Hello Team! September is upon us! As we enter the final month of Q3, many of you are focused on delivering a world-class customer experience during the hectic time known as, “Federal buying season.” For those of you who are heads-down in supporting our Federal Civilian and Department of Defense customers, I thank you for all the great work you are doing. Whether you support Federal customers or not, if you get a chance to take a breath, I’ve got some important updates this week, and a lot of things I think you will find interesting.
- Be sure to check out the “Migration Bubble-Buster Program,” which is designed to help customers alleviate cost-concerns associated with running an on-premises data center and AWS infrastructure simultaneously, during complex migrations.
- Make sure you and your partners are aware of the last day to submit for AWS credits and grants in 2020.
- Check out all the new training opportunities, for both sales and technical staff of APN companies.
CERTIFICATION HIGHLIGHTS
Unfortunately, I haven’t heard about any training or certification milestones from our wonderful community of Tech Data and DLT partners this week, but I certainly hope there are some success stories out there. Please feel free to share any “wins” you know of or hear about. I love to showcase partner development.
If you do happen to be studying for the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate exam right now, I came across a great resource from a third party that I think provides some great guidance on the topics you should study in-depth to prepare for the exam. Check out this exam guide, then book your ExitCertified class and AWS exam to validate your new skills.
Be sure to remind your partners that Tech Data ExitCertified is offering discounts up to 70% on AWS training. These virtual, instructor-led courses come with AWS-validated content, three months of lab access, and a year’s worth of access to On Demand content. Read all the details here. Send your partners the ExitCertified AWS Partner Training Matrix for the latest on available classes and discounts for partners.
Interested in seeing how AWS Authorized training classes align to the AWS Certifications? Check out the APN Journey to Certification Guide from ExitCertified.
If you, your coworkers, partners, or customers are taking an AWS training class, studying for an exam, or you just passed an exam, please let me know! I’d love to hear everything that’s going on in the world of AWS Training and Certification.
DID YOU KNOW?
AWS MIGRATION “BUBBLE BUSTER” STRATEGY: Our customers are investing in AWS and are going all-in. Through their cloud journey, customers face a "migration bubble" where they are paying double for their current on-prem environment as well as standing up a new AWS environment for migration. There may be additional cost with migration tools, training, staffing, and third-party consulting. The Migration Bubble Buster Strategy (MBBS) is designed to alleviate the financial burden on the customer, while creating an initial migration budget to pay for the work. This program deals with the parallel costs associated with migrations by: 1) Providing hardware maintenance savings, 2) Assisting customers with purchasing their old hardware with a potential leaseback option, and 3) Providing short term hardware solutions for refresh avoidance. Using these strategies can help save customers 50%-90% of their normal operational and support costs to free up budget to accelerate a move to AWS. Check out the one-page, customer-facing hand here.
LET YOUR PARTNERS KNOW:
CREDITS & GRANTS UPDATES - The last day to submit for COVID grants, Partner Opportunity Acceleration, Proof of Concept, Migration Acceleration Program (MAP and MAP 2.0), Windows Rapid Migration Program (WRMP), and Windows Modernization Program (WMP) funding will be November 15, 2020. Please be advised that at this time, WWPS Partner Funding Team is able to support limited partner POA, POC. Funding continues to be available for MAP, MAP 2.0, WRMP and WMP. If our budget nears capacity in the coming weeks, we will send out prompt communication to our partner teams. As a reminder, promotional credits are meant to accelerate and enable our partners and customers, and should never be used to off-set the cost of ongoing AWS consumption for an end-customer. Work with your AWS WWCO/WWPS PDM to prioritize and scope your funding requests. As always, do not promise funding to your partners or customers until the fund request has been fully approved by AWS.
QUESTIONS ABOUT APN FUNDING? The APN Partner Funding Programs page on APN Partner Central is the best place to see all of the available financial incentives available to partners for the purposes of enhancing your skills, trying out new technologies, taking your solutions to market, and accelerating your pipeline. Not sure which program is right for your use-case or opportunity? Launch the APN Funding Tool from the Funding Programs page and answer a few questions about what you are looking to accomplish, and the wizard will help you structure your application. APN Partner Central log-in required, some features are only available to Advanced and Premier Tier APN Partners.
TRAIN AND ENGAGE AND PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING
FOR SALES AND LEADERSHIP – APN PARTNERS
AWS Discovery Day: ExitCertified is offering FREE classes designed to teach business leaders and IT technical professionals the benefits of computing in the AWS Cloud. This course covers AWS services for computing, storage, database management, networking, and content delivery. In this 3-hour course, students will learn how to use AWS services to improve business processes and also gain an understanding of how to benefit from AWS security and compliance services. Register for an AWS Discovery Day now!
ACE 101 and 102 – Intro ACE and How to manage Partner Opportunity Submissions: AWS PartnerCast is a series of free interactive webinars, plus a library of on-demand training resources, to help APN Partners in business and technical roles. AWS PartnerCast is designed to help Partners create new client opportunities, enhance professional relationships, and develop their AWS Cloud skills.
