Generative AI: AWS Is ‘Team Partner’ All the Way
AWS channel leader Ruba Borno talks generative AI, the AWS Marketplace and improving the partner experience at the AWS Partner Summit.
![AWS all-in on partners and generative AI AWS all-in on partners and generative AI](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltd3cefb739a9c98c6/6627ef94b1913306fcbfd232/Ruba_Borno_AWS_Summit_London_2024_Cover.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
AWS' Ruba Borno on stage at AWS Summit London, April 23, 2024.
AWS has shifted its go-to-market function around industries, driven by the generative AI boom, said Borno.
“Customers don’t just want generative AI from a technology perspective. They want the solution and the business outcome that generative AI provides them. And that’s most critical from an industry lens.”
Central to that shift is AWS’ Generative AI Center of Excellence, which Borno describes as a “key turning point from a technology perspective for our customers and for our partners.”
“Every industry, every job, every task is going to be transformed by generative AI. We launched the Generative AI Center of Excellence to help our partners know where to get started. From understanding the technology landscape, understanding the offers that AWS has, and then understanding how to go to market together in service of our customers.”
Launched last month, AWS’ generative AI competency is the fast growing partner competency in the company’s history.
Borno said more than 80% of customers look at competencies as one of their top three criteria when selecting a partner with which to work.
“Since re:Invent, one of the things that we’ve been working on in the partner organization is a response to customers’ needs for our partners to have generative AI competency. A competency is us saying that this partner has developed technical expertise. They also have actually deployed solutions at customers, have customer references who will vouch for those solutions and have demonstrated customer impact.”
“[We] are really excited about 170 solutions from the launch partners already available," she added.
During the Summit, AWS was keen to provide stats as to how AWS Marketplace benefits partners. According to the Borno, partners can extend their customer reach by at least 27%. They’re also able to close deals 40% faster, and have basket sizes that are 80% greater.
“This extends not just for technology partners who have been historically using the AWS Marketplace,” said the exec. “We have technology partners like CrowdStrike, which recently became an over $1 billion vendor through the AWS Marketplace. They joined Palo Alto; they joined Splunk with that designation of over $1 billion sold through the AWS Marketplace. We want to see all of our partners cross that threshold.
“One of our partners, MongoDB, their self-service sales through the AWS Marketplace increased by five times in 18 months. That’s incredible efficiency for our partners through extending the reach.
“Also some of our system integrator partners are putting their solutions there, either coupled with AWS products or with our partners’ products. They’re able to get up to 15%, sometimes 30% net-new logos through the AWS Marketplace. So a huge value for system integrator partners.”
Asked about the value of AWS Marketplace to more traditional VARs and distributors, Borno said: “Our customers need help. They need our partners to help them determine the best solutions to package up … whether it’s SaaS offers or managed services and professional services together to solve that business outcome.”
At re:Invent, AWS said it was lowering its pricing in AWS Marketplace, ranging from 1-3%, depending on the size of the deal.
“We made a big decision to lower our pricing … to go to a flat fee of 3% at most for any of our vendors who transact through the AWS Marketplace, and then down to 1%, for renewals, and for large deals. That makes it the lowest marketplace pricing in the market today of any CSP out there,” said Borno.
Borno said AWS’ goal is to provide the best selection to customers and provide vendors with more access to more customers.
“We also launched APIs in December that allow our partners, such as distributors, to use their own marketplaces, to connect to the AWS Marketplace and transact with AWS Marketplace in the back end. And then through APIs, we can also connect our CRMs together to make sure that we are supporting joint customer wins together. So we’re constantly innovating to allow all types of partners to be able to reach more customers faster and provide them more selection.”
On AWS’ partner plans for 2024 and beyond, Borno said the company will continue to invest in the partner experience.
“One of the things I’m really excited about with AWS [and the] strategy with generative AI is that we know that our customers need us to provide them with as much choice as possible. So everything that we’ve developed has been developed with partners. And as a strategy that’s going to market with partners, whether it’s at the application layer, the managed service layer of bedrock, or at the infrastructure layer.
“So more partnerships, more joint go to market, and then of course, more investment in the AWS Marketplace and the partner experience through that. We are hearing directly from our partners on what they need from us. We lowered prices based on their feedback and lowered our fees based on their feedback. We’ve developed APIs to integrate into their marketplaces based on their feedback. We’ve connected CRM tools based on their feedback and will continue to invest in their experience, so that they can reach more customers and drive more value. So you’ll see a lot more of us delivering value jointly to customers.”
On AWS’ partner plans for 2024 and beyond, Borno said the company will continue to invest in the partner experience.
“One of the things I’m really excited about with AWS [and the] strategy with generative AI is that we know that our customers need us to provide them with as much choice as possible. So everything that we’ve developed has been developed with partners. And as a strategy that’s going to market with partners, whether it’s at the application layer, the managed service layer of bedrock, or at the infrastructure layer.
“So more partnerships, more joint go to market, and then of course, more investment in the AWS Marketplace and the partner experience through that. We are hearing directly from our partners on what they need from us. We lowered prices based on their feedback and lowered our fees based on their feedback. We’ve developed APIs to integrate into their marketplaces based on their feedback. We’ve connected CRM tools based on their feedback and will continue to invest in their experience, so that they can reach more customers and drive more value. So you’ll see a lot more of us delivering value jointly to customers.”
AWS PARTNER SUMMIT LONDON — “All of AWS is Team Partner.”
With that, AWS has made its boldest statement yet as to the importance of partners to its generative AI aspirations.
Ruba Borno, VP, worldwide channels and alliances at AWS, took to the stage Tuesday at AWS Partner Summit London to talk AWS’ commitment to its partnering model.
“Let’s talk about the really exciting innovation of generative AI on AWS,” she told partners. “Our partners are leading the way, and now I’m 'Team Partner.' I’ve always been Team Partner but what I’m really excited about is that all of AWS is Team Partner. Our generative AI strategy is 'partner-first'; if you look at every layer of the generative AI stack, we’ve got partners that we have launched and gone to market with. We do not launch solutions in generative AI without our partners.”
Discussion topics at the Summit are leaning heavily toward generative AI, alongside the benefits of the AWS Marketplace for partners. There were also updates of partner news announced at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas in December.
Channel Futures sat down with Borno to talk generative AI, the benefits of the AWS Marketplace to partners, and the fastest growing competency in the company’s history. See the slideshow above to discover more.
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