AWS Marketplace and SaaS Purchases: Tracking What You Bought
Why software bought through AWS Marketplace and other cloud marketplaces is easy to lose track of, and how to bring it under contract management and SAM.
By the MI Solutions SAM team8 min read2 exhibits
Cloud marketplaces such as AWS Marketplace let teams buy third-party software and have it billed on the cloud invoice. It is convenient, sometimes counts toward existing cloud commitments, and is increasingly how SaaS is sold to large customers through private offers. It also creates a blind spot: the purchase shows up as cloud spend, not as a software contract, so it can miss SAM, procurement review and renewal tracking entirely.
How marketplace spend flows
Exhibit 1
Why it matters more each year
As more SaaS vendors sell through cloud marketplaces, and as buyers use them to draw down cloud commitments, a growing share of software spend can arrive through the cloud bill. In a typical first review, marketplace spend is larger than the SAM team expected:
Exhibit 2
What to capture
For each marketplace subscription
A simple routine
Monthly: share the line items
FinOps shares marketplace line items with the SAM function.
Record
Each new subscription is added to the SAM system as a contract, with an owner.
Do marketplace purchases count toward cloud commitments?
Often, depending on your agreement with the cloud provider and the listing. Check the terms.
Who should own marketplace purchases?
The business owner of the software, with FinOps and SAM sharing visibility.
Should marketplace buying be restricted?
Use the same approval tiers as other software, and limit who can accept private offers.
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