How AWS is transforming the software marketplace for buyers and sellers

The AWS Marketplace was launched in 2012 with the vision to provide a curated catalogue of B2B software, specifically for customers migrating to AWS. “We had a vision of creating this marketplace, much like, you can think of Amazon.com, where software providers, what we call independent software providers ISVs, could come and sell their software to AWS customers,” explains Marta Whiteaker, Managing Director AWS Marketplace EMEA.

Similar to Amazon.com, the objective of the AWS Marketplace was to easily locate and buy software on a pay as you go model, as well as rapidly deploy it on the platform itself, for AWS customers.

When AWS Marketplace was launched the pricing was pretty revolutionary at that time, points out Marta. “That is how we got started, bringing in ISVs from everything, from security, to network, to storage, to list their product, and we had AWS customers then going to the marketplace.”

Another initiative that drove AWS Marketplace in the initial stages was to listen to what AWS customers were saying and working backwards from there.

“What we heard our customers tell us, from the beginning, but as we started getting more and more usage and adoption of the platform, we would really like to keep buying software from people that we have always bought software from. And those are the trusted partners,” says Marta.

AWS Marketplace community

With that feedback, over a couple of years, AWS developed the functionality to better support all types of channel partners including managed service providers, resellers and so on. The AWS Marketplace has now positioned itself not just for ISVs to resell their licenses, but for software application channel partners as well.

“With a lot of the functionality that we have launched over the last couple of years, it has really been toward not just making it easier for ISVs to sell, but also making it better for channel partners to be able to resell their software,” says Marta.

Another benefit of the AWS Marketplace is the turnaround time for customers to deploy a proof of concept. Instead of it taking weeks or months to get a proof of concept going, AWS customers found they could do it with a click of a button. “It is still a big deal, in but 2012 it was pretty revolutionary,” feels Marta.

AWS customers set up their workloads on AWS and use the available services to support their operations. “And that was our vision, to make it easy for those customers to not only get what they need from what we call our native AWS services, but be able to pull in third-party solutions at the same time,” she adds.

Today, the AWS Market place has over 1,600 different ISVs listed globally in its marketplace and 8,000+ listings of different kinds of software and data, and 50+ different categories. There are 300,000+ active customers as well.

AWS Market place is also adding software for vertical market categories like healthcare and financial services. Many of the sellers offer free trials and once the buyer has decided to deploy them, they can transact through the Marketplace.

AWS also encourages software vendors of all types to list in the AWS Marketplace when they have a product that is running in AWS.

Dual role of AWS Marketplace

An AWS customer is any business whether startup or enterprise, that is operating from the AWS platform. These customers are migrating selective applications that support parts of the business over to the AWS platform.

The dynamics of the AWS Marketplace is driven by the buyers who are AWS customers and the sellers who are ISVs and channel partners. AWS customers continue to use the core AWS functionalities, like tools and dashboards to support their cloud instance. And when they want to boost efficiency, they access the AWS Marketplace as required.

The AWS Marketplace plays a dual role for AWS. For one it is a platform for customers of AWS to offer their services, to other AWS customers. Typically, technology vendors, ISVs, MSPs, resellers, hosting on AWS for their cloud business would also offer their SaaS and other solutions in the AWS Marketplace.

AWS also has a wide partner ecosystem that sells AWS services and the AWS Marketplace becomes a part of their services.

Key takeaways

• The AWS Marketplace was launched in 2012 with the vision to provide a curated catalogue of B2B software.
• Another initiative that drove AWS Marketplace in the initial stages was to listen to what AWS customers were saying and working backwards from there.
• Another benefit of the AWS Marketplace is the turnaround time for customers to deploy a proof of concept.
• AWS also encourages software vendors to list in the AWS Marketplace when they have a product that is running in AWS.
• The early adopters of the AWS Marketplace were the IT infrastructure software vendors.

“We have the AWS partner ecosystem with hundreds of thousands of partners and for those that are technology partners, we make the marketplace available to them if they also want to list. We can call it one of the AWS services, but you can almost think of it as a programme for our partners as well,” elaborates Marta.

The early adopters of the AWS Marketplace were the IT infrastructure software vendors including those from storage and cyber security. These included Trend Micro, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Sophos and others.

“To be transparent here, that was really how we got started at the time. We have evolved over the years, and we are expanding into business applications and moving up the stack,” summarises Marta.

Localisation of AWS Marketplace

In middle of 2020, Amazon Web Services announced that independent software vendors, data providers, and consulting partners based in Bahrain and UAE can transact in AWS Marketplace and AWS Data Exchange. This expansion also means that AWS’s global customers can purchase directly from Bahrain-based software and data providers through AWS Marketplace and AWS Data Exchange, selecting from over 7,000 software listings and data products from more than 1,500 sellers.

Customers can also procure software through local consulting partners with Consulting Partner Private Offers in AWS Marketplace, which enables ISVs to authorise Consulting Partners to receive wholesale pricing on their software, further helping them to lower the cost of their technology by using AWS.

AWS has applied learnings from Amazon.com to build its AWS Marketplace for B2B software that has a weave of cross selling and benefits between buyers and sellers.