10 Boldest Statements From AWS Channel Chief Doug Yeum At Best Of Breed Virtual Winter 2021

January 27, 2021, 02:00 PM EST

‘In general, I think people think that AWS may not be as partner-friendly, but that just could be the furthest thing from the truth about how we think about our partners,’ said Doug Yeum, who leads Amazon Web Services’ worldwide channel and alliances.

Speed and differentiation distinguish the new breed of Amazon Web Services partners increasing their traction among the top provider’s cloud computing customers, according to AWS channel chief Doug Yeum.

AWS likes to say that speed matters disproportionately to businesses of any size and in any stage of their journeys, acknowledged Yeum, who leads AWS’ worldwide channel and alliances.

“Speed matters a lot, and we try to optimize for speed in everything that we do at AWS,” Yeum said during CRN owner The Channel Co.’s Best of Breed Virtual Event Series on Wednesday. “We also believe that speed matters a lot for our partners.”

Customers are accelerating their adoption of important technology trends, and they’re asking partners to move as fast or faster in helping them, Yeum said.

“We’re going to do everything that we can to ensure that partners, when they engage with AWS, are able to get the right support from our team as fast as possible, that they have access to the programs and the benefits that matter to their business in the fastest way,” Yeum said during a Q&A session with CRN news editor Steve Burke. “So we’re making some changes.”

At its re:Invent 2020 conference in December, AWS announced a new ISV Partner Path program to make it easier for independent software vendors (ISVs) and AWS consulting partners to build, market and sell their solutions on the AWS cloud. AWS also is placing more emphasis on its ISV Accelerate Program, which aligns sales teams from AWS and ISVs for co-selling support, so ISVs can access millions of active AWS customers.

“We want to make sure that we offer a more tailored experience, a prescriptive experience, where they’re able to quickly identify the right programs and the right benefits, and then be able to work with AWS resources as quickly as possible for them to move faster,” Yeum said.

Read on to find out what else Yeum had to say about partner speed and differentiation and his other boldest statements on the SaaS-ification of ISV and enterprise solutions, AWS CEO Andy Jassy’s views on partners, the growing AWS Partner Network, systems integrators rolling out their own software solutions, security at AWS, capitalizing on new AWS products and services, and the new cloud IT stack.