Accelerating Your Startup with AWS Startup Credits, Azure Startups Credits, and GCP Startup Credits

I think it’s in human nature to want things, especially when they’re free. 

Cheese samples at Costco? Sure. A USB from a networking event? Why not. 

$100,000+ in startup credits from the likes of hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure? Now that’s interesting… 

The Big 3 offer their own form of startup programs aimed at accelerating innovation and helping startups through business guidance, access to a supportive startup community, and perhaps most importantly, free credits to their powerful services. 

AWS Activate Program

AWS, offers cloud credits through their AWS Activate Program. The credits awarded vary greatly depending on affiliation to an Activate Provider, or being a part of an Activate Portfolio with investors, VCs, and other startup-enabling entities. Companies aligned with an Activate Portfolio can receive up to $100,000 in Activate credit, while companies with now Activate Provider affiliations (known as Activate Founders), can receive $1,000 in AWS credits. Outside of monetary awards, the AWS Activate Program offers technical support, access to AWS services and solutions, and introduces participants into the startup ecosystem.

Google for Startups Cloud Program

The Google for Startups Cloud Program sees similar benefits as the AWS Activate- members of this program receive financial benefits, business support, and technical guidance and training. Where the programs differ is in the reward allocation; the Google for Startups Cloud Program offers up to $200,000 for startups and up to $350,000 for specifically AI startups. This move is one of my many AI-focused engagements from the popular hyperscaler, AI-first startups are even able to access Google’s powerful AI ecosystem through this startup program. With extended perks to the participant’s Google Workspace and other Google products, access to world-class assistance, and a massive monetary allowance, the Google for Startups Cloud Program is the go-to endeavor for many.

Microsoft for Startups

Similar to the aforementioned programs, Microsoft for Startups provides founders various means to level up their startups. In the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, founders can access resources like up to $150,000 in Azure credits, unlimited 1:1 meeting with Microsoft experts, and other free access to powerful Microsoft tools. Like Google’s program, the Microsoft for Startups program places further emphasis on AI startups, offering exclusive AI benefits and free OpenAI credits. 

Free credits are a great way for startups to kickstart their scaling and growth processes without reducing their runway too much. While every company’s needs are different, I believe that these free credits are best utilized when grounded in learning and experimentation. These 3 hyperscalers offer tons of unique resources, with AWS itself hosting 200+ services for you to explore and learn- you never know which service will best service your startup. 

Familiarizing your startup with the unique services that can greatly benefit your company is a top priority because these startup programs offer insight without great financial risk or equity exchange like accelerator programs normally would. Because the barrier to entry for many of the services offered by these hyperscalers is so high outside of program offers, using cloud credit for research while you do have access is key. In particular, standout features like AWS Lambda, Microsoft OpenAI, and Google Kubernetes Engine can provide immense value to companies looking to grow their solutions and business. Using promotional credit for development and testing purposes is also great- AWS, Azure, and GCP offer a myriad of services that can streamline your development and testing processes, helping you refine your app or infra while receiving state-of-the-art support in the meantime. 

Receiving and using these startup credits seems pretty cut and dry- a hyperscaler like GCP gives you credits to grow your startup risk free, for example. But why are there so many horror stories online of free credit users being charged exuberant amounts?

The Real Toll on Your Cloud Spend Management

Sure promotional credits are great, but what happens once the well runs dry? Many users online have suffered the fate of being blindsided by obscene charges once their credits expire. From novice developers and founders alike, many free tier users have faced a plethora of problems once their credits expire, such as: 

Temptation to Overspend

While this aptitude varies by case, many people have felt a hole in their cloud budget after the free credits have expired. Imagine having a minimum of $100,000 in credits to spend on powerful solutions for a year, and then coming back to your original situation- such a big change would naturally warrant hardships within your monthly cloud spend. One of our clients, Aido Health, had a similar hardship in adjusting, but were able to regulate and lower their cloud spend with Lyrid. 

Adjusting your cloud usage to reflect the gap created by promotional credit is difficult, but certainly not impossible. For one, AWS, Azure, and GCP offer tools to help you best simulate your cloud spend based on usage. AWS has a cost calculator resource that provides simulations for their service usage, letting you create fairly accurate estimates and better approach cloud cost management.

The lack of spending ability is certainly daunting, but isn’t the biggest problem posed by free credits.

High Usage and Even Higher Bills

Once your credits run out, you know the true extent of your resource usage. A common case for many free credit users is being surprised by their usage and cloud bills after their free credit expires. Things like data transfers and storage, ingress and egress usage, and hosting (especially with high traffic once your startup grows) can cause your bills to spike like no other. Along with compute instances running 24/7 and automated features like auto-scaling, your resource usage will be increased in no time. 

Though this is the case for many, each person’s actual usage varies based on their situation and workloads. Whether you’re burning through resources like no other and intent on increasing your cloud bill, you should always be monitoring your situation closely.

Vendor Lock-In

Like I previously mentioned, each of the cloud providers hosts a variety of unique services that can tackle any challenges your application has to offer, making each service revered as “the Big 3” in the cloud space. While this is great when you have the free credits to subsidize usage, many of these unique solutions are unique only to their respective providers. You’d be hard pressed to find specific solutions outside of the cloud service, giving current users a hard decision to make: stay with their current provider and receive the solutions you need, but increase their cloud bill drastically, OR, leave and spend less, but struggle to find a solution as formidable as the one offered by AWS, Azure, or GCP. 

