ISG Provider Lens™ AWS Ecosystem Partners - AWS SAP Workloads - U.S. 2024

Accelerating innovation with AWS ecosystem - Integrating cloud capabilities for strategic advantage

Maximizing AWS investments: AWS services growth has been driven by the increasing adoption of cloud services across various industries. Businesses are seeking to leverage AWS’ robust, scalable and secure infrastructure to enhance their operations, innovate and remain competitive. Several key trends have emerged in the professional and consulting services space, reflecting businesses’ evolving needs and priorities.

One of the most prominent trends is the heightened demand for cloud migration services. As enterprises continue to recognize cloud migration benefits, such as cost savings, improved agility and scalability, there has been a significant uptick in projects to move onpremises infrastructure to AWS. Post migration, organizations are increasingly focusing on optimizing their cloud environments. This trend has led to a surge in demand for services that help businesses maximize the value of their AWS investments. These services include cost optimization, performance tuning and
architecture reviews.

Security and compliance remain top priorities for businesses operating in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare and government. The complexity of maintaining robust security postures in the cloud has led to a growing
need for specialized consulting services. These services focus on implementing best practices, such as the AWS Well-Architected Framework, and ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations.

Embracing hybrid and multicloud strategies with AWS: While AWS remains a dominant player in the cloud market, there is a noticeable trend toward hybrid and multicloud strategies. Businesses seek consulting services to design and implement architectures spanning multiple cloud providers and on-premises environments. This trend is driven by the desire for flexibility, risk mitigation and the ability to leverage the best services from different providers.
The rapid growth of the AWS ecosystem has led to a talent shortage, with a high demand for skilled professionals. Consulting firms are addressing this challenge by investing in upskilling programs for their employees and leveraging AWS training and certification programs. The AWS Partner Network (APN) is also crucial in enabling partners to  develop the  necessary skills and competencies to meet market demands.

AWS continues to lead the data infrastructure and enterprise cloud-ready AI services market with its comprehensive data analytics and AI services suite, including notable tools like AWS Bedrock, Code Whisperer and Q Developer. These services are shaping the future of data-driven decision-making and intelligent automation. The trend toward
real-time analytics is also gaining momentum, with services like Amazon Kinesis enabling companies to process streaming data and derive immediate insights, enhancing their responsiveness to market changes. There is also a significant focus on democratizing AI, making it accessible to a broader range of businesses. This is evident in the growing popularity of pre-built models and automated ML tools, which simplify the development and deployment processes.

Generative AI has been one of the most exciting developments in the AI landscape since 2023. AWS Bedrock, a foundational service for GenAI, allows users to create sophisticated models for various applications, including content creation, design, and drug discovery. For instance, companies in the media industry use AWS Bedrock to generate realistic images and videos, reducing production costs and time. Researchers are leveraging this technology in the pharmaceuticals sector to simulate and develop new molecular structures, accelerating drug development processes.
AWS Code Whisperer and Q Developer, along with the recent partnerships with Anthropic for Claude advanced LLMs and the APIs curated on the Huggingface platform, are also revolutionizing software development and Python-based data and ML coding by providing real-time code suggestions powered by ML. This service enhances developer  productivity and code quality by offering context-aware recommendations as developers write code. For instance, a software development firm might use Code Whisperer to assist in writing complex algorithms, reducing the time spent on coding and minimizing errors. This tool is precious for novice programmers and can significantly shorten the learning curve.

Integrating AI with data analytics creates new opportunities for enhanced decision-making. Businesses are combining predictive analytics with AI models to forecast trends, optimize operations and improve CX. AWS services, such as Amazon Forecast and Amazon Personalize, enable companies to harness the power of AI-driven predictions and recommendations. Retailers, for example, are using these tools to anticipate inventory demand and personalize shopping experiences, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and reduced operational costs.

Transforming enterprise IT with AWS for SAP workloads: As enterprises seek to modernize their IT landscapes and enhance operational efficiencies, AWS has become a preferred platform for running SAP workloads. Several trends are shaping the landscape of AWS SAP services, driven by the need for agility, scalability and innovation. One of the primary trends is the migration of SAP workloads to AWS. This trend is particularly pronounced among large enterprises with complex SAP landscapes. AWS provides a range of migration tools and services, such as AWS Migration Hub, AWS Application Migration Service and the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) for SAP, to facilitate seamless transitions. The push toward SAP S/4HANA, SAP’s next-generation ERP suite, is a significant driver for AWS adoption. Enterprises are leveraging AWS to support their SAP S/4HANA transformation journeys, benefiting from AWS’ high-performance computing capabilities, scalable storage solutions and comprehensive security features.

Elevating enterprise services portfolio productivity with AWS managed services: The adoption of AWS Managed Services is on the rise as more organizations seek to outsource their cloud management tasks. Businesses realize that managing a cloud environment requires specialized skills and resources, which can be costly and  challenging to maintain in-house. By leveraging AWS Managed Services, companies can offload routine tasks, such as monitoring, patching, backups and disaster recovery, to AWS experts, allowing their IT teams to focus on strategic
initiatives. Security and compliance remain top priorities for organizations, particularly those in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare and government. AWS Managed Services provides a comprehensive approach to security,
including continuous monitoring, threat detection and incident response. The service also helps organizations meet compliance requirements by providing governance, risk and compliance (GRC) frameworks tailored to industry standards. This focus on security and compliance drives increased adoption of managed services as businesses seek to ensure their cloud environments are secure and compliant without having to manage these aspects themselves.

Cost optimization and efficiency gains are critical concerns for businesses using cloud services. AWS Managed Services includes tools and practices to help organizations optimize their cloud spend. Services like AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets and AWS Trusted Advisor are integrated into managed services to provide insights into cloud usage and identify opportunities for cost savings. This trend is particularly important in the current economic climate, where businesses are pressured to maximize the return on their cloud investments while minimizing costs. The demand for managed DevOps on the cloud grows as companies seek to accelerate their software development and deployment processes. AWS Managed Services offers a range of DevOps solutions, including continuous integration
and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC) and automated testing and deployment. The trend toward managed DevOps is driven by the need for faster time-to-market, improved software quality and reduced operational complexity.

Access to the full report requires a subscription to ISG Research. Please contact us for subscription inquiries.