If you know what you're doing you don't need AWS support.
We add support when we want to do something new, like MediaTailor + SSAI. At that point we're exploring and trying to get our heads around how things work. Once it works there's no real point in support.
That said, you need to ask your account manager about (1) discounts in exchange for spend commitments, and (2) technical assistance. In general we have a talk with our AM when we're doing something new, and they rope in SMEs from the various products for us.
We're not that big, and I haven't worked for large companies, and it's always been a mystery to me why people have problems dealing with AWS. I've always found them to be super responsive and easy to get ahold of. OTOH we actually know what we're doing technically.
Google Cloud, OTOH, is super fucked up. I mean seriously, I doubt anyone there has any idea WTF is happening or how anything works anymore. There's no real cohesion, or at least there wasn't the last time I was abused by GCP.
> That said, you need to ask your account manager about (1) discounts in exchange for spend commitments, and (2) technical assistance.
Depending what precisely you mean by the second one, you may not even need an AM/support for that.
They won't help me use the platform, but they will still address issues with the platform. If you run into bugs, things not behaving how they're documented, or something that simply isn't exposed/available to customers they seem to be pretty good about getting it resolved regardless of your spend or support level.
(On my personal account with minimal spend, no AM, and no support... I've had engineers from the relevant teams email me directly after submitting a ticket for issues.)
So yeah, "if you know what you're doing" you probably don't even need the paid-for support.
> If you know what you're doing you don't need AWS support.
Hard disagree. I have to engage with AWS support almost once every 6 months. A lot of them end up being bugs identified in their services. Premium support is extremely valuable when your production services are down and you need to get them back up asap.