Originally posted internally 13 Dec 2016, this post marks the end of my journey through the back catalogue:

The dust has hardly settled from re:Invent, but today brings the first big public launch since AWS’s big annual event – AWS Managed Services.

This will be one of those blog posts that I hope saves me having to repeat myself in many emails, as I’ve already had people asking, “how we plan to partner / compete with this new service”, as “It will seem to people like direct competition”.

For me the key passage in the launch blog is:

Designed for the Fortune 1000 and the Global 2000, this service is designed to accelerate cloud adoption. It simplifies deployment,  migration, and management using automation and machine learning, backed up by a dedicated team of Amazon employees. AWS MS builds on AWS and provides a set of integration points (APIs and a set of CLI tools) for connection to your existing service management system. We’ve been working with a representative set of AWS enterprise customers and partners for the last couple of years in order to make sure that this service meets a very wide range of enterprise requirements.

So:

• It’s for large companies (as SMEs don’t really do ITIL etc.).
• It’s about integration with existing service management via APIs.
• Even though there’s console functionality over the top of the APIs (to provide minimal viable accessibility) this couldn’t displace a service management system entirely.

We have been working with AWS on this, so we’re one of those partners mentioned above. This gives us the services at their end to properly bring AWS into the Integrated Digital Services Management (IDSM) fold. In many cases this is just giving us a uniform way to do something (and have it reported) where there were previously hundreds of different variations on the approach that could be taken (e.g. patch management).

Overall I don’t think this is AWS eating our lunch – it’s AWS making it easier for our customers to use them (and easier and more consistent for us to help them do that).

Original Comments

CN

I was being a bit facetious with the “eating our lunch” comment :-)  Perhaps not enough coffee after being stuck trying to get into Chorley after a truck spontaneously combusted on the M6.

Workloads are going to be deployed on AWS/Azure more and more (not so much on Cisco’s InterCloud Services…)

So it’s good to know the answer to “how do you provide operational support. patching etc of workload OS’s in your hybrid solutions?”

is “exactly the same way we do for private cloud/on-premises workloads*  “

*from the client/users’ perspective

MH

Re Cisco Interconnect – Article on The Register this morning

Cisco to kill its Intercloud public cloud on March 31, 2017 • The Register

NB

Is CSC part of this also CS?

What’s the Role of AWS Consulting Partners in AWS MS?

‘APN Partners were key in the development of this service, and play an active role in the deployment and use of AWS MS. Having a standard operating environment not only fast tracks customer onboarding, but creates many different opportunities for APN Partners to enable and add value for AWS MS customers. In the coming weeks, we will also be launching a new AWS Managed Services designation as part of the AWS Services Delivery Program for APN Partners (stay tuned to the APN Blog for more information to come).

Key to the integration and deployment of AWS MS, AWS Consulting Partners enable Enterprises to migrate their existing applications to AWS and integrate their on-premises management tools with their cloud deployments. Consulting Partners will also be instrumental in building and managing cloud-based applications for customers running on the infrastructure stacks managed by AWS MS. Onboarding to AWS MS typically requires 8-10 weeks of design/strategy, system/process integration, and initial app migration, all of which can be performed by qualified AWS Consulting Partners. In order to participate, APN Partners will need to complete either the AWS Managed Service Provider Program validation process, and/or earn the Migration or DevOps Competency, as well as complete the specialized AWS MS partner training.’

Introducing AWS Managed Services

CS

Yes – specifically our AWS services under BR

HS

(Since I appear to have been invited to comment)

It’s like in the old days of B2B e-commerce hubs … there was always that ‘on ramp’ work. Some B2B Exchanges made that easy for customers. Other’s did not. The ones that did further cemented their position. The warning for CSC, at the time (mid 90s), was this: We did supply chain consulting, but supply chain became a service (the B2B hubs). Since CSC consulting supply chain practice defined itself as “selling people to do supply chain work” we never got into the game of *being* the B2B hub … even if we did do B2B implementation work. It’s the same with clouds, but on a much larger scale. If we define ourselves, and therefore limit ourselves, in a narrow role, we’ll be like the horse buggy whip makers in the era when the first auto cars were coming in.

It was inevitable that AWS would launch such Managed Services of course. The long long history of ‘cloud impacts on our business’ documented in C3 is a legend in its lifetime. Let’s move on. We cannot remain an infrastructure operations services company, surely? Surely that message is now several years overdue? Surely the declining part of the traditional market is plain to see? Why would anyone be surprised?

Markets evolve like this:

– first Commodities

– then Products

– then Services

– then Experiences

– then Amenities

Make money at one level, and competition eventually pushes you to the next level, where you need to find new blue oceans. So AWS is moving from ‘product’ to ‘service’ in some areas. This might sound theoretical, and it is a broad generalisation, but the commoditization AND servitization (look it up) together combine to cause us to change our offers. It’s like the pet shop that no longer sells pet grooming products but does the pet grooming as a service.

We can keep on trying to hang onto old models, to retain some revenue and opportunity, but the time will come when a complete break must be taken. And one of the best clean break strategies there is is this: *be* the element of transformation. Take the clients on the journey. That’s an ‘experience’ to give them and it often positions yourself for whatever they ask for next.

Had the supply chain consultants at CSC in the mid 90s realised this they would still be here. But they are not. They let a trend destroy them for they defined their role too narrowly. They did not understand that much of what they did could be automated away via the function of the new B2B hubs. As a result, the practice in CSC started to decline. At first they found it harder to find work, which they interpreted as a downturn in the market for their skills, so they did the logical thing, reduced the size of the supply chain practice. Over time, it eroded to very little, a few people hanging on doing some niche work on the edges of the market.

NF

backed up by a dedicated team of Amazon employees

Is this just an additional revenue earner for AWS rather than bringing in their partner network more?

CS

I read that as firstly pandering to a group that expects people to be massaging their egos, but the reality is that they put together a 2pizza to maintain the cohesion of this on top of an ever growing services estate.

So this isn’t the staffed by Amazon help desk.