16 Support Plans and Resources · AWS Cloud Practitioner

In this chapter you will learn the five AWS Support plans tested on the exam (Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise), their response times and key features such as the Technical Account Manager, the Concierge Support Team, Infrastructure Event Management, and Trusted Advisor access, and the many other places to get help, from AWS re:Post and the Knowledge Center to AWS Professional Services, the AWS Partner Network, and AWS Marketplace. This chapter covers Domain 4, Billing, Pricing, and Support, especially Task Statement 4.3 (identify AWS and third-party resources for technical assistance).

16.1 Why support plans matter

Every AWS customer gets some help for free, but a production business that loses money every minute its website is down needs faster, more personal help. AWS Support plans are like tiers of an insurance policy: the more you pay, the faster you get a qualified engineer, and the more proactive guidance you receive.

On the exam, support questions usually take one of three forms:

Match a need to a plan. “A company needs 24/7 phone access to engineers at the lowest cost” (Business). Match a response time to a plan. “Which plan offers a 15-minute response for a business-critical system down?” (Enterprise).

Match a feature to a plan. “Which is the lowest-cost plan that includes a Technical Account Manager?” (Enterprise On-Ramp).

Good to know

AWS has been revising its support plan lineup, names, and prices. This chapter teaches the five plans that the CLF-C02 exam tests. Before buying support for a real account, check the current AWS Support plans page for the latest offerings and pricing.

16.2 The five support plans

Basic Support (free)

Every account has Basic Support at no cost. It includes:

Customer service around the clock for account and billing questions (not technical support).

Documentation, whitepapers, the Knowledge Center, and AWS re:Post community forums.

The AWS Health Dashboard for your account.

Core Trusted Advisor checks, a small set of essential security and service-quota checks (such as root account MFA, open security group ports, and S3 bucket permissions).

Basic does not include technical support cases with AWS engineers.

Developer Support

Developer Support is meant for experimenting and testing in non-production environments. It adds: Business-hours email access to Cloud Support Associates for technical questions.

One primary contact who can open an unlimited number of cases.

Best-practice guidance and help with building blocks.

Response times: general guidance in under 24 business hours, system impaired in under 12 business hours. Developer Support still has only the core Trusted Advisor checks. It has historically been priced from about 29 USD per month or a percentage of monthly AWS spend, whichever is higher.

Business Support

Business Support is the minimum recommended plan for production workloads. It adds:

24/7 phone, email, and chat access to Cloud Support Engineers, for an unlimited number of contacts. Full set of Trusted Advisor checks across all categories, plus programmatic access through the AWS Support API. Access to the AWS Health API for automation.

Help with third-party software running on AWS (such as common operating systems and application stacks). Contextual guidance based on your use case.

Response times: production system impaired in under 4 hours, production system down in under 1 hour.

Exam tip

Business Support is the cheapest plan with 24/7 phone access, full Trusted Advisor, and a response time under one hour.

Enterprise On-Ramp Support

Enterprise On-Ramp is for companies with production or business-critical workloads that want proactive help without the full Enterprise price. It adds:

Business-critical system down response in under 30 minutes.

Access to a pool of Technical Account Managers (TAMs) who provide consultative architecture guidance and proactive reviews.

The Concierge Support Team for billing and account help.

Infrastructure Event Management (IEM) for one event per year, plus well-architected and operations reviews. It has historically started at about 5,500 USD per month.

Enterprise Support

Enterprise Support is the highest standard tier, for mission-critical workloads. It adds:

Business-critical system down response in under 15 minutes.

A designated Technical Account Manager, a named AWS expert who knows your environment and proactively guides you.

The Concierge Support Team for billing and account management.

Infrastructure Event Management for major events such as product launches or migrations.

Well-Architected reviews, operations reviews, and access to training and workshops.

It has historically started at about 15,000 USD per month, or a percentage of spend.

Key features explained

Technical Account Manager (TAM): your primary technical point of contact at AWS. A TAM provides guidance, architectural reviews, and ongoing communication, and advocates for you inside AWS. Enterprise On-Ramp shares a pool of TAMs; Enterprise gives you a designated TAM.

Concierge Support Team: billing and account experts who help with invoices, cost questions, and account issues. Available in Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise.

Infrastructure Event Management (IEM): AWS engineers help you plan for and run a high-traffic or high-risk event, such as Black Friday or a big launch, including architecture review and real-time support during the event.

