Browse AWS Marketplace and the Partner directory without buying anything

short · 25 min · Task statement 4.3

Before you start — what this lab needs, and what it can cost

You work in your own AWS account, in AWS CloudShell, signed in as a non-root administrative identity: an IAM Identity Center user, or an IAM user with administrator permissions. Never sign in as the root user for this lab. Wherever 111122223333 appears, put your own 12-digit account ID in its place. This lab relies on the AWS Budgets alert you set in lesson 1's lab: it stays on, and it emails you if anything in the account starts to cost money. This lab browses only. AWS Marketplace is a real store: subscribing to a product, or starting its free trial, can start charges that appear on your AWS bill, so this lab never subscribes and never starts a trial. It never submits a contact form to a partner or to AWS. It uses the AWS Free Tier where possible and makes nothing, but charges are possible in any AWS account, so read each page before you act on it. The Partner directory and the AWS Professional Services pages are public and need no sign-in.

This lab ends with a clean-up. Do it the same day: anything left running in your account is billed to you.

Task

Tell AWS Marketplace, AWS Partners and AWS's own experts apart by using each of them as a customer would, without spending anything. You will read a Marketplace listing closely enough to say who sells it, how it is delivered and how it is priced; find where a private marketplace and Marketplace charges live; search the AWS Partner directory for a system integrator and for software from an independent software vendor; and locate AWS Professional Services and AWS solutions architects. You finish by matching six scenarios to the right kind of help, and by proving that your account has no new subscription.

Steps

Record a baseline before you browse. Open AWS Marketplace in the console and go to Manage subscriptions. Write down how many subscriptions it lists; for a new account it is none. Then, in Billing and Cost Management, open Bills and look for an AWS Marketplace section among this month's charges. Write down whether there is one. In CloudShell, also run aws budgets describe-budgets --account-id 111122223333 --query 'length(Budgets)' and write down the number it prints.
In the AWS Marketplace console, open Discover products and search for web application firewall. Use the filters to narrow the results by pricing model (free, usage-based, bring your own licence) and by delivery method (Amazon Machine Image, container, SaaS). Open one listing and read the seller's name, the pricing information, the delivery method and the support offered. The seller is an independent software vendor, not AWS.
Find a listing that offers a free trial and read how the trial ends and when charges begin. Stop there: do not select the subscribe button or start the trial. Note that the price would appear on your AWS bill, not on an invoice from the seller. That single bill is the cost management benefit the lesson describes.
In the Marketplace console's menu, find the private marketplace settings and read what they control: which products the organisation's users may buy. Note who can set one up, and leave it unset. Then compare it with AWS Budgets, which warns about spending and, through Budgets actions, can apply a restrictive policy, but keeps no list of approved products.
Open the AWS Partner directory at partners.amazonaws.com. Search for partners with a migration specialisation in your country, and open one partner's page to see its AWS designations, such as an AWS Competency. Then search the directory for software products instead of services, and note one ISV. Write down which of your two finds is a system integrator and which is an ISV.
On the AWS website, find the AWS Professional Services page and the page that explains how to work with an AWS solutions architect. Read what each offers, and leave any contact form unsent. Note who employs each: both are AWS employees, unlike partners.
Write one line for each scenario, naming who helps: buy third-party software and pay for it on the AWS bill; an outside firm to plan and carry out a migration; AWS experts working with your own staff on a large transformation; an AWS expert's advice on one design; let staff buy only approved products; share a purchased licence across accounts. Check them against the lesson's closing list.

Verify

The Manage subscriptions page in the AWS Marketplace console shows the same number of subscriptions you wrote down in step 1: for a new account, 0.

aws budgets describe-budgets --account-id 111122223333 --query 'length(Budgets)'

Expected output: the same number of budgets as before the lab, never less than 1, because lesson 1's budget is untouched.

Cost and clean-up

Browsing AWS Marketplace, the Partner directory and the AWS website carries no charge. The charges near this lab come from subscribing to a product or starting a trial, which the lab never does. Each Marketplace listing states its own pricing.

Created by this lab: nothing.

There is nothing to delete: the lab made nothing. Close the Marketplace listing, Partner directory and AWS website tabs without sending any form.
If you subscribed to anything by mistake, open Manage subscriptions in the AWS Marketplace console, open that product and cancel the subscription, then check the product's own terms for any running resources it launched.
Keep lesson 1's budget; this lab never touched it.

Check it is gone

The Manage subscriptions page in the AWS Marketplace console shows the same number of subscriptions you wrote down in step 1: for a new account, 0.

aws budgets describe-budgets --account-id 111122223333 --query 'length(Budgets)'

Expected output: the same number of budgets as before the lab.

Notes

Menu names in the AWS Marketplace console change from time to time. If a page named here has moved, use the console's search box with the same words.

This is an independent study companion for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam and is not produced by or endorsed by Amazon Web Services. AWS, Amazon Web Services and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

This is an independent study companion for AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 and is not produced by or endorsed by CompTIA.