How do I get an AWS support plan or Azure support plan that fits my needs?

Background on the partner programmes

Both Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure have a partner programme, which vets to different levels the partner organisations and individuals within them to help give some guidance to customers choosing them.

To go back to the analogy of a utility company the partners come in all shapes and sizes and offer a variety of services.

The utility company is not interested in fixing a lightbulb or installing a car charging point. This is the bread and butter of the partners and it’s an area that the utility providers have no interest in providing.

What are types of partners and how are they structured?

When looking at the market it’s useful to understand how the partners are structured. This influences the services they provide and how they will interact with your organisation.

The partners generally fall into the following categories:

• Large scale partners with direct reseller deals
  • These partners usually have a direct relationship with one provider and follow many of their processes and are quite closely linked.
  • Then challenge when evaluating these partners… are they able to provide services beyond what the provider already provides?
  • Often but not always these organisations have a ‘core’ business and then use a more speciality partner who white label their services for areas that they have less experience with or want to move into
• Medium size partners with single or multiple specialities
  • Generally, these partners have multiple teams within their business and are part of several partner programmes.
  • For example, within Microsoft partners they might be a licence reseller and also provide support for one of their products like Dynamics.
  • These partners are generally quite focused on the areas they offer but are often project or consultancy-based businesses where support is provided by the same team doing the projects / consultancy.
• Smaller specialist partners / Consultants / One man bands
  • These organisations can be quite attractive as you are essentially buying in an extra pair of hands when you need it, however this is limited when you need to provide this on-going.
  • Also, these organisations are not able to scale the services they offer.

What do the partners offer?

If you run a google search for AWS support or Azure support, you will be bombarded with pay per click ads from different partners offering their services. They will be a range from all of the partner types discussed previously, and they will all be offering ‘support’ but what does this actually mean for you?

Many of the partners are offering support services which amount to a traditional IT support contract. Along the lines of if it breaks or you have a problem raise a ticket and we will respond. They also provide additional services for consultancy or projects which can then be resourced as required.

A few are offering some form of network monitoring, but this is not hooking into the feeds that the platforms provide. The partners offering this more sophisticated service are using traditional network monitoring so they are only looking at one level of the platform, they are getting none of the underlying information. They usually have a networks background so this can look attractive but it is only skin deep.

As an example, if you only monitor a virtual machine with network software you will know the windows version for example and if an update needs to be applied, which is good. However, you will not know any information about the VM from the platform and what it costs / when it needs to patch etc…

This will only get you so far with cloud infrastructure because as discussed in the introduction to this article the range of areas that support needs to cover and provide feedback on is too wide ranging.

• Cost
• Reliability
• Keeping up to date with an evolving platform
• Extending the capability of your in-house team

Something a bit different is needed to work with your cloud infrastructure and provide the support you need.

What do IG CloudOps offer and where do we fit?

IG CloudOps are cloud support and management specialists and have worked with cloud infrastructure since its initial release. We are partners with both Amazon and Microsoft and can provide support on both your own subscription and host you on ours.

We offer something a bit different; we have hooked into the feeds the providers have so we can give you insights about your infrastructure. Initially we speak to many customers about cost as this can be an important driver in our initial discussions. Making sure that you are not overpaying for the infrastructure you have or running something at a higher spec than needed for your usage.

We tick all the traditional support boxes and then have our own technology CloudOps which takes things further. We have tech and people, a UK based team providing support and monitoring.

CloudOps addresses all of the areas discussed in the introduction.

• Cost
  • Active monitoring and review your infrastructure and suggestions on how to optimise cost vs performance.
• Reliability
  • Run AWS and Azure or multiple deployments, link CloudOps into them all
  • Automated updates and patching
• Keeping up to date with an evolving platform
  • Your infrastructure is constantly being monitored and optimised.
• Extending the capability of your in-house team
  • Risk registers and 24 hour support
• Support tailored to your organisation.
  • Link into new or existing subscription
  • UK based team who will get to know your infrastructure,
    • Not an impersonal always changing contact

For more background and the core areas CloudOps covers please see the following information about CloudOps core features.