AWS offers a number of support plans, however they’ll require a robust internal resource.
Important Takeaways
AWS provides four support plans that include basic, developer, enterprise on-ramp, and enterprise
Each provides a different level of support for a specific cost that is dependent upon your charges per unit, which can be confusing
Support services are limited, may not be sufficient for your business, and you may not have the IT staff to aid in the process
A managed service provider provides complete services with an experienced team that is a fraction the cost of forming your own team
A managed service provider can make budgeting simple with a fixed cost per month
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest provider of cloud-based solutions, and has more than one million users in the business sector. While they do offer customer support, the basic plan provides only whitepapers and documentation as well as forums for assistance. They also offer guidance for resource and health checks on services through an interactive dashboard and some other offerings, but no real technical assistance.
AWS provides premium support, with architecture guidance for specific use cases however, it does not offer programming development, custom software debugging, as well as no system management. Additionally, support costs are determined on a per-account basis and the amount you will be charged each month is not known.
The quality of support likely to not be enough for your business, which is why many AWS customers are using an AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) for the one-on-one attention as well as predictable pricing and the holistic guidance and expertise they require to help support their entire company. We’ll look at the types of AWS support plans and what they can provide under its various plans, and how an MSP could be the perfect fit for what you need for your company.
AWS support plans
AWS provides basic business, developer, enterprise on-rampand support plans with varying options. All plans include the basic plan and their additional features:
Basic support plan
This plan is provided free of charge to all AWS customers. The plan also includes:
AWS documentation
Technical papers
Forums for support
Service health checks – access to all checks within the Service Quotas category, along with six checks in the Security category
Best practices and guides
This plan also includes questions regarding billing and accounts as well as support for service quote increases. The basic plan doesn’t offer technical assistance from a human.
Developer support plan
It is the developer plan which is suggested if you’re planning to test or experimenting in AWS It includes everything you can get from the basic plan, along with:
Best practice guidelines
Diagnostic tools
Architectural guidance to blend features, products and services
The plan also provides an unlimited number of support requests, but only one person is permitted, which is the root user.
Business Support Plan
This is when support becomes more robust, but it’s not completely free and the cost is far from predictable. The service is paid monthlyand support fees are calculated by using each month’s gross AWS charges. The minimum charge each month is $100. The amount you’ll be charged is either the minimum or a percentage or a percentage AWS charges, based on the scale of sliding:
10% for up to $10,000
7% from $10,000 to $80,000
5 % from $80,000 to $250,000
3% over $250,000
For the price of this plan you will get everything included you need in the basic and developer plans, plus An AWS Trusted Advisor console and the AWS Support API. It allows you and your IT team to examine your environment to determine opportunities for cost savings and increase security as well as improve both the performance and reliability.
Additionally, you’ll receive support for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances operating systems and configuration in addition to assistance when it comes to performance issues related to the most popular 3rd-party AWS software components.
Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise Support plans
Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise Support plan customers get all the services provided to business plan customers as well as advice on application architecture and management of infrastructure events and an account manager for technical issues who will be able to work with your particular application and use cases.
Additionally, you will receive white-glove case routing and management business reviews. The plans come at a cost:
Enterprise On-Ramp pricing requires at a minimum of $5,500 per month or 10 percent on your AWS monthly revenue.
Enterprise pricing requires an initial charge of $15,000 or:
10 percent of up to $150,000
7% of $150,000 – $500,000
5percent of $500,000 up to $1,000,000
3 % over $1,000,000
Be aware that when you are using AWS support plans, if you sign up for the plan only once the plan is still in charge for the monthly total, and if you decide to cancel the plan suitable for your mid-billing cycle and you decide to cancel, you’ll be charged for the whole month.
The billing process can be confusing, but the business plans may not provide the support you require without drastically boosting your IT staff. You’ll need to hire for all cloud administration, development or security professionals, all of which is expensive.
For many companies it is logical to hire a managed service provider. Let’s explore the reason why.
MSPs will always be there for you
The business you run doesn’t need support only in the event of an issue. You’d like to avoid issues and MSPs provide a complete solution with end-to-end management of applications and workloads. With experienced, expert Dev Ops and Sec Ops and managed services, you are able to concentrate on your bottom-line concern and operating a profitable business.
In terms of budgeting for technical support, using an MSP there’s no guesswork, or percent of gross that you have to worry about. Monthly costs are predictable as you’ll be paying the same price each month. Furthermore an MSP similar to IGGroup provides these benefits to AWS users:
24×7 availability
Efficient use of resources – your internal team can stay focussed on internal business initiatives which keep you on top of your game and growing.
Ability to scale your business quickly
Data security: Your MSP Sec Ops specialists can discover and close security gaps and provide continuous security monitoring to identify vulnerabilities in the cloud and in your network.
Help you create a plan for the future.
Peace of mind
The AWS Managed Service Provider as part of the complete support, can help you plan and design, build and migrate, run and manage, and improve your cloud deployments. Dedicated managed services provide access to the cloud experts and architects you require for a fraction of the cost to hire an in-house team.
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