Is it normal for SaaS providers to have self-service sign-up for multi-tenant versions but "contact sales" for any dedicated infrastructure? I would assume it is, because the "dedicated" flavor requires adding infrastructure...and it's hard to automate the creation of a new directory in a terraform repo 😉 But for BYOC (which is a controversial topic apparently) I could see how that might be easier to automate the sign-on process...especially if it's delivered through something like AWS Marketplace. What do y'all think?

There may be something to dedicated being harder to automate. The need to federate with enterprise identity sources is one that comes up a lot. You can automate most stuff, but I'm sure there are other exceptions. I think the primary reason for "contact sales" is that most enterprise customers (or at least official procurement channels as opposed to individuals) expect private offers for their SaaS purchases, especially through channels like the AWS Marketplace.

That makes sense, thanks! Since you’re an AWS expert, one more quick question. I was under the impression that most AWS marketplace offerings were automated and had pre-set pricing, but are there exceptions to that? Seems I’m misunderstanding something here

well, it depends on a few factors. 1. the type of listing - there are many product listings 2. For some listings, like AMI as the classic example, they must be packaged and automated, and the Marketplace installs the infra and monitors it on your behalf 3. For SaaS listing, it's more of a billing API. They have no control over your infra, you manage that... There are APIs you subscribe to that tell you when a customer signs up, you execute your IaC based on that. 4. Pricing, yes pricing must be pre-set.. Customers are basically signing a contract when they buy. However you have different options for how they are set up, including subscription and contract. Again APIs allow you to send usage data for billing or entitlement limits they track for you.

You also have many providers in the marketplace so that customers can burn down credits with their platform - no automation involved, purely a billing advantage

customers can burn down credits with their platform

💯 to that. Confluent makes the correct point that a multi-tenant cloud service unlocks massive cost savings, Red Panda (in a talk at Current, somewhat hilariously) makes the same exact point you're making. Bill—thanks again for the reply + additional info. If I might continue to abuse my access to your generosity + knowledge...we have a Kubernetes-first product (for on-premise installations, we sell a subscription to a Kubernetes Operator for our open-source app). What's the easiest way to sell that through AWS Marketplace? I see the following [Container Based Products](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/marketplace/latest/buyerguide/buyer-what-is-aws-marketplace-for-containers.html) from that first link you sent. Seems they support EKS. Obviously, just saying "we'll install the operator on EKS" is not a completes solution...we'd need to set up the EKS cluster, configure a VPC, decide on how many EC2 instances to put into the worker nodes, install our Operator, install dependencies (Strimzi or MSK), set up monitoring, and then create the actual

LittleHorseCluster

CRD's.... so is there a guide on how that works through AWS marketplace? Ideally, in a sort of BYOC manner. We are already working on a "we run it in our cloud" deployment model separately 🙂

I'm happy to help however I can, that's why I'm here 🙂 This is an area that I'm knowledgable about, but certainly not a MP expert, especially for non-SaaS products. I'll do my best, but there is some advantage to pulling your account team into this conversation. Listing on Marketplace means you'll probably want a Foundational Technical Review (FTR) of your workload and there are some partner programs they can discuss with you My best answer to your question also has too much "it depends" in it too, and non-SaaS products are not my wheelhouse, but I'll do my best. You could likely use Marketplace containers to facilitate parts of your customer deliver, possibly even on-prem. I previously saw your thread on ECS, but hadn't chimed in. You can do EKS-Anywhere and ECS-Anywhere through MP containers. IMO, the downside here is it still shifts some burden onto your customers that I'd prefer you as a SaaS provider manage on their behalf, but that might be a bit idealistic. is a little dated, but is from the buyer perspective of installing an Marketplace container. You can look at some existing container products on MP. I don't know these products personally, but some are free, and installing them might give you an idea if it's possible to deploy your software with it. That said, most SaaS providers I know of gravitate towards the SaaS product listing on MP. If you do that, you mostly provide them with an IaC they execute that gives you enough cross account roles to access to what you need to do in the customers account.

Got it. QuickLaunch looks really good. This is quite helpful...time for some chats with our infra team and also AWS account team 🙂