? With an AWS reseller, who owns the account? These are all great questions and the subject of today’s blog post.
I am going to take these questions in reverse order and deal with the ownership issue first, as it is the most commonly misconstrued part of the arrangement. Let me be clear – when 2nd Watch resells Amazon Web Services as an AWS reseller, our customer “owns” the account. At 2nd Watch we work hard every day to earn our customers’ trust and confidence and thereby, their business.
Our pricing model for Managed Cloud Services is designed to leverage the advantages of cloud computing’s consumption model – pay for what you use. 2nd Watch customers who purchase AWS through us have the right to move their account to another MSP or purchase direct from AWS if they are unhappy with our services.
Who “Owns” the AWS Account
I put the word “own” in quotes above because I think it is worth digressing for a minute on how different audiences interpret that word. Some people see the ownership issue as a vendor lock-in issue, some as an intellectual property concern and still others a liability and security requirement. For all of these reasons it is important we are specific and precise with our language.
With 2nd Watch’s Managed Cloud Services consumption model you are not locked-in to 2nd Watch as your AWS reseller or MSP. AWS Accounts and usage purchased through us belong to the customer, not 2nd Watch, and therefore any intellectual property contained therein is the responsibility and property of the customer. Additionally, as the account owner, a customer’s AWS accounts use a shared responsibility model. With regards to liability and security, however, our role as an MSP can be a major benefit.
Often MSP’s “govern or manage” the IAM credentials for an AWS account to ensure consistency, security and governance. I use the words govern or manage and not “own” as I want to be clear that the customer still has the right to take back the credentials and overall responsibility for managing each account, which is the opposite of lock-in. So why would a customer want their MSP to manage their credentials? The reason is pretty simple; similar to a managed data center or colocation facility, you own the infrastructure, but you hire experts to manage the day-to-day management for increased limits of liability, security and enhanced SLA’s.
Simply put, if you, as a customer, want your MSP to carry the responsibility for your AWS account and provide service level agreements (complete with financial repercussions), you are going to want to make sure administrative access to the environment is limited with regards to who can make changes that may impact stability or performance. As a 2nd Watch Managed Cloud Services customer, allowing us to manage IAM credentials also comes with the benefit of our secure SOC 2 Type 2 (audited) compliant systems and processes. Often our security controls exceed the capabilities of our customers.
Also worth noting – as we on-board a Managed Cloud Services customer, we often will audit their environment and provide best practice recommendations. These recommendations are aligned with the excellent AWS Well Architected framework and help customers achieve greater stability, performance, security and cost optimization. Our customers have the option of completing the remediation or having 2nd Watch perform the remediation. Implementing best practices for managing user access along with leveraging cutting edge technology results in a streamlined journey to the cloud.
Benefits of Buying AWS Through 2nd Watch
So now we have addressed the question of who owns the account, but we haven’t addressed why a customer would want to procure AWS through a partner. First, see my earlier blog post regarding Cloud Cost Complexity for some background. Second, buying AWS through 2nd Watch as an AWS partner, or AWS reseller, comes with several immediate advantages:
- All services are provided at AWS market rates or better.
- Pass through all AWS volume tier discounts and pricing
- Pass through AWS Enterprise Agreement terms, if one exists
- Solution based and enhanced SLA’s (above and beyond what AWS provides) shaped around your business requirements
- Familiarity with your account – our (2) U.S. based NOC’s are staffed 24x7x365 and have access to a comprehensive history of your account and governance policies.
- Access to Enterprise class support including 2nd Watch’s multiple dedicated AWS Technical Account Managers with Managed Cloud Services agreements
- Consolidate usage across many AWS accounts (see AWS volume discount tiers above)
- Consolidated billing for both Managed Cloud Services and AWS Capacity
- Access to our Cloud Management Platform, a web-based console, greatly simplifies the management and analysis of AWS usage
- Ability to support complex show-back or charge-back bills for different business units or departments as well as enterprise-wide roll-ups for a global view
- Ability to allocate Volume and Reserved Instance discounts to business units per your requirements
- Set budgets with alerts, trend analysis, tag reporting, etc.
- Ability to provide Reserved Instance recommendations and management services
- Helps improve utilization and prevent spoilage
- You can select the level of services for Managed Cloud Services on any or all accounts – you can consolidate your purchasing without requiring services you don’t need.
- Assistance with AWS Account provisioning and governance – we adhere to your corporate standards (and make pro-active recommendations).
In short, buying your AWS capacity through 2nd Watch as your MSP is an excellent value that will help you accelerate your cloud adoption. We provide the best of AWS with our own services layered on top to enhance the overall offering. Please contact us for more information about our Managed Cloud Services including Managed AWS Capacity, and 2nd Watch as an AWS Reseller Partner.
- Marc Kagan, Director, Account Management