Figure 16.1: The support plan staircase. Each tier keeps everything from the tier below and adds new features. Plan Fastest response Tech access Trusted Advisor

Figure 16.2: Fastest response times for each severity level across the support plans.

Common trap

Developer Support response times are measured in business hours and it has no phone support. If a scenario requires anyone to call AWS at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, Developer Support is wrong; the minimum is Business.

Choosing a plan: a quick method

When an exam question asks you to pick a support plan, read the scenario for three clues and then choose the cheapest plan that satisfies all of them.

1. Is the workload in production? If it is only development or testing, Developer is usually enough. Production points to Business or higher.
2. How fast must AWS respond, and at what hour? Any need for 24/7 access or a response within an hour means at least Business. Under 30 minutes means Enterprise On-Ramp; under 15 minutes means Enterprise.
3. Does the company want proactive, named guidance? A Technical Account Manager, Concierge billing help, or Infrastructure Event Management requires Enterprise On-Ramp or Enterprise. “Designated” TAM means Enterprise.

For example, a small company with one production web app that needs phone help at night but no TAM fits Business. A bank running mission-critical trading systems that wants a named TAM and 15-minute response fits Enterprise. A growing company that wants some TAM guidance and one assisted launch a year, at a lower price than full Enterprise, fits Enterprise On-Ramp.

Remember also that support plans are purchased per account. In an organization, each account that needs paid support must be covered, so companies often enroll their production accounts and leave sandbox accounts on Basic.

16.3 Other places to get help

Support plans are only one way to get help. AWS offers many free resources, and a large ecosystem of partners can do work for you.

Self-service knowledge

AWS re:Post is the community question-and-answer site, where AWS customers, partners, and AWS employees answer technical questions. It replaced the older AWS Forums. Anyone can use it for free.

AWS Knowledge Center (part of re:Post) contains articles answering the most frequent questions and requests that AWS Support receives, such as “How do I troubleshoot a connection timeout to my EC2 instance?” AWS documentation provides user guides, API references, and tutorials for every service.

AWS whitepapers and guides are in-depth papers written by AWS and partners, covering architecture, security, and best practices, such as the Well-Architected Framework whitepaper and the Overview of Amazon Web Services. AWS Prescriptive Guidance offers time-tested strategies, guides, and step-by-step patterns for migration, modernization, and other common projects.

AWS Skill Builder is AWS’s online learning center with free and subscription courses, labs, and exam preparation.

Buying solutions and expertise

AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog where you can find, buy, and deploy third-party software, data, and services that run on AWS, such as firewalls, monitoring tools, and machine learning models. Charges usually appear on your AWS bill.

AWS Partner Network (APN) is the global community of consulting and technology partners. Consulting partners help design, migrate, and manage workloads; technology partners (ISVs) build software on AWS. Partners can earn specializations and competencies that show validated expertise.

AWS Professional Services is an AWS team of experts who work with your organization, often alongside partners, on large projects such as migrations and transformations, using approaches like the Cloud Adoption Framework. AWS Managed Services (AMS) operates your AWS infrastructure for you, handling tasks such as monitoring, incident management, patching, backup, and security, so your team can focus on applications.

AWS IQ has been a way to find and hire AWS Certified freelancers for smaller projects; check current availability, because AWS has been changing this offering.

AWS Activate helps startups with AWS credits, technical support, and training.

Health, abuse, and account issues

AWS Health Dashboard shows the health of AWS services and events that affect your own resources (Chapter 14). AWS Trust & Safety handles reports of abuse coming from AWS resources, such as spam, port scanning, denial-of-service attacks, phishing sites, or malware hosting. If you see suspicious activity coming from an AWS IP address, or you receive an abuse notice about your own resources, the Trust & Safety team is the contact.

AWS Trusted Advisor gives best-practice recommendations; its depth depends on your support plan. Where to get help

I need help

with AWS...

