The Overlooked AWS Profit Lever Limiting Your Business Valuation

Building an AWS resell and annuity business on top of existing migration, modernisation, and managed services capability is one of the most effective ways to improve EBITDA quality, resilience, and enterprise value. I see many strong AWS partners doing excellent project and MSP work, but leaving meaningful profit and valuation uplift on the table by not owning the resell and billing relationship.

Why adding resell matters for EBITDA

Most AWS partners I work with already deliver highvalue services: migrations, modernisation, data, security, and managed services. When those capabilities are combined with AWS resell and an annuity model, three things happen from an EBITDA perspective:

• Revenue becomes more predictable, because project and MSP work is anchored by ongoing cloud consumption and billing.
• Gross margin improves, as partners capture both the services margin and the incremental economics available through structured resell and programs.
• EBITDA quality lifts, with a higher share of recurring, contractlike income that boards and investors typically value at a premium.

Partners who wrap services, IP, and outcomes around their AWS resell consistently generate a healthier profit mix than those who leave the billing, discounts, and commercial relationship to someone else.

The upside: profitability and growth

When partners add resell and annuity on top of their existing AWS capability, three clear benefits show up repeatedly in their numbers and board conversations:

• Revenue per customer deepens, because partners participate in the full cloud spend lifecycle instead of only being paid for projects or a fixed managed service.
• Margins expand as you climb the value ladder: resell margin on its own is modest, but combined with migration, managed services, optimisation, security, and IP, the blended gross margin per customer becomes far more attractive.
• Valuation potential improves, as a mix of services and recurring cloud annuity, underpinned by strong retention, presents a more compelling EBITDA and resilience story than a projectonly or “servicesonly” model.

The challenges partners face

If this is so compelling, why don’t all partners do it? Common themes I hear from AWS partners include:

• Standing up billing, credit, and FinOps capability feels complex and distracting from core technical work.
• AWS commercial programs, commitments, and discount structures can be hard to navigate without dedicated expertise.
• Resell is perceived as “low margin”, so it is deprioritised, even though the real value lies in combining resell with the highervalue services already in place.

These are real challenges, but they are solvable with the right support model.

How NEXTGEN helps AWS partners

At NEXTGEN, our role is to help partners bolt a profitable, efficient AWS resell and annuity engine onto the capabilities they already have.

• Building revenue and opportunity: we work with partners and AWS on GTM plays, programs, and strategic initiatives that turn existing migration and MSP capability into richer, annuitybased customer relationships.
• Creating new profit streams: by enabling resell, Marketplace, and structured commercial models, we help partners monetise their existing technical work more fully and align to proven profitability patterns in the AWS ecosystem.
• Delivering FinOps and billing efficiency: our billing and FinOps services provide accurate invoicing, costoptimisation insights, and operational scale so partners can grow AWS revenue without building a large backoffice or compromising partner experience.

From my experience, the partners who truly win with AWS are not just excellent at technical delivery; they also participate in the full commercial value chain. Adding AWS resell and annuity to your existing migration and MSP capability is one of the most powerful levers you have to strengthen EBITDA, smooth cash flows, and lift the overall value of your business.