The Cloud’s growth has been explosive -- it’s an “on demand” version of the “timeshare” computing which was a part of an earlier era of computing and IT -- and it supports businesses worth hundreds of billions all built on public cloud platforms supported by tech companies including cloud market leader Amazon.
Even business customers with their own engineers still need help. To make the most of Cloud services even saavy business customers still need the modern version of “IT support”. Small businesses will need consultants to make the most of cloud support services, including AWS Support.
Amazon Web Services’ growth as a leading cloud platform over the past decade was enabled by AWS Support. In an increasingly competitive public cloud market, after sales are closed, business customers of IT products and services will keep spending as long as cloud providers also provide excellent service and product support.
The reason for AWS Support is that it “gives customers help on technical issues and additional guidance to operate their infrastructures in the cloud.”
While many businesses can outsource to DevOps consultants and specialists the work of building code, debugging or sysadmin, they’ll have to make sure their consultants can also navigate AWS Support to optimize their use of AWS resources and tools.
AWS Support helps with “HOW TO USE” type issues. This includes best practices for using AWS’ public cloud (e.g. using AWS management console and tools), monitoring for problems via AWS “Health Checks”, trouble-shooting API and Software Development Kit, DevOps issues with AWS features and resources, and integrations with various third-party apps (e.g. OS, web servers, email, database and storage).
Customers get what they pay for and AWS multiple service tiers are no different.
One common denominator for every level of AWS Support is “one-on-one, fast-response support from experienced technical support engineers”. AWS customers will not create a “trouble ticket” and pray for help which may or may not come - AWS would never have grown as quickly as it did otherwise. The combination of unlimited and timely help with month-to-month billing helped AWS to become a Cloud giant.
The four tiers of AWS Support begins with the base layer plan - Basic Support services - which all customers receive.
While AWS Basic Support is free and customers can make as many support cases as needed they are restricted to customer support and service limit increase cases.
All AWS customers, including basic, have access to AWS’ Resource Center, Service Health Dashboard, Product FAQs, Discussion Forums, and Support for Health Checks.
For more service and help customers can scale up to 3 premium tiers:
Develop, Business, or Enterprise
Here’s a simple chart which describes the types of users best suited for each AWS Support plan.
The Developer Plan
As the name implies, this AWS Support plan is made for Developers who are in early build and testing phases who just need help during regular business hours with such things as architectural support.
Developer Plan customers get Basic Support plus AWS Trusted Advisor and AWS Personal Health Dashboard.
Trusted Advisor helps with using AWS cost-effectively, maximizing performance and fault tolerance, and improving security.
Personal Health Dashboard which can integrate with customers’ management systems offers a personalized view of how those services are doing - their “health”.
The Business Plan
Customers at this level have pushed live production. At this tier Business Plan customers receive AWS Trusted Advisor services and 24/7 access to Cloud Support Engineers (e.g. email, chat or phone).
An unlimited number of contacts can open unlimited cases, which includes extras such as more architecture support, AWS Support API, configuration guidance and troubleshooting for third-party software. Launch support is available at an additional fee.
The Enterprise Plan
At this level businesses are operating at an “Enterprise” scale. At this tier, customer will have access to Senior Cloud Support Engineers - AWS’ top cloud people. Support calls can be made for "critical" severity level with response times - as quick as within 15 minutes if its systems critical. At the Enterprise level, AWS Support includes a designated technical account manager.
At this top tier, customers get free launch support, and other services including architecture guidance consultations, operational reviews, and online self-paced labs.
Here’s a matrix style chart of AWS Support services to help customers visualize what each plan offers.
The higher the AWS Support Tier, the faster the response time.
The AWS Premium Support Plans’ services rise with each successively higher Tier.
Since most businesses are small (SMBs) which are unlikely to have in-house IT specialists, they can still take advantage of Amazon Web Services and AWS Support through dedicated consulting firms. All it takes is an email or phone call to help their business benefit from using the Cloud.