Learn it myself (free)
re:Post - community Q&A
Knowledge Center - common fixes
Documentation, whitepapers
Prescriptive Guidance - patterns
Skill Builder - courses, labs
Ask AWS directly (support plans)
Support cases - Developer and up
TAM - Enterprise On-Ramp, Enterprise
Concierge - billing and account
IEM - big launches and events
Customer service - billing (all)
Have someone do it / buy it
AWS Marketplace - 3rd-party software
Partner Network - consulting partners
Professional Services - AWS experts
Managed Services - run operations
AWS IQ - freelancers (check status)
Activate - startup credits and help
Check health, safety, best practice
Health Dashboard - AWS events
affecting my resources
Trust & Safety - report abuse from
AWS resources (spam, scans, DoS)
Trusted Advisor - best-practice
checks (depth depends on plan)

Figure 16.3: Where to get help. Match the type of problem to the right AWS resource or team.

Need Resource
Community answers to atechnical question AWS re:Post
Articles on common support issues Knowledge Center
Third-party software to buy AWS Marketplace
Partner to help migrate AWS Partner Network
AWS experts fora big project AWS Professional Services
AWS to run day-to-day operations AWS Managed Services
Report spam orattacks from AWS IPs AWS Trust & Safety

Real-world example

Real-world scenario: A retailer is preparing for a major holiday sale. It is on Enterprise On-Ramp, so it requests Infrastructure Event Management. AWS engineers review the architecture, recommend raising some service quotas and pre-warming capacity, and stand by during the sale. Meanwhile, the developers look up a tricky Lambda timeout error in the Knowledge Center, and the security team buys a web application firewall rule set through AWS Marketplace.

Chapter 16 summary

AWS offers five exam-tested support plans: Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise; AWS has been revising plans, so check the current page.

Basic is free: customer service, documentation, re:Post, Health Dashboard, and core Trusted Advisor checks, but no technical cases.

Developer adds business-hours email support with response in under 24 or 12 business hours; it suits testing and development.

Business adds 24/7 phone, email, and chat, the full Trusted Advisor, and under-1-hour response for production system down; it is the minimum for production.

Enterprise On-Ramp adds a pool of TAMs, Concierge, and under-30-minute response for business-critical systems; Enterprise adds a designated TAM and under-15-minute response.

Infrastructure Event Management helps plan and run major events; the Concierge Support Team handles billing and account questions.

re:Post, the Knowledge Center, documentation, whitepapers, Prescriptive Guidance, and Skill Builder provide free self-service help.

AWS Marketplace, the AWS Partner Network, Professional Services, Managed Services, and Activate provide software, partners, and expert help; Trust & Safety handles abuse reports.

Key terms

Technical Account Manager (TAM)

A named or pooled AWS technical expert who provides proactive guidance; available in Enterprise On-Ramp (pool) and Enterprise (designated).

Concierge Support Team

AWS billing and account specialists available to Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise customers.

Infrastructure Event Management (IEM)

AWS help with planning and running high-traffic or high-risk events, such as launches and sales.

AWS re:Post

AWS’s community question-and-answer site, free to all users.

AWS Marketplace

A catalog for finding, buying, and deploying third-party software and services that run on AWS.

AWS Partner Network (APN)

The global program of consulting and technology partners that build on and help customers use AWS.

AWS Trust & Safety

The AWS team that handles reports of abuse originating from AWS resources.

Practice questions

1. A company is experimenting with AWS in a test environment. It wants email access to AWS technical support at the lowest cost. Which plan should it choose?

A. Basic B. Developer
C. Business D. Enterprise On-Ramp

2. A company runs production workloads on AWS and needs 24/7 phone access to Cloud Support Engineers at the lowest possible cost. Which support plan meets this requirement?

A. Developer B. Business
C. Enterprise On-Ramp D. Enterprise

3. Which support plan provides a response time of under 15 minutes for a business-critical system that is down?

A. Business B. Enterprise On-Ramp
C. Enterprise D. Developer

4. What is the lowest-cost support plan that provides access to Technical Account Managers?

A. Business B. Enterprise On-Ramp
C. Enterprise D. Developer

5. A company wants access to the full set of AWS Trusted Advisor checks at the lowest cost. Which plan should it select?

A. Basic B. Developer
C. Business D. Enterprise

6. Which resources are included with AWS Basic Support? (Choose two.)

A. 24/7 customer service for account and billing questions B. A designated Technical Account Manager
C. Core AWS Trusted Advisor checks D. Phone support for technical issues
E. Infrastructure Event Management

7. A large retailer wants AWS engineers to help plan architecture and provide real-time support during a major holiday sales event. Which feature provides this?

