AWS Managed Services Provider: Services, Benefits & How to Choose One
Quick Answer: An AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) helps businesses manage, monitor, secure, and optimize their Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments. Services can include cloud migration, infrastructure monitoring, cost optimization, security management, backup and disaster recovery, and 24/7 operational support. The right AWS MSP helps reduce operational complexity, improve cloud efficiency, and align AWS resources with business goals.
AWS managed services refers to the ongoing management, monitoring, security, and optimization of an AWS cloud environment. An AWS MSP is a third-party partner that delivers these services, along with technical expertise and strategic guidance. AWS also offers its own AWS Managed Services (AMS) solution, which provides infrastructure operations and management for AWS environments. Understanding these differences helps organizations decide whether they need individual AWS services, AWS’s managed operations solution, or an external provider to support their cloud environment.
Why Use an AWS Managed Services Provider?
An AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) is a company that provides various services to help organizations manage their Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment. These services can include provisioning, monitoring and security.
An AWS MSP provides continuous oversight across cloud workloads, ensuring performance, compliance and cost efficiency. Many providers are part of the AWS MSP Program, a certification that validates their expertise in architecting, automating and managing complex AWS environments.
MSPs can help organizations with all aspects of their AWS environment, from initial setup to ongoing management. They can also provide expert guidance on best practices for AWS, including architecture design, cost optimization and (again) security.
Working with certified AWS managed services partners also helps reduce complexity during cloud adoption. These experts use frameworks like the AWS Cloud Managed Services model to accelerate provisioning and enhance scalability.
By working with an Amazon managed services partner, you can transition to the AWS cloud or complete an AWS migration without having to redirect your internal team. Your AWS managed service provider can deploy, manage and monitor your cloud platform and help you make the most of your cloud services.
What are the key benefits of using an AWS managed services provider?
An AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) helps organizations manage the operational demands of their AWS environments. From monitoring cloud infrastructure to optimizing resource usage and strengthening security, an experienced provider can help businesses maintain reliable, secure, and cost-efficient AWS operations.
Key benefits of working with an AWS MSP include:
- AWS Infrastructure Monitoring: Continuously monitor EC2 instances, storage, networking, and other AWS resources to identify performance issues and address potential disruptions.
- AWS Cost Optimization: Analyze AWS usage and spending, right-size resources, and identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary costs through services such as AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Compute Optimizer.
- Security and Compliance Management: Manage identity and access controls, monitor security findings, apply patches, and support compliance requirements using AWS security tools and established best practices.
- Backup and Disaster Recovery: Configure backups, establish recovery procedures, and develop disaster recovery strategies to help protect critical data and restore workloads after an outage or failure.
- Incident Response: Detect operational issues, investigate alerts, troubleshoot failures, and coordinate remediation to minimize disruption to business operations.
- Cloud Governance: Establish policies for resource provisioning, access management, tagging, and account organization to maintain control across AWS environments.
- Automation and DevOps: Automate routine cloud operations, infrastructure provisioning, deployments, and configuration management using tools such as AWS CloudFormation and AWS Systems Manager.
- 24/7 AWS Operations: Provide continuous monitoring and operational support to identify issues outside standard business hours and help maintain service availability.
An Amazon managed services provider helps you make the most out of your AWS solution. The exact benefits depend on the provider’s service scope, support arrangements, and the organization’s AWS architecture. Businesses should confirm which responsibilities are included in the managed services agreement and which remain with their internal IT team.
Red River Expert Tip: Review AWS spending, resource utilization, and security configurations regularly. Combining cost optimization with proactive monitoring helps organizations maintain efficient cloud operations while identifying potential issues before they affect workloads.
AWS Support vs. AWS Managed Services Provider
AWS Support and an AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) serve different purposes. AWS Support provides technical assistance, troubleshooting, and guidance for AWS services, while an MSP can take on ongoing responsibility for managing, monitoring, securing, and optimizing an organization’s cloud environment.
AWS also offers AWS Managed Services (AMS), a managed operations solution that helps customers operate their AWS infrastructure. Understanding how these options differ can help businesses choose the right level of support for their cloud workloads.
| Feature | AWS Support | AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Technical assistance and troubleshooting for AWS services | Ongoing management and optimization of AWS environments |
| Infrastructure management | Provides guidance for diagnosing and resolving AWS issues | Can manage infrastructure operations based on the service agreement |
| Monitoring | Access to AWS support resources and relevant service tools, depending on the plan | May provide continuous monitoring, alert management, and operational oversight |
| Security | Offers guidance on AWS security services and technical issues | Can manage security configurations, access controls, monitoring, and remediation |
| Cost optimization | Provides tools and guidance to help understand AWS costs | Can proactively review usage, optimize resources, and manage cloud spending |
| Incident response | Helps troubleshoot AWS service issues based on the support plan | Can investigate operational incidents and coordinate remediation within its agreed scope |
| Cloud governance | Provides documentation, recommendations, and technical guidance | Can implement and maintain governance policies and operational controls |
| Operational responsibility | The customer generally manages its own cloud environment | Responsibilities can be shared or delegated to the MSP |
Which option should you choose?
