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Amazon Web Services has made a bid for even more of the cloud business by allowing third-party services to be sold on its Marketplace.
The AWS Marketplace is mostly a software supermarket for code that's intended to be run on the Amazonian cloud. The Marketplace offers versions of commercial products packaged and ready for deployment on said cloud. It also allows SaaS companies to sell their wares, while AWS handles billing.
Software costs are, of course, a fraction of any project's budget. Someone must be paid to implement, manage, and support any app – chores that often fall to third parties. AWS has therefore allowed sellers in its Marketplace to tout their own services.
On Monday AWS announced that "Marketplace sellers, including independent software vendors (ISVs), consulting partners and channel partners, can now resell third-party professional services in AWS Marketplace."
The announcement adds: "AWS Marketplace sellers can authorize other sellers to receive wholesale pricing on professional services, enabling sellers to offer support or implementation services in addition to software in AWS Marketplace. The authorized partner can then use the resell authorization to customize pricing, duration, and legal terms to offer professional services that best meets customers' needs."
The change makes the AWS Marketplace into more of a one-stop shop.
As AWS puts it, "This feature enables customers to purchase software and professional services directly from their preferred partner, helping customers to leverage a partner who has knowledge of their business, localized support and expertise, and receive the same fast purchasing experience they're accustomed to in AWS Marketplace."
And of course it also helps AWS to take a cut: the cloud giant charges listing fees for sellers (which it claims were recently lowered and simplified).
AWS doesn't give details on the extent of sales on its Marketplace but it's reportedly topped $1 billion. The cloud giant promotes the Marketplace as having a reach of "more than 310,000 global customers."
That's a size few vendors of products or services can easily ignore. Many who procure software from the Marketplace will also enjoy the chance to engage their preferred service providers without having to make separate arrangements. The Register imagines this latest offer will cause quite a buzz in the channel. ®