- ACE 101: Introduction to ACE - Introduction to the three pillars of ACE and the ACE platform management tools your customers. This session is available on 4 different dates:
- ACE 102: Best Practices for Opportunity Submission of Migration Opportunities - Partner Originated Pipeline Submission and Management Guidelines. September 23 | 08:00-09:00 PT – Register now
- ACE 102: Best Practices for Opportunity Submission of Windows Migration Opportunities - Windows Focused Deals - Partner Originated Pipeline Submission and Management Guidelines. October 7 | 08:00-09:00 PT – Register now
ACE 104 - Lead Management: For ACE eligible partners. How to manage leads generated by AWS, what sources of leads you can expect. September 18 | 08:00-09:00 PT – Register now
AWS Solutions Training for Partners: IoT on AWS (Business) is a 4-hour classroom course designed for business and sales representatives at AWS Partner Network (APN) Partner organizations. This intermediate-level course provides an overview of current market trends and AWS products and services for IoT. Partners will learn the AWS IoT value proposition, how to identify and qualify IoT opportunities, address customer questions and objections, describe total cost of ownership (TCO) models, and how to help accelerate IoT adoption.
FOR TECHNICAL STAFF - APN PARTNERS
The Database & Analytics Modernization Webinar Series: Join the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public sector organization for a webinar series on database and analytics modernization. AWS technical and subject matter experts will cover key topics and share best practices to help nonprofit, government, healthcare, and education customers modernize their database and analytics capabilities. Register for (and join) one or multiple sessions here.
AWS Solutions Training for Partners: IoT on AWS (Technical) is a 4-hour, digital course that provides an overview of the current market trends and ecosystem of the IoT segment. Intended for solutions architects, technical pre-sales, and cloud practice stakeholders at APN Partner organizations, partners will learn about the AWS IoT platform and various AWS IoT services, IoT solution life cycle, common design patterns for deploying AWS IoT services, and how to help accelerate customer IoT adoption. APN Partners can take this digital course or register for a one-day, classroom course.
Reminder: We have a Remote Learning Hub to showcase our virtual, digital, and online courses. Please share with your partners, and take advantage of these courses where possible and relevant for your role. If you would like any assistance in creating your own training and development plan, please reach out to me and I will help you create a plan that aligns to your current role and the direction you’d like your career to take.
FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
Addressing Alzheimer’s, citizen services, and coronaviruses: The latest from AWS Cloud Innovation Centers
AWS Cloud Innovation Centers (CICs) focus on solving real-life societal challenges facing the public sector. These public-private partnerships between a public sector organization—like a university or local city—and AWS can help unlock innovation, faster. Through the CIC challenges, organizations and students work to solve societal problems through digital solutions and Amazon’s innovation processes while providing students a platform to learn. This past quarter, CICs worked on address Alzheimer’s, citizen services, and coronaviruses. By Ben Butler. Read this story.
AWS DigiGov: Accelerating cloud learning for government, virtually
Launched in 2018 as a two-day in-person cloud education program for government officials, AWS has redesigned AWS DigiGov in a virtual format. AWS DigiGov is a two-day education program with curriculum based on the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. Through lectures, cloud-based curriculum, and hands-on labs, participants representing federal, provincial, and municipal government learn to use the cloud within their environment and remove barriers to cloud technology.By Cristina McGlew Castro and Fahd Gulzar. Read this story.
Emerging trends in cloud for advanced research computing
Research computing has come a long way from the mainframes of the 1960s. At the recent Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) conference, four emerging themes underscored how the field continues to evolve. By Tara Madhyastha, Ph.D. Read this story.
Learn how to set up remote working, learning, and call centers with AWS Cloud Champion
For community organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions seeking to support a distributed workforce, citizenry, or student body with cloud capabilities, AWS has developed an online virtual booth to highlight remote work, learning, and call center use cases for the public sector. Learn how to connect your remote employees, constituents, or students on AWS by playing the AWS Cloud Champion: Virtual Workplace Interactive Challenge. By Nader Nanjiani. Read this story.
AWS EVENTS UPDATE
Announcing the Public Sector Partner On-Demand Webinar Series
September 9, 2020 – November 4, 2020
We are pleased to announce our upcoming series of six on-demand webinars for Public Sector partners. A new webinar will be available bi-weekly on Wednesdays starting September 9th through November 4th. Originally planned to be delivered live during our partner track at the AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, DC, we’re now offering these sessions on-demand for partners to view at their convenience. Links to the landing pages will go out to partners soon, so mark your calendars now.
Webinar Schedule:
September 9, 2020 - ATO on AWS - Compliance as Code
September 23, 2020 - Embrace the Future by Accelerating the Migration Journey
September 23, 2020 - Transforming Government Mission with Cloud Computing through Partners
October 7, 2020 - Accelerate your AWS Practice and APN Partner Journey with an AWS Distribution Partner
October 21, 2020 - Maximizing your Success with AWS Partner Programs for Public Sector.
November 4, 2020 - How to Build a Profitable Public Sector Business with AWS
November 30 - December 18 - AWS re:Invent 2020 is going virtual (and free)!
Due to COVID-19, re:Invent 2020 will be presented virtually instead of in-person. The program will include keynotes, launches, learning sessions, press and analyst events, and an executive summit. re:Invent will be presented across 3 weeks from Nov. 30 – Dec. 18. To make sure you are getting the latest event information, please subscribe to updates here.
THE USUAL LINKS
The full catalog of all events is available here.
It’s a good idea to regularly remind your partners about the public Regional Partner Training Calendar.
Live, Virtual Live, and On-Demand Public Sector Events Are Here
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Brian Schoepfle helps APN Public Sector Partners grow their AWS business through technical enablement, trainings, and solutions engineering. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter!
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