Fast-growing AWS partner Innovative Solutions is planning to hire 200 new employees as the company embarks on a massive customer charge to win 1,000 net new small and midsize businesses (SMB) customers with the help of AWS.
“AWS wants us to, and we’ve committed to it, driving 1,000 net new customers over the next four years—which is a huge lift,” Innovative Solutions CEO Justin Copie tells CRN.
“AWS wants us to build sales teams that go in, understand a customer’s business need, and then help align the right AWS technology that fits that business versus just slam-dunking technology in. We’re going to build these customized technology sales teams to help usher these SMB customers in a very efficient way,” said Copie.
[Related: AWS Not Impacted By Amazon’s 18,000 Layoffs: Sources]
Copie is bullish about AWS partner strategy in 2023 as AWS’ channel chief Ruba Borno and AWS CEO Adam Selipsky push a “partner obsessed” strategy.
“Ruba and Adam see that the role of the partner is to shepherd every one of these small to midsize business customers at scale. They can’t do it on their own,” said Copie. “They need armies of partners that are aligned to the core values of AWS that have been vetted, such as Innovative, and that’s why they’re investing in these partnerships with companies like us.”
AWS Signs Strategic Agreement
This month, the 150-employee Rochester, N.Y.-based company launched a multi-year strategic collaboration agreement with AWS to align their sales, marketing and delivery teams to accelerate the adoption of cloud services targeting the SMB and startup markets.
Innovative Solutions, an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, plans to build out new practices in data analytics and machine learning to support its customers, while also investing to scale its portfolio and list the company’s solutions on the AWS Marketplace.
The strategic collaboration agreement between AWS and Innovative Solutions comes at a time of explosive growth in the public cloud market, a market where AWS dominated over the likes of Microsoft and Google.
The public cloud market is expected to balloon to $1 trillion by 2026, more than doubling the $460 billion market in 2022, according to a report by Forrester.
In fact, the IT research firm noted in its report that AWS has been responsible for keeping parent company Amazon in the black in recent questions. Forrester estimates that cloud infrastructure services will account for nearly $500 billion in revenue in 2026.
Borno said over the last 24 months, AWS has “seen a significant rise in demand and adoption of cloud solutions” in the SMB market.
“We are excited to expand our relationship with Innovative Solutions and help businesses broaden their customer base and bring new products to market and continue on their cloud migration journey,” said Borno, vice president of AWS’ Worldwide Channels & Alliances in a statement.
Innovative Solutions CEO Copie is more than bullish about his company’s new agreement with AWS.
“I feel like we could achieve probably 2X what we built in this agreement with AWS. AWS thinks that we can exceed these goals as well,” said Copie. “The opportunity is just so massive.”
In an interview with CRN, Copie breaks down his plan to drive massive SMB sales and AWS adoption in the SMB market in 2023 and beyond.
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Mark Haranas is an assistant news editor and longtime journalist now covering cloud, multicloud, software, SaaS and channel partners at CRN. He speaks with world-renown CEOs and IT experts as well as covering breaking news and live events while also managing several CRN reporters. He can be reached at [email protected].
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