As an R&D lead, you’re under constant pressure to keep a tight budget while executing ambitious workplans for disruptive technologies—all within short time frames.
Balancing innovation with financial constraints is tough.
On one hand, you need more developers to speed up development, but on the other, technology costs—especially cloud costs—seem to rise at an exponential rate.
That’s where AWS funding programs come in.
These programs are designed to give your team the flexibility to experiment, build, and scale without financial strain.
To help startups save 25% or more on their cloud costs, AWS offers various funding plans that provide credits.
Being familiar with these plans, knowing how to apply actively for them, and using them to optimize your budget and extend your runway is crucial for every CTO.
AWS Fundings that IAMOPS can avail for you
AWS Activate
This funding plan is designed for early-stage startups who want to bring their idea to life by experimenting with the feasibility of different AWS services.
You can avail credits up to $100,000 for a period of 12 months through AWS recognized Activate Providers, which are angel investors, accelerators, and venture capital firms that can support your startup.
This assistance at an initial stage can give you an overall picture of how AWS can fit into your needs and whether you want to further go on to adopt AWS as your cloud provider.
Moreover, you gain access to pre-built templates for your infrastructure which not only helps you set a base, but also enables faster time to step into the market and bring your product to light.
However, this is a one-time funding plan, i.e. if you are not eligible to AWS Activate credits if you have previously availed it.
The key to utilize the most out of the credits granted is to activate it when your monthly costs show a significant increase.
Proof-of-Concept (POC) Program
As part of your R&D, you are in a continuous process of experimenting, building, and bringing new features to your product.
But this requires an infrastructure, components, and relevant services that you can utilize. With AWS POC Program, you can give a boost to your idea and validate the feasibility of AWS for your projects.
This program allows you to experiment with various AWS services to see how they fit into your current or future workflows without any major financial risk.
To qualify for this funding, you are required to submit a detailed proposal outlining your project. This might include the project’s goals, expected outcomes, architecture, and how AWS services will be used.
Under this plan, AWS provides you with 10% credit of your estimated annual spent capped by 25,000 USD.
Once your POC gets approval, you can opt for other funding plans such as Incremental Workloads and MAP, if you want to commit to AWS for further migration of your infrastructure on AWS.
Incremental Workloads
AWS provides its Incremental Workloads funding for startups planning to create new workloads from scratch or willing to migrate to AWS from on-premises or any other cloud provider.
Usually, startups who have availed the POC program and decided on choosing AWS for their project apply for this program so that they can continue with moving their POC to actual product.
To apply for this funding, you need to provide AWS with your project documentation and infrastructural blueprint.
Once approved, you can get credits up to 25% of your annual spent, which is valid for a period of 12 months.
MAP and MAP Lite
The Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) by AWS is designed to finance your migration to AWS.
Whether your infrastructure is on-premises or on some other cloud, with MAP you can get resources, expertise, and financial incentives to simplify and accelerate the migration process.
AWS offers two variations of the MAP program to cater to different needs and migration scales of startups.
While MAP is intended for large scale workloads (>500,000 USD per year), MAP Lite includes small scale startups’ migration needs which are 60,000 to 500,000 USD year.
MAP Lite is more streamlined, focusing on reduced complexity and greater flexibility. It’s ideal for startups with limited migration requirements or those seeking a more cost-effective solution.
With MAP Funding Plans, AWS combines top-notch practices, tools, knowledge, financial incentives, and the expertise and solutions provided by AWS Partners such as IAMOPS to streamline cloud adoption and accelerate your progress toward your objectives.
As a trusted AWS partner, IAMOPS helps in the Migrate and Modernize stage, in which you can execute your migration plan as we optimize your infrastructure for performance and cloud spend.
A step further to bring innovation to life
Maximizing your cloud potential while keeping costs under control can be challenging, especially with the growing demand for faster development and more powerful infrastructure.
AWS funding programs, from AWS Activate to MAP, provide crucial financial support to help your startup experiment, scale, and migrate efficiently.
At IAMOPS, we don’t just guide you—we actively review your workplan, identify funding opportunities, apply for them with AWS, and ensure the credits are applied to your account, directly reducing your cloud spending.
Get in touch with IAMOPS today to optimize your budget, extend your runway, and accelerate your path to innovation.
