CEO Matt Garman: Why Partners Are Picking AWS Vs. Microsoft And Google Cloud

AWS CEO Matt Garman speaks to CRN about why he believes solution providers are placing their cloud and AI bets on AWS versus rivals Microsoft and Google Cloud.

CEO Matt Garman believes Amazon Web Services is winning channel partner mindshare via its cybersecurity posture, generative AI strategy and the opportunity to reach more customers globally compared to rivals Microsoft and Google Cloud.

“From a partner perspective, they don’t want to be dealing with bad security or they don’t want to have to be dealing with bad operational excellence either because that’s going to look bad and it reflects poorly on them,” said Garman in an interview with CRN.

Garman took over the reins at AWS this past June. He hit the ground running by taking the Seattle-based cloud computing unit’s generative AI and overall AI market position to new heights.

“On the GenAI front, if you look at the differences in approaches, some other competitors out there started first with their consumer applications. And then following with, how do they add generative AI to their cloud products?” AWS CEO said. “We instead said, ‘How do we build a platform that customers can go build generative AI applications on top of?’ And that means, ‘How do we have the broadest set of models—not just a model—but the broadest set of models?’

[Related: Microsoft Vs. AWS Vs. Google Cloud Earnings Q3 2024 Face-Off]

AWS Cloud Market Share And $110 Billion Run Rate

For its most recent third quarter 2024, the AWS reported a record $27.5 billion in revenue, representing a 19 percent sales increase year over year. This means that AWS now has a whopping $110 billion annual run rate.

AWS has been the dominant global cloud computing market share leader for years. Currently, Amazon owns 31 percent share of the worldwide enterprise cloud infrastructure services market, followed by Microsoft at 20 percent share and Google Cloud at 12 percent share.

In an interview with CRN, Garman explains why channel partners are placing their AI and cloud computing bets on AWS compared to rivals Microsoft and Google Cloud.

Why should partners pick AWS over Microsoft and Google Cloud in the AI era? What is AWS’ differentiation?

We approach everything with a partner-centric mindset. Our highest priority when we go into a customer is, ‘How do we ensure that they have great security? And how do we ensure we have operational excellence?’

From a partner perspective, they don’t want to be dealing with bad security or they don’t want to have to be dealing with bad operational excellence either because that’s going to look bad and it reflects poorly on them. They want to partner with somebody who really does prioritize those things.

And that continues to be true independent of GenAI or not. So one of the main reasons that we see people leaning in with us is because they know that it’s an infrastructure and a security posture that they can trust. If you look at the news out there, that’s not necessarily true of everyone, but it is something that we are quite proud of and continue to invest heavily in.

What about AWS’ GenAI differentiation versus Microsoft and Google?

On the GenAI front, if you look at the differences in approaches, some other competitors out there started first with their consumer applications. And then following with, how do they add generative AI to their cloud products?

We instead said, ‘How do we build a platform that customers can go build generative AI applications on top of?’ And that means, ‘How do we have the broadest set of models—not just a model—but the broadest set of models?’

Some of them are built by us, many of them are built by other companies out there. We also think about the partner and ISV ecosystem around how do we make sure that companies can build with the very best tools and capabilities that are available in the market today. We have a platform that really makes it possible for partners to then go build added capabilities on top of that.

So when you go talk to somebody like an Accenture, they’re building on top of Bedrock and building things like safety frameworks around Bedrock. Because we give them all the tools and capabilities to easily plug into that and build safe AI frameworks around all of the tools that we’ve given them. We want to enable that broader partner ecosystem to go innovate around us and enhance what we’ve built.

Is AWS the most profitable cloud company for a channel partner? How do your programs and margins stack up against Google Cloud and Microsoft?

I can’t speak to the other ones. But the opportunity is the biggest for them at AWS to build the biggest business.

We try to build a program so that there are fair margins for partners, but there really is major collaboration. So we build the program so that it’s a sustainable long-term business for our partners. But we also know that, at the end of the day, it’s delivering added value to customers that really makes the difference. So that is where we also differentiate.

It is the breadth of customers that are building on top of AWS, the potential for the platform and for partners to go build value-added services. So it is all of those things. It’s not just purely the number—‘What is the margin you get on the resale?’ Ours is good. We try to make sure that that’s highly competitive and important, but it’s all of those other things too.

Frankly, if partners aren’t adding value—if they’re purely doing resale—then they can go compete on the number, and that’s fine. But we’re really focused on where partners can add value and how we make it a great ecosystem for them to do that on top. That’s where end customers really get the value, where it’s not just a pure path to resell, but it is value-added reselling. It is value-added consulting services on top and work on top of that that really make the difference.

From that perspective, AWS has by far the biggest set of customers. We have by far the biggest set of services that make it easy to go sell those workloads to customers, and by far the biggest global reach that works across various countries all around the world.