Partners get AWS Data Exchange, container market updates

AWS has launched data and container services that the company said will help professional services partners support customers' analytics workloads and cloud migration projects.

The offerings include AWS Data Exchange for Amazon Redshift, AWS Data Exchange for APIs and AWS Marketplace for Containers Anywhere. IT services providers can use the lineup to ease integration chores in customers' cloud environments, according to AWS. The cloud provider introduced the services this week at its Global Partner Summit, held in conjunction with the re:Invent conference.

Data Exchange for Redshift aims to help customers conduct more focused data queries. The offering augments Data Exchange, which lets customers subscribe to third-party data sets in the cloud.

Prior to the new feature, customers would copy files into a database with each data set update and use an extract, transform, load (ETL) process to run an analytics job or retrain a machine learning model, noted Stephen Orban, general manager of AWS Marketplace. That approach suited customers who needed to work with an entire data set, he said.

Stephen Orban

"But customers also told us that they wanted the ability to query only the data that they needed, without having to ETL files every time there was an update," Orban added.

The new service pulls together Data Exchange with AWS' Redshift data warehouse, allowing customers to query data without using ETL or a data pipeline, Orban said. The offering, currently in preview mode, is soon to become generally available, he added. Participating data providers include FactSet, which contributes global supply chain data, and Revelio Labs, which offers workforce compensation and trends data.

This launch removes the need for customers to do any bespoke API integrations.

Data Exchange for APIs is another extension to AWS' third-party data subscription service. This offering lets customers access data one API call at a time, while also providing consistent API governance, according to Orban. The update is generally available.

"This launch removes the need for customers to do any bespoke API integrations, because they can now call their partner APIs the same way that they call any AWS service," Orban said.

The Data Exchange updates are geared toward professional services partners "who are helping customers with data and analytics workloads," Orban said. The new services let partners integrate different data feeds into customers' environments.

Marketplace for Containers Anywhere, meanwhile, builds upon AWS' container marketplace, which launched in 2018. The marketplace lets customers subscribe to and run third-party software packaged as containers. Previously, those containers could be managed via Amazon Elastic Container Service, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes or AWS Fargate. The Anywhere offering, however, expands the scope to include customers that self-manage their Kubernetes environments on AWS, in an on-premises data center or on a non-AWS Kubernetes management platform. Those platforms include Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu and Rancher.

The expanded container service, generally available this week, will help partners work with ISVs to ensure customers can readily integrate containers as they move to the cloud, Orban said.

Other partner news at re:Invent:

• Accenture and AWS will reinvest in the companies' joint business group, which focuses on cloud adoption and transformation. Accenture plans to expand its line of cloud migration accelerators and invest in talent development and organizational change offerings.
• Syntax, a managed cloud provider based in Montreal, has obtained Premier Partner status in AWS' partner network. Previously, Syntax joined the AWS MSP program and gained the AWS Microsoft Workload Competency.