Customers

The “customer” is the end-user organization of AWS Cloud products and services. Customers sign a Customer Agreement with AWS regarding the acceptable usage of the platform and own their AWS account. Customers will typically contract with an APN partner, who holds a separate contract with AWS. Customers can choose to retain full control of their AWS account, or outsource some or all of that control to an APN partner of their choice. In many cases customers contract directly with an APN Partner and do not sign an agreement with AWS.

Large customer organizations often have many AWS accounts, which are governed by an Enterprise Agreement. These accounts can be managed using the “AWS Organizations” functionality, from the customer’s designated “Management Account”. Billing may also be consolidated across these accounts to rationalize spending and get volume discounts by combining the usage of several accounts under the Master Account.

How customers procure AWS

Customers typically procure AWS Cloud services through APN Partners. Further details on the different types of AWS partner are discussed in the APN Partners section of this document.

We typically see three permutations of APN partner-led procurements:

  1. Customers going to APN Services partners to procure AWSbo services that the customer will manage themselves (these types of Services Partners are referred to as “resellers”).
  2. For example: a software vendor provides a managed service of its solution in a “single tenant” model. To segregate the billing for each customer, it uses an AWS reseller to manage the different accounts. That way it is only billing its customers for the resources they used.
  3. Customers turning over the day-to-day operation of their accounts to APN Managed Service Partners, using the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) functionality.
  4. For example: a government agency offers shared IT services to other ministries. Because the ministries have specialized workloads, they conduct their own procurements to select the individual companies (APN Partners) that are authorized to maintain their workloads. The central agency grants access to these partners for the duration of their contract. If another company wins the work in a future procurement, the central agency revokes their credentials and issues them to the new contractor.
  5. Customers who use different types of AWS partners in combination across their business.
  6. For example: a global non-profit uses the combination method. Its member franchises are in different countries, so it uses a reseller to manage the accounts and billing. It also relies on different Services Partners in Europe than it does in Africa, so it uses the same process of IAM role segregation to allow APN Partners access to the workloads relevant to each continent. This company may also choose to use different partners within the same territory, to deliver services and products to different business functions within the same area.

In all of these arrangements, the customer retains strong control over security and quality control decisions, ensuring they have access to reporting and performance data.