Choose AWS Support if your internal IT team manages your AWS environment and needs access to technical assistance, troubleshooting, and architectural guidance.
Choose an AWS Managed Services Provider if your organization needs ongoing operational support, proactive monitoring, security management, cost optimization, or help managing complex cloud workloads without expanding its internal team.
Consider AWS Managed Services (AMS) if you want AWS’s own managed operations offering to help operate your AWS infrastructure under a defined service model.
These options are not necessarily mutually exclusive. An organization can use AWS Support alongside an external MSP, depending on its support plan and service agreement. The right choice depends on your internal capabilities, operational requirements, budget, and the level of responsibility you want to delegate.
What tasks does an AWS managed services provider handle?
An AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) handles day-to-day cloud operations, security, maintenance, and optimization to help organizations keep their AWS environments reliable and efficient. Depending on the service agreement, an MSP can support everything from migrating workloads to AWS to managing access permissions, automating deployments, and preparing for disaster recovery.
The specific responsibilities vary by provider, but common AWS managed services tasks include the following.
AWS Migration
An AWS MSP helps organizations plan and execute cloud migrations based on their infrastructure, workloads, and business requirements. This may include assessing existing applications, selecting suitable AWS services, planning migration phases, moving data, and validating workloads after deployment.
Providers may also use the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) and automation tools to streamline migration activities, reduce disruption, and support a smoother transition to the cloud.
Infrastructure Monitoring
Continuous infrastructure monitoring helps identify resource issues before they affect application performance or availability. An MSP monitors AWS services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3, and virtual private clouds (VPCs) to track resource utilization, availability, and performance.
Tools such as Amazon CloudWatch help providers configure metrics, logs, dashboards, and alarms to identify unusual activity and respond to potential issues.
Incident Response
When an AWS workload experiences an outage, performance degradation, or unexpected behavior, an MSP helps investigate the cause and coordinate remediation. This process may involve reviewing logs, analyzing alerts, troubleshooting infrastructure, and restoring affected services.
Providers can also establish incident escalation procedures and response playbooks to help teams handle recurring issues consistently and reduce operational disruption.
Security Management
An AWS MSP helps protect cloud workloads, applications, and data through ongoing security monitoring and configuration management. Responsibilities may include reviewing security findings, monitoring suspicious activity, managing encryption settings, and addressing misconfigurations.
AWS services such as AWS Security Hub and Amazon GuardDuty can help identify security risks and suspicious activity. An MSP can use these findings to prioritize remediation and strengthen the organization’s overall cloud security posture.
IAM and Access Management
Identity and access management ensures that users, applications, and services have appropriate permissions to access AWS resources.
An MSP helps configure AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies, roles, and permissions according to the principle of least privilege.
Responsibilities may include reviewing access rights, removing unnecessary permissions, managing role-based access, and supporting federated access through an organization’s identity provider. These practices help reduce the risk of unauthorized access and excessive permissions.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
An MSP develops and manages backup and recovery processes to help protect business-critical data and applications. This can include configuring AWS Backup, establishing backup schedules, defining retention policies, and testing recovery procedures.
For disaster recovery, providers can help define recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs), then design an appropriate recovery strategy. Regular testing helps verify that systems and data can be restored when needed.
Cost Optimization
AWS costs can increase when resources are oversized, remain idle, or are provisioned without clear ownership. An MSP reviews cloud spending, analyzes resource utilization, and identifies opportunities to improve cost efficiency.
Common activities include:
- Right-sizing EC2 instances and other compute resources.
- Identifying idle or underused resources.
- Reviewing storage tiers and data transfer costs.
- Evaluating Savings Plans and Reserved Instances where appropriate.
- Setting budgets, cost alerts, and resource tagging policies.
Tools such as AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Compute Optimizer help providers analyze spending and identify potential optimization opportunities.
Cloud Governance
Cloud governance establishes consistent rules for how AWS resources are deployed, accessed, managed, and monitored. An MSP helps implement policies that align cloud operations with organizational requirements and reduce configuration inconsistencies across accounts and environments.
This work may involve AWS Organizations, service control policies (SCPs), resource tagging standards, account structures, and AWS Config rules. These controls help organizations maintain visibility, enforce policies, and manage cloud resources at scale.
