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Heightened customer expectations and increased competition have made it necessary for small businesses to at least consider cloud. As leaner organisations get in on the action, questions arise on the cost of cloud computing for small businesses and how to maximise your investment.
Many small businesses are leveraging AWS almost by stealth, as it underpins investments they have made in line with business solutions. Understanding that technology and how it is costed is vital to both driving efficiencies and getting value for money.
We share insights to help answer questions like "What is the average cost of AWS hosting for small businesses?" Find information on training you can access and some grants from the Federal Government and AWS programs you can leverage.
Trends affecting cloud strategies
It has always been important for your teams to build the technical skills to succeed. But two major market trends are making the exploration of cloud strategies imperative for small businesses:
Heightened customer expectations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, customers' demand for innovation, speed, and convenience has only increased. Accordingly, research by AlphaBeta shows that 87 per cent of organisations have accelerated their pace of digital adoption.
Increased competition. With advanced technology like machine learning (ML) widely available, established competitors and smaller disruptors have the tools to innovate faster and gain a competitive advantage.
The cost of cloud computing for small business
Pricing for AWS Support plans for business starts from as little as US$100.00 or AU$150 per month with added fees depending on location and services.
But you can also use the AWS calculator to see the math behind the price for your service configurations—view prices per region, service or group of services to analyse your architecture costs. Services include compute, storage, databases, networking, and security.
If you are just exploring the platform and possible uses cases for your SMB, AWS has a free tier to help you get hands-on experience with it and its products and services.
Start-ups may be eligible for AWS credits through AWS Activate provides eligible start-ups with resources, including free AWS credits to spend on AWS services, and AWS Support.
AWS charges you based on your usage of its services. You can set up billing and cost management to monitor your usage and avoid unexpected charges.
Small business grants for training and upgrades
SMBs can avail themselves of grants to cover cloud subscriptions and training costs. The Small Business Technology Investment Boost and Small Business Skills and Training Boost by the Federal Government provides small business grants for employee training to mitigate your expenses.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) explains that small businesses can deduct 20 per cent of the cost incurred on business expenses and depreciating assets supporting their digital adoption. Costs supporting digital adoption can be portable payment devices, cyber security systems or subscriptions to cloud-based services. For the new Small Business Skills and Training Boost, an annual $100,000 cap on expenditure applies to each qualifying income year.
Under existing laws, small businesses can find support for related training and upgrades beyond these.
Small businesses can keep deducting expenditures ineligible for the bonus deduction under the existing tax law.
Under existing law, businesses can continue to deduct expenditures above the $100,000 cap. This measure will apply to expenditures incurred in the period commencing from 7:30 pm AEDT 29 March 2022 until 30 June 2024.
Access AWS Cloud Computing for Small Business
The team at Lumify tailored and curated courses for leaner organisations to address their concerns. Small business cloud training programs are shorter and more flexible so that busy professionals can fit them into their schedules.
AWS Cloud Fundamentals for Small Business - Self-paced
If you are at the exploration stage of your Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud journey, check this course out. Learn about the fundamentals of AWS, like how to create and manage Amazon EC2 instances, S3 buckets and more.
AWS CloudUp Bootcamp
Lumify is proud to partner with AWS to offer this flexible, community-based learning program that provides Amazon Web Services Cloud Foundations training on your terms. You can sign up to join a supportive and fun community as you achieve AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification. June Program kicks off on Tuesday, 20 June 2023. October Program kicks off on Tuesday, 10 October 2023.
AWS cloud training experiences at Lumify
Our team are committed to helping small businesses turn change into opportunity. Lumify Work (formerly DDLS Training) is an Advanced Tier Training Partner of AWS. Our partnership enables us to provide our customers with innovative learning and community experiences.
View our Events Page for information on the latest AWS Cloud computing events. They take the form of online webinars, hackathon-style Game Days or in-person sessions. We produce events with Business leaders and IT-technical professionals in mind.
The goal is to help them learn about basic cloud concepts and AWS Cloud Terminology and core services so they can form the best cloud training strategies.
Lumify’s pool of Authorised AWS Instructors can guide you through a learning path relevant to you and your organisation so that you can maximise your cloud investment.
Access our brochure on AWS training to get more details.
Book a consultation to discuss your AWS training requirements for your small business.
Access our eBook on grants for small businesses and training options.
