PTP On Cisco’s ‘DNA Being Injected’ Into AWS And Marketplace Growth

PTP’s leader Ethan Simmons explains his company’s new Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS, its AWS Marketplace push in 2024 and how Cisco’s channel DNA is becoming part of AWS.

An executive at Amazon Web Services partner PTP says the cloud computing giant’s channel strategy is being injected with some of Cisco’s gold-standard partner approaches as PTP doubles down on the AWS Marketplace and expansion in 2024 thanks to a new Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with AWS.

“There’s a lot of Cisco DNA being injected into the AWS channel program,” said Ethan Simmons, leader and managing partner of PTP, a top AWS and Cisco partner that specializes in the life sciences.

Norwood, Mass.-based PTP recently signed an SCA with AWS in a move to boost its life science offerings for customers as PTP seeks to expand across America.

Simmons has decades of executive experience working in the channel and understands both AWS and Cisco partner strategies intimately. He said AWS’ Chris Sullivan, vice president of Americas Channels and Alliances, was critical in helping PTP create the strategic collaboration agreement with AWS.

“Chris worked at Cisco before. There’s obviously a lot of Cisco people who are over at AWS,” said Simmons. “Then you’ve got [AWS global channel chief] Ruba Borno at AWS as well.”

Borno spent six years in top roles at Cisco before joining AWS in 2021. Cisco and AWS has been working closer together in recent years as Cisco is now using the AWS Marketplace as a critical go-to-market avenue for Cisco partners.

PTP’s AWS Marketplace Push

PTP is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner and AWS Life Sciences Competency Partner that provides consultancy and support tailored towards biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Simmons said PTP plans to leverage the AWS Marketplace in 2024 more than ever before.

“We’ve been getting up all our offers out there on the AWS Marketplace,” he said. “For example, you can buy Cisco software licensing now in the marketplace. That’s all done through the channel so there’s a lot of intersections that are happening between sort of legacy IT providers, cloud providers and the channel. It’s exciting times.”

In an interview with CRN, Simmons speaks about AWS’ channel strategy, the AWS Marketplace, and PTP’s growth plans thanks to its new SCA partnership.

What is PTP’s plan to leverage new AWS resources gained from your SCA?

We’re going to use the resources and the agreement to do a couple things. One, we’re going to expand geographically.

So we plan on hiring in these other biotech Life Science hubs that are around the country. So in Research Triangle Park [in North Carolina] we just hired someone there. We now have a rep in San Diego. In New York City, we have a rep. We have a rep in San Francisco.

So we’re using those resources from a geographic expansion standpoint to expand into these other life science biotech hub. We’re an AWS Life Science Competency partner. So we’re hyper-focused on serving the needs of early stage life science companies and helping them accelerate the pace of their research.

No. 2 is we’re going to use the SCA to further develop our AI and ML practice to develop solutions to help these early stage life science companies leverage AI/ML to accelerate their research.

No. 3 is the SCA also gives us more consistent and repeatable areas of funding that we can use to help our customers. So as our customers look to take on new and innovative projects, we’ll be there to help them get those off the ground faster, and get those into production faster.

So the three keys are: geographic growth, capability growth, and more resources for our customers to accelerate the pace of the work they’re doing in the cloud.

Ethan, talk about the AWS Marketplace in 2024? Is that the future of the AWS channel?

AWS is definitely working with partners like us to develop and put the majority of our offerings on the marketplace. We’re starting to get some digital inbound leads from customers that are finding our offers in the marketplace now. Where one year ago, it was very sparse.

Now we’re seeing more on a monthly basis of those inbound pieces. From a marketing and from finding new logos standpoint—it’s definitely helpful.

It’s still new motion for some buyers. So it’s not a native way that some buyers are used to interacting in a channel. For traditional cloud buyers, that’s a normal motion for them. So I think you have to have two different buying segments, and some aren’t used to that cloud marketplaces.

In order for AWS to continue to grow at the pace they’re growing at, you can’t keep on hiring sales reps to cover this space. Especially in our early-stage life science space, they’re able to find our services a lot easier on the AWS Marketplace.

Do you think, for instance, that 50 percent of PTP’s business will come via the Marketplace in a few years?

The adoption is probably going to get there, but it’s going to come slower. I definitely see over time, more and more of our business being transacted on these marketplaces.

Will it get to 50 percent [of total sales via the marketplace]? I think it will at some point. It’ll probably take longer than people think, but I think it’ll get there.

For example, you can buy Cisco software licensing now in the marketplace. That’s all done through the channel so there’s a lot of intersections that are happening between sort of legacy IT providers, cloud providers and the channel. It’s exciting times.

I always like using the words ‘frictionless commerce’. So how can we provide a more frictionless experience for our customers to consume from us and that’s really the goal is to make it easier for them.

At PTP, we sort of live by the fast, accurate and responsive mantra. So that’s what we try to deliver to our customers.

You’ve been in the channel for decades. How is AWS from a channel-friendly perspective?

I still hold Cisco as the gold standard, but if I look for example, we worked very closely with [AWS’] Chris Sullivan. He was one of our executive sponsors to get the SCA process through the AWS system. Chris worked at Cisco before. There’s obviously a lot of Cisco people who are over at AWS.

Then you’ve got Ruba Borno at AWS, as well. So there’s a lot of Cisco DNA being injected into the channel program.

Our SCA deal does give us access to more AWS resources. There is a SCA team in addition to our channel team that we work with. There’s also an SCA team that we’re working with to leverage those resources. For us, is great for more visibility and more touch points within that channel program.

I’d say AWS has come a long way. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s getting better all the time.

The team that’s in place there is really doing well. Even doing the distribution side of things, those relationships are helping us in helping our customers consume AWS the way they want to consume it. You can buy it from the marketplace. We’ve been getting up all our offers out there on the AWS Marketplace.