What Amazon Cloud Customers Really Want From MSPs -

Amazon has aggressively expanded its cloud partner ecosystem to include AWS managed services providers (MSPs). The big question: Do Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers actually want to leverage third-party MSP services? The answer is a resounding yes, according to a recent survey.

Consider these survey findings:

Two out of three customers are more likely to leverage an AWS Managed Service Partner (MSP) because of the extensive certification and audit requirements that AWS MSPs must complete with Amazon.

65% of customers use or plan to use AWS for both development and production workloads.

40% of AWS customers already use a third party or partner to help manage AWS.

High-demand managed services that AWS customers want include Backup and Restore (50%), Systems Security and Systems Admin (35%), and AWS Monitoring and Alerts and Escalations (27%).

Although 60% of AWS customers do not use a third-party or partner to help them manage AWS, 62% of those would consider it. Services they would be interested in include AWS Systems Security (50%), AWS Systems Admin (46%), AWS Monitoring, Alerts & Escalations (42%) and AWS Optimization Services (42%).

Survey Reality Check

Admittedly some of the survey findings could be skewed, since Connectria Hosting designed the survey and compiled the results at the AWS re:Invent 2015 conference earlier this month. Roughly 100 AWS customers participated.

No doubt, Connectria wants to promote customer demand for its managed services. However, the fact that so many customers expressed a need for third-party AWS guidance, support and services is reassuring -- especially for MSPs that are only now starting the journey from on-premises monitoring and management to the cloud.

Dozens of MSPs are now certified to support AWS customers. And new Amazon cloud certifications and competencies are emerging regularly, including offerings for the Internet of Things, DevOps and cloud migrations.