Patch and Vulnerability Management
AWS environments require regular maintenance to address software vulnerabilities and reduce security risks. An MSP helps identify systems that need updates, prioritize remediation, and coordinate patching based on workload criticality and operational requirements.
AWS Systems Manager can support patch management for compatible managed instances. Providers may also review vulnerability findings, validate updates, and plan maintenance windows to minimize disruption to applications and services.
DevOps and Automation
An MSP can automate repetitive tasks and standardize infrastructure deployments to improve operational consistency. This may include infrastructure as code (IaC), automated provisioning, deployment workflows, configuration management, and routine maintenance.
Tools such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS Systems Manager, and AWS CodePipeline can support these activities.
Automation reduces manual effort, improves repeatability, and helps teams manage cloud environments more efficiently.
Performance Optimization
An MSP evaluates application and infrastructure performance to identify bottlenecks and improve resource utilization. This can involve reviewing CPU and memory usage, database performance, network latency, storage throughput, and application response times.
Based on these findings, the provider may recommend instance changes, database tuning, caching, load balancing, or scaling policies. Performance optimization helps ensure that AWS resources support workload requirements as demand changes.
Compliance Support
Organizations operating in regulated industries may need to demonstrate that their AWS environments meet specific security and compliance requirements. An MSP helps map technical controls to applicable frameworks, review configurations, collect evidence, and maintain audit documentation.
AWS Config, AWS Audit Manager, and AWS CloudTrail can support configuration assessments, evidence collection, and activity logging. However, using these tools or working with an MSP does not automatically guarantee compliance. Organizations remain responsible for their obligations under the applicable framework.
The scope of these tasks depends on the provider’s service agreement and the organization’s operational needs. Before selecting an AWS MSP, clarify which activities are fully managed, which require internal approval, and which remain the responsibility of your IT team.
How do you find the right AWS managed services provider?
What should you look for when finding an AWS managed services provider? The best AWS cloud managed services partners combine technical depth with a customer-first approach, offering tailored service tiers that match your operational maturity and budget.
There are a few key factors to consider when finding an Amazon MSP:
- Experience. Make sure you find an Amazon managed services provider with experience in managing AWS environments. They should have a good understanding of the platform and how to optimize it for your organization’s needs.
- Services. Not all AWS managed services providers offer the same services. Make sure you find an MSP that offers the specific services you need for your AWS environment. Ideally, you want an MSP who understands your organization, its industry and the platforms that you want to use.
- Cost. Make sure you understand the cost structure of the Amazon managed services provider you’re considering. AWS environments can be expensive, so it’s important to find an MSP that can provide cost-effective solutions.
Comparing AWS managed services pricing across providers can reveal which partners deliver true value through automation, scalability and transparency, rather than just lower rates. - Security. This is critical, as AWS environments are exposed to threats when they aren’t properly configured. They must be architected to be secure from the start.
Certified AWS managed services partners use continuous monitoring and proactive auditing to ensure compliance with the AWS Well-Architected Framework, a key advantage over generic cloud consultants.
And, of course, there are some factors that are always the same when looking for a good managed services provider. You should find a provider who provides 24/7 monitoring and support, who can promise you the uptime you need and who meshes well with your organization. Ultimately, your provider is going to be a partner who works closely with your internal staff – make sure the relationship is a smooth one.
Red River Expert Tip: Look beyond AWS expertise when evaluating a managed services partner. Ask about its experience with environments similar to yours, escalation procedures, service-level agreements, security practices, and reporting capabilities to ensure the partnership supports your long-term cloud goals.
Conclusion: Working with Amazon managed services providers benefits businesses
AWS is a powerful, versatile platform – but it’s also complex and can become time-consuming and expensive when not properly managed. An MSP can help you make the most out of your AWS environment by providing expert guidance, optimization strategies and ongoing management.
Partnering with a certified AWS managed services provider means gaining access to automation, 24/7 visibility and scalable resources designed for long-term success. Whether you need AWS fully managed services or targeted AWS cloud managed services, the right partnership drives measurable business outcomes.
When finding an MSP, look for one with experience in managing AWS environments – and those who can provide your organization with expert-level suggestions. Your MSP will help you grow your AWS environment with your business; you need one that can look to the future.
At Red River, we have expert AWS technicians who can help you with all levels of your AWS transformation and implementation. Contact us today to find out more.
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written by
Corrin Jones
Corrin Jones is the Director of Digital Demand Generation. With over ten years of experience, she specializes in creating content and executing campaigns to drive growth and revenue. Connect with Corrin on LinkedIn.
