Channel Conflict, Discrimination, Shake-Ups: What’s Going On at AWS?

… a bit of a non-story, said an AWS employee who spoke to Channel Futures on condition of anonymity.

“These are good examples of things being resolved — and that’s where there’s a grain of truth,” the employee said.

Schneider agreed. And, he said, what matters most is how a vendor resolves those complexities.

“My view here is that the channel conflict is not deliberate and intended; it’s basically a natural consequence. To me, the bigger issue would be, how do they respond to you? How do they engage with you when you as a partner bring up the channel conflict? … What we have found is that they don’t ignore us. They don’t just say, ‘Tough luck.’ They lean in; they try to understand stuff. There have been other things even recently where we had some conflict. They ended up backing up, looking at some things and disbanding the program. I would be very vocal and frustrated if what we were finding is they were not listening to us and taking action.”

AWS ‘Obsessed With the Customers’

Schneider also clarified that 2nd Watch has had to accommodate customers changing their minds. Some decide to buy cloud computing capacity directly from AWS while continuing to use the MSP for implementation, monitoring and maintenance. That does not arise because of channel conflict, Schneider said. Rather, it’s about designing the best approach for the client.

“What I do credit AWS for is that they are obsessed with the customers and making sure the customers are getting the best possible experience, and that’s where we believe we shine.”

An AWS spokesperson provided Channel Futures with the following statement:

“AWS has a vibrant and growing partner community of over 100,000 companies, and every day, 50 new companies join the AWS Partner Network to build their businesses. … These companies choose to work with AWS because of AWS’ leading functionality, partner programs and operational performance. … Though there are times that AWS services and partners have some overlap on product features, these spaces are so large that there is room for multiple successful entrants — and partners who have strong customer experiences and keep iterating on these experiences have continued to prosper.”

What About the Charges of Discrimination?

In late July, news began to circulate that five women, current and former employees at AWS and within the e-commerce division, had sued Amazon for discrimination. The women filed the suits separately. The accusations are similar.

Pearl Thomas, a Black human resources employee, says her manager called her the n-word after ending a call with her. She further says she was recruited into a position lower than her qualifications merit, and that such placement for people of color is a systemic problem within Amazon.

Tiffany Gordwin, another Black woman in human resources, concurs with Thomas. She says she lost promotions due to racial bias.

An AWS technology executive, Cindy Warner, says a top manager, Dave Lavanty, called her “b****,” “idiot” and “nobody” — and in front of …