A. AWS Concierge Support Team B. Infrastructure Event Management
C. AWS Trusted Advisor D. AWS re:Post

8. An Enterprise Support customer has a complex question about consolidating invoices across several accounts. Who is the best contact?

A. AWS Trust & Safety B. The Concierge Support Team
C. AWS Professional Services D. AWS Marketplace sellers

9. A developer has a technical question and wants answers from the AWS community and AWS experts without paying for a support plan. Where should the developer go?

A. AWS re:Post B. AWS Managed Services
C. AWS Professional Services D. AWS Billing Conductor

10. A company wants to buy and deploy a third-party firewall appliance that runs on AWS and have the charges appear on its AWS bill. Where can it find this?

A. AWS Partner Network directory B. AWS Marketplace
C. AWS Knowledge Center D. AWS Artifact

11. A company with no cloud experience wants an AWS consulting partner to help migrate its data center. Which resource helps it find one?

A. AWS Partner Network B. AWS Trusted Advisor
C. AWS Health Dashboard D. AWS Skill Builder

12. A company wants AWS to take over ongoing operational tasks such as patching, monitoring, incident response, and backups for its AWS infrastructure. Which service fits?

A. AWS Managed Services B. AWS Activate
C. AWS re:Post D. AWS Developer Support

13. A security analyst notices that an IP address belonging to AWS is sending repeated port scans to the company’s on-premises network. Whom should the analyst contact?

A. AWS Concierge Support Team B. AWS Trust & Safety
C. AWS Professional Services D. The company’s Technical Account Manager

14. Which resource provides articles that answer the most common questions and requests received by AWS Support?

A. AWS Knowledge Center B. AWS Marketplace
C. AWS Prescriptive Guidance D. AWS Cost Explorer

15. A company on the Developer Support plan has a production system that goes down at night. Which statement is correct?

A. It can call AWS and expect a response in under 1 hour. B. It can submit a case by email, and responses are based on business hours.
C. A Technical Account Manager will be paged

automatically.

D. Developer Support guarantees a 15-minute response.

16. A startup in an accelerator program wants AWS credits, training, and technical guidance to help it grow. Which program should it apply to?

A. AWS Activate B. AWS Managed Services
C. AWS Enterprise On-Ramp D. AWS Billing Conductor

Answers and explanations

1. B. Developer Support provides business-hours email access to technical support at the lowest paid price. Basic has no technical support cases, and Business costs more than needed for testing.
2. B. Business is the lowest plan with 24/7 phone, email, and chat access to Cloud Support Engineers. Developer offers only business-hours email, and the Enterprise tiers cost more.
3. C. Enterprise offers under 15 minutes for business-critical system down. Enterprise On-Ramp offers under 30 minutes, and Business offers under 1 hour for production system down.
4. B. Enterprise On-Ramp includes access to a pool of TAMs. Enterprise provides a designated TAM but costs more, and Business has no TAM.
5. C. Business is the lowest plan with the full set of Trusted Advisor checks. Basic and Developer include only core checks.
6. A, C. Basic includes customer service for account and billing questions and core Trusted Advisor checks. TAMs, technical phone support, and IEM require higher plans.
7. B. Infrastructure Event Management provides planning and real-time support for major events. The Concierge team handles billing and account questions, not event architecture.
8. B. The Concierge Support Team, included in Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise, specializes in billing and account questions. Trust & Safety handles abuse reports.
9. A. re:Post is free community Q&A that includes AWS experts. Managed Services and Professional Services are paid engagements.
10. B. AWS Marketplace sells third-party software that runs on AWS, typically billed through your AWS account. The APN directory helps you find partners, and AWS Artifact provides compliance reports.
11. A. The AWS Partner Network includes consulting partners that help with migrations. Trusted Advisor and the Health Dashboard are tools, not sources of partners.
12. A. AWS Managed Services runs day-to-day operations of AWS infrastructure. Activate is for startups, and Developer Support only answers questions.
13. B. AWS Trust & Safety handles reports of abuse, such as port scanning, from AWS resources. A TAM or Concierge team focuses on your own account, not abuse reports.
14. A. The Knowledge Center contains articles based on frequent AWS Support questions. Prescriptive Guidance offers migration and modernization strategies and patterns.
15. B. Developer Support is email-only, with response times measured in business hours. Phone access, under-1-hour responses, and TAMs require higher plans.
16. A. AWS Activate offers startups credits, training, and technical support. The other options are services or plans for established operations.