The Untapped Potential of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs)

Introduction

• The presenter comes from a small business background, having worked in his family's shoe store in Bristol, Pennsylvania from 1933 to 2007.
• SMBs make up over 98% of businesses globally, and they are the driving factor of the economy.
• There are strong cloud and AI opportunities for SMBs across various industries, such as financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail.

Cloud Adoption and Spending Trends

• Cloud spend is expected to reach $297 billion by the end of 2022 and grow to $578 billion by 2027.
• Half of this cloud spend will be on IaaS and PaaS, and 27% of SMBs are increasing their cloud spend by more than 15%.
• The top cloud initiatives for SMBs include optimizing the cloud, migrating more workloads, improving security, and cost optimization.

Challenges and Opportunities for SMBs

• The top challenges faced by SMBs are cost control, cyber attacks, and the need for hybrid solutions.
• The shift towards AI is incremental, and the data maturity of SMBs is crucial for successful AI adoption.
• Partners can help SMBs assess their data maturity and guide them through the AI journey.

Go-to-Market Strategies for Partners

• Partners can leverage their existing SMB portfolio and develop tailored solutions and messaging for target customers.
• The AWS SMB competency can be a strategic advantage in the partner's approach.
• AWS offers tools and programs to support partners, such as the Cloud Journey Interactive Tool and the AWS Rapid Credit Program.

The AWS SMB Competency and Initiatives

• The AWS SMB competency has grown to over 60 partners, and these partners have seen a 33% increase in their SMB business compared to similar partners without the competency.
• The AWS SMB competency provides partners with various go-to-market benefits, such as lead generation, premium support, and access to the SMB global competency team.
• AWS is launching the Small Business Acceleration Initiative in January 2025, which will invest in partners to accelerate the cloud journey of small businesses (under $30 million in revenue).
• The Small Business Partner Launchpad provides partners with pre-packaged solutions, scalable marketing campaigns, and industry-focused insights to help them effectively target the small business market.

Conclusion

• The presenter emphasizes that this is just the beginning of the untapped potential of SMBs, and AWS needs the help of its partners to scale and grow this market.
• The SMB competency is the North Star for partners to unlock the additional support and resources that AWS can provide to drive success in the SMB segment.
• The key message is that although these are "small" businesses, they have big ambitions, and AWS is committed to supporting partners in meeting their needs.