[jmann99999]

I don't know anything about Vantage. It sounds like people have had good luck with them.

However, what gets us our greatest savings on AWS are two things.

First, we have the luxury of being able to take advantage of Reserved instances. We have decided how much we are wiling to commit on EC2's, RDS, etc. and it saves us 10-30% depending on what we do.

Second, and this is perhaps the more interesting one. We started working with an "AWS Advanced Partner." Billing goes through them and that reduces our charges. In addition, they pitch projects of ours to AWS and if they are interesting enough to AWS, AWS reduces charges for periods of time on servers related to those developments.

While we use AWS, I think the game is the same with Google or Microsoft. So, if you are looking to save some money, you may look into companies who are Advanced AWS Partners, Premier Google Partners, or Silver Microsoft Partners. It's likely they can help you out.

[nexuist]

> In addition, they pitch projects of ours to AWS and if they are interesting enough to AWS, AWS reduces charges for periods of time on servers related to those developments.

Is there IP transfer here? They give you a discount in exchange for knowing how you're making money?

[nrmitchi]

I have no evidence, but my suspicion is that programs like this are designed similiarly to large credit grants given to startups.

If they see a project that seems "interesting" (ie, has a potentially to be successful and have a very high AWS spend in the future), they're willing to subsidize[0] some costs now in order for you to get used to and build around AWS, and likely build more closely to AWS. If it ends up being successful, AWS has a much larger customer.

[0] I say subsidize in quotes because I seriously doubt AWS is taking a loss on any of this, they're just not making quite as much in profit.

[jmann99999]

This is my experience. Their grants are also in competitive spaces.

Do we want to move off Microsoft SQL Server and go to Postgres Aurora? Yes. AWS also wants us and everyone in the world to do that. It’s a win for us to get there because of reduced license costs. It’s a win for them, because they get the revenue from services.

So, they give grants to help us and help them build their services.

[k__]

I'd say they give them a discount for developing something a customer will then (have to) run on AWS.

[jmann99999]

Not from our perspective. It’s basically subsidized infrastructure spending. We aren’t doing the low level things they are “probably” interested in. There is no right to IP granted.

[cratermoon]

First taste is free...