Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud adoption accelerated dramatically in the last few years as executives scrambled to add digital agility and flexibility to their businesses. But the cloud doesn’t automatically improve performance, spending, and business success. Many enterprises quickly discovered that relying exclusively on their IT teams to handle and manage their AWS infrastructure eroded any benefits they might’ve initially seen.
Managing a cloud environment requires specialised skill sets and a different perspective to optimise its use and achieve business objectives. Without it, enterprises risk implementing AWS architecture with increased and unexpected costs, poor security, and potential downtime that can negatively impact them reputationally and financially.
Amazon offers migration and setup managed services to help customers get on the AWS infrastructure, which helps mitigate some of these risks. However, what about companies who want a little more assistance in setting up their AWS infrastructure so it’s optimised for their unique situation? What about companies who want step-by-step guidance on managing and maintaining their AWS infrastructure?
They turn to an AWS Managed Services Partner to create a bespoke AWS Managed Services strategy.
Reminder: What are AWS Managed Services?
AWS Managed Services are a set of services and tools offered by Amazon to automate infrastructure management tasks for AWS deployments. It’s aimed at large enterprises that want a simplified way to migrate workloads to Amazon’s public cloud and then manage them after migration. Customers can automate cloud management tasks like provisioning, patch management and deployment, user access management, backups, and restores.
Perfect for the enterprise with a robust IT team that can manage and handle the monitoring and preventative tools provided by Amazon, those without an in-house IT team may struggle with it. In fact, Amazon actually recommends that customers looking for a single vendor to provide both application and infrastructure management contact an AWS Managed Service Partner.
How AWS Partner-Managed Services Are Different
When you work with an AWS Managed Services partner, you get both the infrastructure and application support your enterprise needs. From initial to on-going migration and support, a Partner offers certified AWS professionals and specialists that can customise your entire AWS managed services experience.
- Need application development? A Partner can design your software applications for cloud-based applications and reduce your time to market.
- Need to up your DevOps game? A Partner can ensure agile, rapid, assured, and optimal service delivery for all your digital projects.
- Need better security options for your public cloud deployments? A Partner has dedicated security specialists skilled in the latest cybersecurity technologies and strategies to keep your data safe.
The Benefits of Bespoke AWS Managed Services
Even enterprises with a large IT team often use AWS Managed Services Partners to handle the design, deployment, and management of their AWS services. Why? Because today’s enterprises run on a complex mix of infrastructure of on-premise and cloud-based workloads. Many simply don’t have the time or expertise to effectively manage the different systems involved in their infrastructure, nor is it cost-effective for them to do so.
Beyond the high-level benefits of cost, time, and effort, how else can bespoke AWS Managed Service help today’s companies?
1. Use highly-customised deployments
An AWS Partner typically has certified AWS professionals and specialists on staff that can support you with AWS reviews and consultations, ad hoc or regular evaluations, migration planning, and on-going maintenance planning. They have the knowledge and experts who can offer AWS recommendations and create actionable improvement plans to ensure your AWS infrastructure is working as optimally as possible.
2. Deliver projects at speed
Once you’ve decided on an AWS environment, Partners can migrate your workloads seamlessly using well-proven migration processes. You’ll be able to spin up AWS clouds at scale without the complexity of procuring, building, and deploying the required infrastructure. You can leverage their proactive management to improve performance so your enterprise can deliver projects at speed and scale to keep pace with your business goals.
3. Gain a competitive edge
A Partner’s expertise and skills can help today’s enterprises revise and refresh their applications to run more efficiently on AWS environments. You can be confident in knowing your employees are using the latest technologies supported by the latest in cloud infrastructure. Keep your enterprise one step ahead of the competition and customer expectations as you support your growth and meet business objectives.
4. Support budget alignment
One of the reasons to choose cloud environments is to control your IT and tech spending better. However, it’s easy to overspend with AWS as environments and tools are spun up automatically as your employees work. Today’s companies overspend on their public cloud infrastructure by an average of 13% annually, so getting a handle on forecasting and cost optimisation is critical.
An AWS Partner can help eliminate overspending through automated monitoring and maintenance processes that ensure unused services are spun down and disabled regularly.
5. Reduce downtime
Downtime can cause significant financial and reputational damage to enterprises in any industry. A managed AWS cloud service can support your availability requirements and keeps your business online and on track.
6. Reduce security risks
It’s hard keeping up with all the changes in cyber security and ensuring your enterprise IT infrastructure is protected. An AWS Managed Services Partner Security specialist knows exactly how to keep your data safe on AWS, so you don’t have to worry about staying updated and learning how to deploy the latest security strategies.
7. Gain greater control of your cloud environments
Meeting the challenges of running multiple cloud solutions and various tech infrastructures is challenging. You can take control of your cloud costs, usage, and access with AWS services. Working with an AWS Partner can give you increased visibility, consistency, and enforcement of your company’s governance and security policies.
8. Eliminate time-consuming tasks
One of the biggest benefits of using an AWS Managed Services Partner is that you shift time-consuming tasks to your partner’s experts. You free up your tech teams to work on the higher-value projects that make a bigger difference to your bottom line. Plus, you plug skill gaps without the overhead of hiring new staff, drive continuous improvement through AWS’ automation, and support the availability of your AWS workloads by optimising and customising your deployment.
AWS continues to dominate the global cloud infrastructure market with an average of 30% of the total market share quarterly. Companies spend more on AWS than on basic computing, storage, and networking services. They’re investing in more Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to handle data storage and analysis, container development, batch processing, and machine learning.
AWS Managed Services can help companies take advantage of the benefits of AWS to set up a unique infrastructure that will serve them today. You’ll reduce downtime, increase security, gain great control over your cloud environments, and deliver projects to market faster and more efficiently than before.
But what about in the future? What was good for you today may not meet your needs tomorrow or next year. This is where an AWS Managed Services Partner can help.
As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and Well Architected Partner, Redcentric can be trusted to deliver the AWS infrastructure you need. We’ve got the right skills and consulting-led approach that ensures perfect alignment between your business needs and IT outcomes. We’re here to support you on your AWS journey and help provide you with measurable ROI on your AWS investments.
For more information on how we can guide you on your AWS journey, reach out to a Redcentric AWS expert today.
