Hot Take: AWS Resale is a Terrible Business and Needs to End

Last year, as part of our efforts to refine our cloud cost optimization services and cloud cost allocation software, the Aimably team set a goal to understand the complete economic cycle of the AWS resale cottage industry. We interviewed a wide variety of AWS distributors, resellers and their clients, getting familiar with end-to-end processes and the challenges facing each party.

Ultimately, I came to a singular conclusion: being an AWS reseller is a horrendous business model. A model so bad, it should end.

If you’re thinking about becoming one, put it out of your mind. If you’re thinking of buying from one, read on to understand more and identify the limited situations where it may be beneficial to buy from one.

Buckle up. I’m bringing receipts.

First Things First. What’s a Reseller?

Many businesses achieve scale and success by augmenting their sales team with sales partners, or Value Added Resellers (VARs). These VARs maintain their own book of clients who purchase various products (not just one manufacturer’s) directly from the VAR, along with support and advisory services.

The VARs pay a discounted rate to each product manufacturer for their clients’ purchases, resulting in growing…