AWS has introduced AMS - Amazon Managed Services.  This is a MSP model that is quite new.  AMS provides a scaled down set of APIs and services one finds in the general AWS platform. The MSP model is where a firm outsources to the MSP the IS/IT assets which could include all hardware, networking, applications, software, NOC, Help Desk Levels 1 and 2. AWS MSP is focused on supporting the subset of APIs and services one finds on the general platform.  This could be useful for a firm who wants to deploy assets into the physical-logical VPC of AWS but does not want to manage them and does not desire to have in-house expertise of the width and breadth to manage the platform.

AMS is brand new.  Few reference architectures exist.  The benefits of AMS could include:

• Access to AMS expertise to manage AWS platforms, networks, and EC2-RDS related APIs and services
• Risk reduction in moving to AWS by utilising AWS engineers and patterns
• Ability to use AWS Professional Services (as part of a contract with AMS) to help design patterns, deployment models and services to be used
• Capability to ask AMS to build specific services for your platform

Demerits could include:

• Black Box.  Hard to understand what AMS includes.
• Mostly CLI access which is difficult for management.
• Restrictions on APIs available.
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery patterns within AMS still a work in process
• AMS will only handle the platform infrastructure and security, they will not manage your data or data HA (unless specified in a contract)

AMS is still a model in development and the benefits of using AMS versus the general platform are not yet, widely known.

Below presentation provides an overview of the AMS process and a project deployment (a real one).