- [Alana] Remember the shared responsibility model, where AWS is responsible for some tasks, like securing infrastructure, hardware, providing services for customers to use? While you, the customer, are responsible for other tasks, like encrypting your data, maintaining the operating system, and managing your applications. Well, let's say you want even less responsibility and only want to perform some of these tasks. If that's the case, you can outsource your responsibility to an AWS Partner. You've heard these terms mentioned throughout the course several times by now, and you already know a lot about them. You know that customers often buy cloud indirectly through a CSP's partners, to have greater flexibility to customize their own terms and unique solutions to an otherwise one-to-many service. Working with a CSP partner can provide customers solution-based, service-level agreements, or SLAs, that are beyond what the CSP might provide. They can also help you with some of those key aspects of procurement, helping you better manage costs, account provisioning, and governance. But what you might not know is that buying from AWS Partners can bring you more savings. AWS Partners can often buy in bulk from AWS, and then pass those savings on to the customers. With AWS, you can find the right AWS Partner for you in the AWS Partner Network, or APN. The APN places AWS Partners into two categories, AWS Consulting Partners, and AWS Technology Partners. AWS Consulting Partners provide tasks in the consulting and professional-services realms, such as solution design, technical project management, consultancy, and managed services. AWS Technology Partners, on the other hand, provide software, hardware, or connectivity services on AWS. So, if you're looking to outsource some of your responsibility, you have plenty of options. For example, you could use an AWS Consulting Partner to manage your security, or use an AWS Technology Partner's application. The goal of the AWS Partner is to accelerate your cloud journey, whether that's through identifying solutions, or building, deploying, or migrating solutions to AWS. They're here to help you grow and scale your organization. If you're looking at using an AWS Partner, you should consider engaging your AWS sales representative as early as you can. They can help identify the right AWS Partner for your use case. You can then evaluate these AWS Partners on their past performance, what AWS competencies you need them to have, and what capabilities they bring to the table. If you're new to buying cloud, AWS Partners are a big option to consider. They'll help you at every stage of your cloud-adoption process. And remember, a huge part of cloud adoption is relationships and collaboration. By keeping your AWS sales representative engaged throughout your adoption process, they can continue to support both you and your AWS Partner.
