Dispatch from re:Invent, Day Two: Partners Pump Lifeblood into AWS Cloud

What do superhero Band-Aids, and millions of people attending the victory celebration for the World Series champion Chicago Cubs, have in common?

Both have optimized for success through the AWS Cloud using an AWS Partner company, according to Terry Wise, vice president at AWS and the host of the Global Partner Summit, part of the massive AWS re:Invent gathering going on this week in Las Vegas.

Before a packed house, Wise and other speakers — including chief technologists for Johnson & Johnson and Scholastic underscored the critical role partners play in managing the migration and workloads for enterprises in the cloud. Today, more than 90 percent of Fortune 100 companies have a presence on the AWS Cloud, abetting a market that will eclipse $400 Billion by 2021.

To keep apace, AWS must, too, add partners at a breakneck pace. Fortunately, more than 10,000 new partner companies have signed on to offer AWS services in just the past 12 months alone.

“The innovation our partners are delivering on behalf of their clients is amazing,” said Wise.

Companies like Blue Sentry Cloud, with 28 pro certifications — are well-positioned to take advantage to the rapid evolution of the AWS Cloud, and to deliver new features and services to enterprises, Wise says.

“These deeply skilled partner partners are committed to the training and certifications needed to react quickly, and to become more agile [to the evolving AWS Cloud],” he said.

Perhaps the largest area of growth opportunity for AWS partners is in cloud managed services — a $76.73 billion market, according to AWS. A managed service partner — like a physician — is committed to ensuring enterprises take ideal care of their cloud environments, constantly optimizing their instances and implementing changes and updates when AWS releases new innovations to the marketplace.

Even on the first day of re:Invent, eight new AWS products, services and certifications were announced during the two-hour Global Partner Summit Keynote. These announcements included new support for VMWare on the AWS Cloud; new IOT and Financial Services competency certification programs for partners; and a new program to add support for public sector partners.

This hyper-scale, hyper-speed atmosphere underscores the critical importance of AWS partners in the Amazon Cloud ecosystem. As partners innovate in the marketplace, they suggest new ideas to AWS, which is aggressive in adding these ideas to their innovation road map.

“We are at a seminal time in the history of technology,” said Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS, in addressing the summit audience. “This is not a time for the meek or feint of heart.”