Melbourne iPhone app house is new AWS cloud partner

One of Amazon Web Services' newest local partners is a clear example of the evolution of the new channel.

Melbourne-based Outware Mobile is adding a new service offering for its clients by building middleware applications that sit between mobile apps and client databases. This middleware will be hosted on the AWS cloud.

Outware director Eytan Lenko told CRN: "Generally up until now, the most sophisticated clients would build the middleware themselves. We would build them the app and design how the middleware layer would look and then that would go to their tech team, who might build it or appoint a company that does the infrastructure stuff."

The downside of this approach, said Lenko, is "the disconnect" that can occur between the Outware app developers, the middleware firm and the client. "That can slow everything down."

So late last year, Outware Mobile was approved as a standard-tier consulting partner to Amazon Web Services.

[Related: Outware Mobile in 2013 CRN Fast50]

Lenko praised Amazon's support of partners. "We have sales opportunities where Amazon is part of the solution offering; they will come and meet with us and prepare for the pitch.

"It is not like they are just a website with no tech support; they have offices in Sydney and Melbourne."

It cuts both ways, he added: when clients approach Amazon in need of app development, the cloud provider refers them to Outware Mobile.

Lenko acknowledged the blurring of the line between hosting middleware on the AWS cloud and effectively reselling AWS cloud solutions to end users.

"We are coming to it from a different angle. Most [resellers] are infrastructure companies. They might go from the back end to the front, we will go from the front to the back.

"I think this will be more common as a reseller arrangement."

He explained that AWS looked at partners based on "how many dollars of our services did you sell direct by building on our servers" versus how much was sold indirectly, such as through referals.

Why use AWS?

For the app developer, one specific advantage of the AWS cloud is its Auto Scaling, said Lenko.

The first Outware app hosted on AWS is Snap Send Solve, a free app that allows users to report issues such as potholes or graffiti directly to the appropriate council or service provider. When Snap Send Solve was featured on A Current Affair last year and download activity surged, AWS Auto Scaling automatically handled the surge in activity.

AWS told CRN it would not comment on Outware specifically, but a spokesperson said: "With regards to the broader market, AWS has a rapidly growing partner ecosystem. One trend we’re seeing quickly take off is how established companies are finding new channels to market and bringing their products to the masses with the cloud.

"Our global partner ecosystem includes more than 3,000 consulting/systems integrator partners and more than 1,800 technology/ISV partners. We have partnerships with the largest systems integrators including Deloitte, Capgemini and Accenture as well as hundreds of regional and smaller SIs who have built practices around AWS."