Amazon Web Services (AWS), an on-demand cloud offering used by businesses, governments, and individual consumers worldwide, provides pay-as-you-go cloud computing solutions with over 200 services, platforms, APIs, and API gateways that businesses, governments, and individual consumers alike can take advantage of.
What Is AWS?
AWS stands for Amazon Web Services (AWS). As Amazon's subsidiary, AWS provides email, security, mobile development servers, networking, storage, and remote computing. Three primary AWS services include S3 (Amazon's storage system), Glacier's low-cost cloud storage service provider, and EC2, Amazon's virtual computer service.
Recent results by Synergy Research Group reveal that AWS has outshone several market rivals in terms of scale and presence. According to this survey, AWS held 32.4 percent market share, with Microsoft Azure coming second with 20% and Google Cloud Platform third at 9%, respectively.
According to AWS's 2024 annual earnings call, record sales totaling an astounding $14.8 billion were accomplished during their second quarter (2024), representing just over 13% of their overall revenues.
AWS can attribute its remarkable success and growth to various factors:
- A Large Number Of Functionalities: AWS provides various services and features spanning traditional infrastructure technologies like computation, storage, and databases to emerging ones like artificial intelligence/machine learning/data lakes/analytics/IoT, etc. AWS boasts highly advanced functionality within these services, such as databases that are tailored specifically for specific tasks, allowing customers to choose an economical yet efficient tool to complete them. For instance, AWS boasts the widest selection of databases designed with specific purposes in mind so customers can select an economical yet efficient option when doing work requiring data storage.
- Sizable Customer And Partner Community: Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides one of the world's most dynamic environments with millions of active users and partners worldwide, serving businesses of every industry and size-including startups, corporations, and government agencies from all walks of life. Customers spanning industries from startups to corporate enterprises use AWS services across every imaginable use case - with customers from almost every industry using it as well. It boasts its own Partner Network composed of hundreds of industry experts who specialize exclusively in AWS services as well as independent software vendors (ISVs) who create products specifically adapted to run on AWS services.
Five Surprising Things You Can Do With The AWS Marketplace
At its debut, AWS Marketplace offered manufacturers a straightforward means for accessing Amazon Machine Images via Amazon EC2, making for more efficient use.
As time passed, more companies started offering managed open-source solutions or commercial software through AWS Marketplace - and for some time, when someone mentioned AWS Marketplace, this was usually what came to mind:
1. Buy Fully-Developed Machine Learning Models
Pre-trained machine learning models are one of the many product categories offered on AWS Marketplace. Now, you can buy pre-trained models to use with Amazon SageMaker.
These models have been rigorously examined to give you peace of mind that your data remains within your reach and secure processing is possible; their security flaws have been pinpointed, while network isolation mode was enabled before setting them up. Take advantage of the most up-to-date knowledge with regular model updates from providers who can adjust pricing plans accordingly and help get your machine learning project underway with these deals.
2. Get Datasets Aplenty
Have you needed access to a large dataset but needed clarification on how best to acquire it? AWS Marketplace holds what you are seeking.
Most likely not, but you should. AWS Data Exchange provides an alternative view on AWS Marketplace's "Data Products" category; currently, over three thousand datasets have been listed here.
Information can range from finances, health care, gaming, and other topics, with some data being freely accessible while some requiring payment or subscription. Once subscribed, data may be uploaded directly into Amazon S3, giving you easy access to AWS data tools for processing and visualizing it.
3. Negotiate A Private Offer
All products sold through AWS Marketplace offer clear price and cost indication. Get a quick AWS cost estimator for products requiring AWS infrastructure deployment, such as Amazon EC2, so that you can clearly view the costs associated with that product.
What if, however, the listed price wasn't acceptable to you?
An option named Private Offer can be found on AWS Marketplace to meet larger purchases or special requirements. As this allows you to negotiate special terms with the seller that could cover various matters such as license numbers, cost, and duration of contracts - you receive from them a unique contract link that allows you to buy publically listed items under your conditions.
Private Offers make a complicated purchasing procedure less cumbersome; anyone familiar with corporate purchasing will recognize its ease. If this has yet to happen to you, consider yourself lucky - chances are it never will thanks to Private Offers.
4. Buy Saas Subscriptions
My perception is that products available through AWS Marketplace require me to use my AWS account; there, we can find applications suitable for installation into my environment. SaaS services often defy this interpretation; therefore, AWS Marketplace welcomes listings from any SaaS service that creates onboarding integration capabilities.
Why would you opt to purchase SaaS through Amazon Marketplace?
As with any native AWS service, these AWS servics & custom solutions will appear on your bill - the only way some organizations can obtain solutions quickly without going through endless hoops to access them.
5. Use License Grants
Are we ever pleased that there are three low-level objects available through AWS Marketplace? Yes. They include product license, permit to use license, and subscription linked with paid/free product(s).
At first blush, this may seem perplexing: why does a license require approval by authorities? But there's a good reason: legalities.
Only sometimes in fact, very rarely is it actually necessary for one of the license accounts that pay to utilize its benefits within an AWS Organization structure to pay for them directly. Grants offer the ideal balance between visibility into consumption (who's using what?) and availability (this is everything we are paying for).
AWS Marketplace has grown quickly over time both in terms of service offerings and product catalog. Unknowingly or otherwise, the Marketplace has had an immense effect on how we purchase cloud-based solutions although many still need to pay attention to its influence on purchase decisions.
Because consumer demand and consumption-based pricing capabilities of the Marketplace encourage this shift, vendors have begun shifting toward monthly subscription models as their billing models. Organizations will find this much simpler as they no longer must sign multi-year contracts for software or services they may use.
Conclusion
There has been amazing growth in the AWS Marketplace over recent months - both with regard to features offered and product inventory size. Although often taken for granted, the Marketplace plays an integral part in how cloud-based products are purchased - whether we realize it or not.
Due to consumer desire and the Marketplace's ability to support it, vendors are shifting toward consumption-based pricing or monthly subscription models for payment structures. Organizations now enjoy much greater flexibility due to no longer being bound by multi-year contracts for any software or services they utilize.
