Gain visibility into your software spend with AWS Marketplace (MKT201)

Here is a detailed summary of the video transcription in markdown format, broken down into sections:

Introduction

• The speaker, Chris Bico, leads the product for the AWS Marketplace buyer experience team.
• A recent Forrester study found that enterprise customers can see a significant return on investment by moving to the AWS Marketplace.
• The study highlighted improvements in time to value and financial operations as key benefits.
• Software spend is growing rapidly, outpacing the overall IT budget increase, making it important to understand and optimize this spend.

FinOps Framework

• FinOps (Financial Operations) is about driving business value by understanding and optimizing software spend.
• The AWS FinOps framework has four stages:
  1. Measure and Accountability: Understand what you're spending on and who is responsible for it.
  2. Save: Identify opportunities to save money, such as through flexible licensing options.
  3. Plan: Forecast future software needs and budgets, and manage demand.
  4. Run: Operationalize the processes and policies around software procurement and management.

AWS Marketplace Features

Measure and Accountability

• Account hierarchy, cost tagging, and purchase orders can help with visibility and accountability.
• The recent improvements to purchase order management in AWS Marketplace allow for better integration and tracking of software spend.
• The Procurement Insights dashboard provides visibility into subscriptions across the organization.

Save

• AWS Marketplace offers flexible purchasing options, including free trials, pay-as-you-go, and private offers.
• The Entitlement Management feature automates license distribution and tracking.
• Instance Portability allows customers to change instance types without losing discounts.

Plan

• Private Marketplace allows administrators to curate a catalog of approved products and manage access.
• AWS Cost Explorer provides visibility into Marketplace spending patterns and forecasting.
• The Cost and Usage Report (CUR) enables granular analysis of software spending.
• AWS Budgets can set proactive alerts and triggers to prevent budget overruns.

Run

• The standardized contract terms in Marketplace streamline the procurement process.
• The Cost Optimization Hub provides a centralized view of software spend and savings recommendations.

GoDaddy's Experience

• GoDaddy is a large user of AWS Marketplace and has doubled its spend every year for the past 6 years.
• They leverage the FinOps framework and Marketplace features, such as:
  • Kudos dashboards for visibility and cost management
  • Purchase order integration for better invoicing and accounting
  • Entitlement management to track and optimize software usage

Key Takeaways

• AWS Marketplace provides visibility, controls, and cost optimization for third-party software costs.
• The FinOps framework can help connect software spend to business value.
• Existing software can be migrated to Marketplace to take advantage of its capabilities.
• AWS Marketplace cost data can be integrated into budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes.