Insights for
AWS partners
Insights for
AWS partners
Insights for
AWS partners
Attraction and retention
AWS partners need to understand how to get the most out of their hiring strategies in order to keep expanding their teams and keep up with an ever-growing demand.
For most partner organizations, this means not only adding more star power to their bench but also keeping hold of the talent already on board—but in a competitive market with plenty of movement across the community, this is often easier said than done. What’s more, successful talent attraction and retention can be even tougher for partner organizations who often have to set higher bars around certification, industry experience, and technical expertise.
The good news for partners is that there’s plenty of enthusiasm among AWS professionals about working for a partner. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at what aspects of working in a partner environment appeal most to AWS talent, helping partner organizations better align their hiring strategies with the wants, needs, and expectations of candidates across the community.
Motivation to work for an AWS partner
Almost two-thirds (60%, down from 62% in our last survey) of end user employees who responded to the survey would consider working for an AWS partner. Factors cited as most likely to attract end user employees to a role with a partner include:
68%
Higher earning potential
68%
Opportunity to expand on skills, knowledge, and experience with AWS products
66%
Professional development
68%
Higher earning potential
68%
Opportunity to expand on skills, knowledge, and experience with AWS products
66%
Professional development
68%
Higher earning potential
68%
Opportunity to expand on skills, knowledge, and experience with AWS products
66%
Professional development
| Working on a diverse range of projects | 63% |
| To make better use of my skills | 43% |
| To tackle different challenges | 41% |
| Working with a variety of organizations | 38% |
| Flexibility in lifestyle | 36% |
| Other | 1% |
We also asked the 13% (down from 14%) of respondents who would not work for a partner why they wouldn’t make the move, with reasons including:
How satisfied are partner employees?
Professionals working for AWS partners and ISVs are largely happy in their roles—66% say they’re satisfied with their job, up from 63% in our previous survey.
While 58% (down from 65%) are satisfied with their salary, the proportion of professionals unhappy with their pay has decreased from 13% to 10%.
Conclusion
With almost half (48%) of respondents reporting an increased demand for AWS partner services this year, knowing how to find success in the hiring market is not a preference but a necessity for partner organizations hoping to keep up with demand.
While there has been a slight drop in end user employees who would consider shifting to a partner this year, this shouldn’t be a cause for concern—a significant 60% could still be enticed into the move. A higher earning potential unsurprisingly tops our list of motivating factors again, with the attraction of a higher salary, particularly powerful amidst a backdrop of more challenging financial times. But this shouldn’t mean that AWS partners focus solely on financial incentives—the chance to broaden AWS knowledge and skills was ranked on par with salary again this year, with better professional development opportunities also ranking in the top three for a third consecutive year.
Factors like preferring to work on a single project may be outside of your control, but partners should look to place extra emphasis on the perks within their remit to cast as wide of a net as possible. Development and progress opportunities are the obvious front runners here, with AWS partners’ distinctive focus on training, certifications, and career advancement appealing to candidates across the AWS community.
Demand for partner services
How has demand for AWS changed in the last 12 months?
How has demand for AWS migrations changed in the last year?
Top 10 AWS products, apps, and connectors that have been most in-demand with partners’ clients in the last year
33%
1. Compute
29%
2. Containers
28%
3. Database
25%
4. Migration & Transfer
| 5. Security, Identity, & Compliance | 24% |
| 6. Analytics | 23% |
| Application Integration | 23% |
| 8. Serverless | 22% |
| 9. Storage | 22% |
| 10. Management & Governance | 20% |
Demand for partner services
How has demand for AWS changed in the last 12 months?
Top 10 AWS products, apps, and connectors that have been most in-demand with partners’ clients in the last year
33%
1. Compute
29%
2. Containers
28%
3. Database
25%
4. Migration & Transfer
| 5. Security, Identity, & Compliance | 24% |
| 6. Analytics | 23% |
| Application Integration | 23% |
| 8. Serverless | 22% |
| 9. Storage | 22% |
| 10. Management & Governance | 20% |
How has demand for AWS migrations changed in the last year?
