Phil Soane: There are five reasons why companies are moving to the AWS cloud. The first is flexibility.
As a client, you can quickly deploy resources when you need them.
need, and get hundreds or even thousands of servers up and running within minutes. That means you can develop and introduce new applications quickly. Teams can experiment and innovate faster and more often. If an experiment fails, you always stop the resources used without risk.
The second reason is cost savings. This is the reason you hear most often. You trade capital spending for variable spending, and you only pay for IT services when you use them. Because of the economies of scale of AWS, those variable costs are low....
The third reason is elasticity. As a customer, you build in margin. So you can be sure you have sufficient capacity to run your business activities at the highest level of activity.
Now you deploy the amount of resources you actually need, knowing that you can immediately scale up or down depending on your needs. That lowers costs and allows you to better meet customer requirements.
The fourth reason is that the cloud allows customers to innovate faster. You can devote your IT resources to developing applications that differentiate your business and enhance your customers' experience, rather than in managing infrastructure and data centers.
The fifth reason: with AWS, you are within a few
minutes globally. AWS bundles data centers
in various regions around the world. Customers can use 77 zones spread across 24 geographic regions of the world. And we don't plan to stop there.
AWS puts customers first and focuses on the long term. 90% of what we develop is based on their needs. The other 10% is about things we read between the lines and develop for them. We want to build relationships and a business that lasts longer than ourselves. That's only possible when you continually maximize your commitment to your customers.
Raf De Backer: The comprehensive portfolio of AWS
creates a competitive advantage. I often hear from developers, "On AWS, I had it done a long time ago!" AWS enables inventive, creative solutions, and for many companies, that's exactly what makes the difference. AWS is flexible and versatile, so companies that want to keep an open mind are in the right place.
Both large and small companies. One of our most recent customers is a Ghent restaurant that, for the sake of corona, wanted to digitize its menus with a QR code. Using AWS, we managed to do that 70% times faster.
Is AWS secure?
Soane: AWS was created to be the most flexible and secure cloud computing environment on the market. Our core infrastructure meets the security requirements of the military, global banks and other organizations with high security requirements. AWS uses the same secure hardware and software for development and management in all of our regions. We are the only commercial cloud whose service offerings and supply chain have been tested and approved for use in the most secure environments.
We support that with a comprehensive set of security tools, with 230 services and features for security, compliance and governance.
Our model is based on shared responsibility with the customer. AWS manages and controls the host operating system and virtualization layer components,
to the physical security of the facilities from which services are delivered. Developing secure applications is the customer's own responsibility. We can help in this regard with all possible documentation on
best practices, encryption tools and other guidelines. AWS partners such as Rank 1 offer hundreds of tools and services to support customers in achieving
of their security goals - from network security to configuration management, access control and data encryption.
The Backer: Our role as a service partner is to help Belgian companies navigate through the sea of possibilities. Say you want to bring your IT to the cloud. How does that work? And who does what? You can think of the cloud as a building. AWS is responsible for the security of the building, but you do the decorating yourself. You have to pick the right windows with the right security feature. Malicious people who want to get in through the windows will only keep you out if you have chosen the right protection. Software solutions like Sophos' allow you to properly identify these protection needs. Rank 1 supports you in installing and monitoring the whole thing.
What is the AWS Marketplace?
Soane: We have established a carefully curated digital software catalog with more than 8,000 products. This helps customers to innovate. They can discover and make available software tailored to the needs of the teams in their organization.
Rank 1 is a consulting partner of AWS Marketplace. That means they can resell ISV solutions and have custom pricing, term of use and end-user licensing terms for a number of key security products.
The Backer: AWS Marketplace is attractive to developers who like to add extensive integrations. Software vendors have optimized their products for AWS. This allows you to quickly leverage the features of AWS without having to set it up all by yourself.
