While looking for a potential AWS partner, many companies face the following challenges:
- How to choose the right AWS Partner?
- What is AWS Partnership Network?
- How to find an AWS-certified partner that possesses the expertise I need?
This blog will help you get a better understanding of AWS Partner Network, AWS partnership types, and questions you should ask before you make a decision on what company to cooperate with.
Start working with an AWS partner and forget about the operational overhead!
What is AWS Partner Network?
AWS Partner Network serves a dual purpose. First, it’s a major business directory listing 1,000+ organizations that provide consulting and technical support to businesses that either want to move to the cloud or have already done so and need management or technical services. AWS partner directory (APN) is the first place where 90% of the Fortune 100 and most of the Fortune 500 companies search for solutions and services. Not to mention countless startups and small-to-mid-sized enterprises.
Secondly, AWS Partner Network is an educational program, aimed at helping all the ecosystem participants adopt, deploy and scale AWS solutions. The goal is that service providers not only manage current client services but also anticipate their clients’ needs, educate them as to those more advanced services and assist them in their efforts to become proficient themselves. This is what Amazon sees as the next-gen of managed service providers.
Choosing the Right Partner – 3 Factors to Consider
Look carefully at a potential partner, for the following three things:
- Is this partner focused on the AWS platform? AWS ecosystem constantly evolves as the company releases new tools and makes continual improvements to existing ones. When choosing a partner, you’ll want an organization whose sole focus is on AWS rather than several major cloud platforms. You want a partner who will keep current with all of the improvements and changes, or it cannot manage your cloud presence in the best way.
- Review the competencies and certifications that your potential partner holds. As questions about how those relate to what your needs are. Partners have to invest in training and development to gain their certifications, and they should be continually adding competencies and certifications. Ask for the historical evidence of continual increases in certifications.
- Look at the engineering team. What pro certifications do they hold? Current certifications include developer, architect, SysOps administrator, solutions architect, and DevOps engineer. While not all are critical to your initial management needs, they may become so.
Choosing the Right Partner – Questions to Ask Before You Make a Partnership Decision
Certainly, you have questions to ask of any partner you are considering, such as those mentioned above. But before you even get into that, there are questions you need to ask yourself.
- Can you identify your goals? Do you want greater agility, faster time to market, adoption of new technology, and/or cost savings?
- Have you set your priorities for those goals above? These must be communicated to any partner you choose.
- Do you already have in-house AWS expertise? If so, what is that level of expertise?
- Do you want to secure in-house resources or use a wholly outsourced solution?
- If you plan to outsource, how involved do you want to be with management operations?
Whether you are just beginning your cloud journey or looking for a partner to take you to new levels of cloud services, we are your one-stop solution. We provide every client with unique consulting and managed services, based on their business goals, and design individualized blueprints for supporting their cloud infrastructure. Besides, we can proudly boast:
- AWS-trained and certified pros
- Continual investment in new tools and scripts to deliver the most current service levels
- Proactive monitoring, real-time alerts, and reporting