Implementation of third-party integrations
Partner employees believe their clients are more likely to implement both an additional AWS product and a third-party integration (38%) than they are to implement a third-party integration (23%) or an additional AWS product (22%) alone.
Outsourcing development
Over two-fifths (44%) of partner organizations outsource their development to other countries. What do people consider to be the long-term impacts of outsourcing development?
| Loss of control over quality | 32% |
| Ability to complete more client projects | 32% |
| Decreased quality of code | 30% |
| Decreased cost of projects to clients | 30% |
| Increased efficiency in completing client projects | 27% |
| Loss of competitive advantage | 15% |
| No long-term impact | 5% |
| Not sure | 12% |
| Other | 1% |
What are the potential project pitfalls when working with end user clients?
We asked those who work for a partner about the typical challenges they face when working with an end user client so that you may look to plan for these in your next project—responses include:
| Lack of communication from/between stakeholders | 40% |
| Reluctance from some employees to adopt the new technology | 36% |
| Lack of training given to frontline staff using the product | 30% |
| Scope creep (changes in a project's scope) | 27% |
| No clear objective from the customer on what they want from their AWS product | 24% |
| Issues managing expectations on what is possible with AWS | 23% |
| Lack of appropriate skills in the end user organization to manage the product/solution | 20% |
| Data migration issues | 19% |
| The end user organization isn't ready for the business change | 16% |
| Difficulties migrating data from legacy system to AWS | 15% |
| Shortage of resource in the end user organization available to manage the product/solution | 14% |
| Lack of project goals and benchmarks | 14% |
| Funding ran out/budgetary constraints | 13% |
| Lack of stakeholder buy-in | 13% |
| Price negation | 8% |
| None | 5% |
| Other | 1% |
Implementation of third-party integrations
Partner employees believe their clients are more likely to implement both an additional AWS product and a third-party integration (38%) than they are to implement a third-party integration (23%) or an additional AWS product (22%) alone.
What are the potential project pitfalls when working with end user clients?
We asked those who work for a partner about the typical challenges they face when working with an end user client so that you may look to plan for these in your next project—responses include:
| Lack of communication from/between stakeholders | 40% |
| Reluctance from some employees to adopt the new technology | 36% |
| Lack of training given to frontline staff using the product | 30% |
| Scope creep (changes in a project's scope) | 27% |
| No clear objective from the customer on what they want from their AWS product | 24% |
| Issues managing expectations on what is possible with AWS | 23% |
| Lack of appropriate skills in the end user organization to manage the product/solution | 20% |
| Data migration issues | 19% |
| The end user organization isn't ready for the business change | 16% |
| Difficulties migrating data from legacy system to AWS | 15% |
| Shortage of resource in the end user organization available to manage the product/solution | 14% |
| Lack of project goals and benchmarks | 14% |
| Funding ran out/budgetary constraints | 13% |
| Lack of stakeholder buy-in | 13% |
| Price negation | 8% |
| None | 5% |
| Other | 1% |
Outsourcing development
Over two-fifths (44%) of partner organizations outsource their development to other countries. What do people consider to be the long-term impacts of outsourcing development?
| Loss of control over quality | 32% |
| Ability to complete more client projects | 32% |
| Decreased quality of code | 30% |
| Decreased cost of projects to clients | 30% |
| Increased efficiency in completing client projects | 27% |
| Loss of competitive advantage | 15% |
| No long-term impact | 5% |
| Not sure | 12% |
| Other | 1% |
Our key findings report contains highlights from this year’s Careers and Hiring Guide, plus our salary tables allow you to compare your salary or benchmark your teams’ salaries no matter their role in the AWS ecosystem.
Our key findings report contains highlights from this year’s Careers and Hiring Guide, plus our salary tables allow you to compare your salary or benchmark your teams’ salaries no matter their role in the AWS ecosystem.
Our key findings report contains highlights from this year’s Careers and Hiring Guide, plus our salary tables allow you to compare your salary or benchmark your teams’ salaries no matter their role in the AWS ecosystem.