Despite the problems posed by vendor lock-in, many people find themselves sticking with their current providers because of the stigmas about migrating to a different service. And they have the right to be worried- migrating away from highly reputable services is hard, with some solutions not even being offered on the market. 

There is a huge stigma that migration causes more problems than provides solutions, with worries about costs and fees, downtime, complexity, and the need to hire an expert being amongst the top reasons people refrain from infrastructure migration. While migrating is admittedly hard, platforms like Lyrid offer seamless migration, with their infrastructure migration being one of their main competencies. With Lyrid, you don’t have to worry about unknown costs, downtime, finding the right experts, or even losing critical solutions offered by different providers. To learn more visit our website.

With the startup program exclusive offers that make industry-grade solutions easily accessible, it can be very difficult to find an alternative that doesn’t spike your cloud spend every month. I recommend looking towards open source options that are portable and constantly upgrading, as well as having a backup plan for once your credits expire. A great solution would be to look towards a multi cloud infrastructure or something cloud agnostic, both of which let you maximize your resource usage without being trapped. 

If these reasons aren’t enough to deter you from enrolling in free credits programs, that’s great! Enrolling in any of these startup programs is a huge opportunity for many startups to elevate to the next level, though there are some things you should consider before enrolling.

Tips to Save Your Cloud Spend

Before signing up for the program, there are a few things you should know about these highly popularized startup programs. While we went over program eligibility in a previous section, here are some pointers for the program:

• Service Limitations: When credits are applied, services offered by the Big 3 hyperscalers can seem like an all you can eat buffet. However, certain services are restricted to free access- even to the most prestigious startup participants.
• Expiration: The free credits DO expire, usually within the timeframe of a year or so - plan accordingly for when this happens so you aren’t blindsided. From the day you’ve received AWS activate credits, for example, you’ll have 1 year to use it instead of from the day you first use your credits.
• Billing Details: Signing up for free credits will require your billing details, usually as a means of charging your usage once the credits expire/once you’ve used all of the credits
• Usage Monitoring: Monitoring your cloud usage is EXTREMELY important- billing details and cost explorer tools are usually provided for your best interest.
• Staying Updated: The terms and conditions associated with free credits can be changed at a moment’s notice- staying updated can help you curb your cloud bills and avoid problems.

While startup programs provide a monetary solution that many startups need, the program also poses the threat of vendor lock-in and future financial difficulties. If you do choose to enroll in the program, here are some strategies you can deploy to help ease the lock-in and streamline your migration if you choose to steer away from participating:

• Use Open Standards: Using open-source tools and platforms can offer you unparalleled portability across different cloud providers, letting no single cloud provider dominate your tech stack
• Avoid Proprietary Services: That being said, avoid services that are exclusive to a certain provider. Although the service may be unique in every right, an open-source alternative allows for better flexibility
• Look into Containerization: Cloud computing operations can often be clunky. Containerizing your applications can help significantly increase your uptime and flexibility while driving down your resource consumption and overall cloud spend. Applications like Docker and Kubernetes can help with containerization processes, and we’ve written a guide that dives deeper into containerization if you’re interested! 
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): A main goal for infrastructure is having to make another one again- the development behind it is certainly lengthy and often drives developers away from their core tasks. Tools like Terraform can help create reproducible infrastructure setups across different clouds, so you don’t have to worry about being trapped with a singular provider AND don’t have to worry about spinning up infrastructure. 
• Employing a Multi-Cloud Strategy: The holy grail of cloud spend tactics, relying on both private cloud and public cloud services can help you tackle vendor lock-in tremendously. Whether your cloud adoption strategy sees you veering towards multi-cloud or pushes you to design more cloud agnostic systems, having a well planned strategy is key in avoiding vendor lock-in traps. 

Whether your program sees you staying within any of the popular cloud providers or pushes you to pursue other options, flexibility and using open-source services are great for anyone.

An Alternative to Big Startup Programs

Year over year, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google pour millions of dollars into their respective programs, providing business support, access to groundbreaking technology, and a supportive community within their nonprofit credit program. And, year over year, many startups are able to find their footing with the help of these programs, however, there are certain aspects about the free credits that can damage a startup if managed incorrectly. 

Overspending, unexpected high bills and usage, and unwarranted vendor lock-in can certainly blindside an excited founder, but it doesn’t have to. 

With Lyrid, you’re able to get cloud computing and Kubernetes services that are on-par with the top competitors in the space while adhering to open-source and multi cloud disciplines. Migrating to the Lyrid platform is seamless as well, with our engineering experts on standby to guide you through the migration process every step of the way. 

Emphasizing on providing cost-efficient, industry-grade solutions, Lyrid offers a variety of plans made best for your needs (and yes, even a free tier). Starting with Lyrid requires no cost and no commitment- just your curiosity in finding out how the Lyrid platform can best service your needs.

While we aren’t able to offer the $100,000+ in cloud credit that AWS, Azure, or GCP do, we do have a startup program that offers free credits, expert assistance, and go-to-market resources to help your company take off! As a fellow startup, we understand how hard things can be, Lyrid for Startups just wants to give you the best chance you have for creating the next big thing! 

To learn more about Lyrid, sign up for a demo or visit our Lyrid for Startups page!