Once configured, users within your company can set up the AWS Marketplace link with SAP Ariba or Coupa procurement software and search and subscribe to AWS Marketplace products using that procurement software. After transaction approval and subscription request approval is given, notification that the software product package purchased becomes visible as a bought subscription within AWS Marketplace, allowing access when the user logs on again - while purchase order systems and invoices from both vendors can also be integrated seamlessly for easy management.
The AWS Marketplace: What Is It?
What is AWS marketplace? Customers can quickly locate, purchase, install and manage third-party software and services that help create solutions and manage organizations through AWS Marketplace - an expansive digital library explicitly designed to aid this purpose. Thousands of software listings from categories including security apps, business apps, machine learning products, as well as data products across industries like telecom, healthcare and finance may be found within AWS Marketplace; clients may select solutions in Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), software solution as a service (SaaS) formats or instant launch preconfigured solutions while receiving expert assistance with configuring, installing and managing third-party applications - or get expert help with configuring and managing third party applications!
Including External Data In Your AWS Data Mesh
Companies using AWS to operate or build data meshes must share products across several AWS accounts. Subscribing to third-party data from different versions within their company presents specific governance challenges when multiple domains subscribe independently for third-party products; it becomes difficult to adhere to international regulations and standards regarding use when different accounts subscribe in different ways; licensing or cost duplication issues also present themselves, plus to adhere to federated data governance principle in a data mesh, it becomes imperative to subscribe via one central account and share.
Utilizing AWS marketplace integrations discovery APIs and their mesh experience plane, the search and discovery of third-party data products could become more efficient and seamless.
- Producer domains leverage the AWS Lake Formation catalog to register their data products, with modifications reflecting directly in this account. AWS Resource Access Manager (AWS RAM) also allows producers to share this information among multiple accounts by offering resource-sharing links that will enable data to be shared among accounts.
- To facilitate product owners' access to their data, the Lake Formation catalog in the central account is shared with the producer domain.
- Customers searching for data products around their company can utilize AWS Amplify's search and discovery experience on its website for customer searches of first-party data products in its catalog - see the diagram below for an example of its functionality.
- Data providers employ Lake Formation tags as permissions to generate datasets they make available as products via AWS Data Exchange. See the diagram below for more details and how-to instructions on offering data products via this marketplace.
- On a web portal with search and discoverability features, data consumers from diverse domains search for data products they need for various tasks. Through this gateway, a consumer persona identifies and requests access to third-party products - see diagram below for reference.
- AWS Amplify hosts its web application in its primary account, and customers can search and request access to first-, second- and third-party data goods using AWS Amplify's mesh experience.
- Domo implemented its integration by querying AWS Data Exchange using AWS Marketplace Discovery APIs and returning search-specific results when users select third-party data products from AWS Data Exchange. For additional details on how this integration was achieved, you may view how Domo implemented or follow one or more publicly accessible labs on AWS Data Exchange Discovery APIs.
- AWS Data Exchange automatically grants access unless providers request subscription verification to ensure the identity of subscribers.
- An administrator in a central account uses AWS License Manager to divide up licenses among all their business outcomes funds using data products from AWS License Manager, such as their data product licenses. Please see the diagram for reference.
- At AWS, Lake Formation Tables is another third-party data source in a customer account.
- The consumer domain has access to the Lake Formation catalog in the central account, and first-party data is currently accessible to them through resource-sharing links provided by AWS RAM. Furthermore, data can be shared across accounts using resource-sharing links provided by RAM.
- Data consumers seeking solutions can now tap their data through analytics and machine learning services such as Amazon Athena, AWS Glue DataBrew, QuickSight or SageMaker to access it quickly. See the diagram below.
Once a consumer domain gains access to third-party data, it can act as both producer and consumer by creating data products, which it then shares with other parts through its central account.
The Functioning Of Procurement Integration
Procurement software can be configured using the commerce extensible markup language (XML) protocol to connect with AWS Marketplace and create a punchout (point of entry into another catalog) through AWS Marketplace. However, this integration will vary depending on the procurement system used.
- Coupa: When browsing Coupa's Amazon Marketplace search tool, users are taken directly to AWS Marketplace after selecting one of their search results displayed by the Coupa Open Buy tool to view further information about that item. Alternatively, via their Shop Online homepage of procurement software, Coupa users may browse the AWS Marketplace catalog while customers have the option of browsing directly onto it as soon as they start product browsing in AWS Marketplace.
- SAP Ariba: When consumers search for software or learn about products on AWS Marketplace, SAP Ariba directs them there. Users of Ariba's procurement software can locate AWS Marketplace products by choosing "AWS Marketplace Catalog" in Ariba's Catalog tab after having configured punchout integration; once there, they're taken directly to AWS Marketplace, where they are then directed back out again to search of items they require.
The user submits a subscription request through the AWS Marketplace when they wish to buy a subscription they are viewing. Rather than completing the transaction, the user requests consent on the product's subscription page. The request is routed back to a shopping cart within the procurement system to finish the approval procedure.
As soon as AWS Marketplace sends in an inquiry to its procurement system, an approval procedure begins immediately. Purchase order systems of procurement systems seamlessly complete transactions on AWS Marketplace and notify users once their request for deployment has been granted. Requesters must wait to revisit AWS Marketplace after making a transaction for more detailed usage instructions on their new item(s); however, they might wish to return. When they log on using their AWS account to access AWS Marketplace, they'll get an email from them directly. Email notification was sent notifying that the subscription request had been successful and the program was now accessible on AWS Marketplace, following the approval procedure for procurement system subscription requests. Additional considerations about integrations for procurement systems:
- Because free trials do not incur fees, they do not generate an invoice in your procurement system.
- Contracts that combine pay-as-you-go and one-time fees often require two rounds of approvals: hourly/per-unit pricing requires approval in one game. In contrast, the contract (annual) price requires another.
- Customers using PSI (Procurement System Integrations) can enable pre-approvals for free and bring-your-own (BYOL) products if they use AWS Marketplace with PSI enabled, with two settings for BYOL products and free products: one each for Bring Your Own/Bring Your Own and Preapproved Orders/Free Items respectively. When this setting is active, AWS Marketplace orders are preapproved without being submitted for approval from procurement systems; instead, they use the Request Approval button when this setting is off or submit orders directly for support from procurement systems when this option is off; where preapproved orders generated under AWS Marketplace are generated as $0.00 orders in their procurement system instead.
Conclusion
This blog article highlighted how AWS Data Exchange and Lake Formation could quickly incorporate third-party data into a data mesh for rapid value creation at scale. Data-driven enterprises have taken note, adopting deployment methods like data meshing to shift towards data product thinking mentalities for more significant business decisions based on accurate first-party information combined with third-party products from outside sources; such products provide improved location intelligence that assists product or service positioning with particular third-party data products integrating more seamlessly in your data mesh using AWS Data Exchange for AWS Lake Formation.
