Hello Team and Happy Tuesday! This week’s newsletter is packed with exciting and important information that you should share with your customers and partners. Be sure to check out the new feature and product releases (including some exciting news about Snowcone for our EMEA peers), the updates to a newly-streamlined Premier Tier application process, details on an AWS-hosted summit for nonprofit customers, a blog post from a star member of our Partner Solutions Architect organization, and a whitepaper from ExitCertified. Also of note, partners who have expressed interest in selling and delivering AWS Outposts will want to know about our new Outposts Ready program.

As always, please feel free to share you feedback, request that your partners/peers be added to the distribution list, or unsubscribe yourself by clicking the feedback link at the bottom of this message.

CERTIFICATION HIGHLIGHTS

This week, I’m delighted to congratulate Tech Data’s own Jules Batiste for obtaining the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate certification. This certification is one of the most in-demand certifications in the IT job market today. As Amazon’s most popular AWS certificate, and a common entry-point for those entering the cloud architecting space, this credential demonstrates your ability to design and deploy effective solutions on the Amazon Web Services platform. Obtaining this certification builds tremendous credibility with partners and customers, proving that folks like Jules can design distributed applications in AWS.

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?

FEATURE RELEASE: AWS Organizations now supports tagging, tag-on-create, and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)

We’re excited to announce that we’ve added new tagging capabilities in AWS Organizations, including tagging all organization’s resources on and after creation, as well as support for Attribute-based Access Control (ABAC). Learn about these new features and share them with your customers and partners via the What’s New post and the Product Documentation.

LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT: Launch Announcement AWS Snowcone is GA for customer order in AWS Europe (Ireland)

On Sept 16th, we announced the general availability of AWS Snowcone in the AWS Europe (Ireland) region. With the launch Snowcone is now available for order in AWS Europe (Ireland), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon) regions. AWS Snowcone, a new small, ultra-portable, rugged, and secure edge computing and data transfer device. At 4.5 lbs (2.1 kg) and able to fit in a small backpack or carried by a drone, AWS Snowcone is the smallest member of the AWS Snow Family of devices, enabling customers to collect data, process it locally, and move it to AWS either offline (by shipping the device to AWS) or online (by using AWS DataSync) to send the data to AWS over the network.

AWS Snowcone features 2 CPUs, 4 GB of memory, 8 TB of storage, and USB-C power (or optional battery). AWS Snowcone is designed to operate in extreme environments or disconnected remote sites (including oil rigs, first responder vehicles, military operations, factory floors, remote offices, hospitals, or movie theaters) for long periods of time without traditional data center conditions. With support for AWS IoT Greengrass, the ability to run Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, and ample local storage, AWS Snowcone can be used as an IoT hub, data aggregation point, application monitor, or lightweight analytics engine. Setting up an AWS Snowcone takes only 3 clicks, and once set-up, the device is easily used and managed through AWS OpsHub, a simple-to-use graphical interface.

THINGS TO SHARE

UPDATED PREMIER TIER PROCESS:  The Premier Tier application process is now live on APN Partner Central. The Premier Tier Application Overview, which is attached to this email, can be shared externally with all partners under NDA. Updates are largely operational in nature, streamlining the application process, and setting better expectations with Partners interested in applying for the Premier Tier designation.

What’s changing?

• Updated documentation and training
• Simplified pre-assessment scoring model and use of the Amazon Approvals tool
• External guide that can be shared with Partners under NDA.
• Moving away from two dedicated application windows throughout the year. Partners are now eligible to move forward with the application process  throughout the year as soon as all minimum requirements have been met, including the Minimum (6) Month Attainment of Premier Tier Criteria requirement.

If you think that your Partner has met all minimum eligibility requirements please refer to the Premier Tier Application Overview, and work with your AWS PDM for detailed guidance and next steps. The following submission deadlines for final 2020 applications are in place due to activities associated with annual re:Invent preparations:

• EBR pre-assessmentsfor Q4 candidates must have been submitted by September 16, 2020
• EBR applicationsmust be submitted by September 30, 2020
• Pre-assessment and application submissions for Q1 2021 will resume on December 1, 2020

AWS Outposts Ready Program Launches with Dozens of Partners

As customers adopt AWS Outposts, they need the right solutions to help deploy, monitor, secure, and integrate their Outposts-based workloads. The new AWS Outposts Ready Program makes it easy for customers to find integrated storage, networking, security, and industry-specific solutions that have been validated by AWS and tested on Outposts. Read the blog post »

Announcing the APN’s Regional 2020 Partners of the Year

Each year, we honor AWS Partners who are leaders in the channel and play key roles in helping customers drive innovation and build solutions on AWS. Announced throughout the year, AWS Partner Awards recognize a wide range of partners whose business models have embraced specialization and collaboration. Keep checking the APN Blog for recent award winners! Read the blog post »

REMINDER - CREDITS & GRANTS: 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. 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.

REMINDER – MDF CLAIMS: The final day for eligible (Advanced+ Tier Partners) to claim MDF for eligible activities is December 15, 2020.

TRAIN AND ENGAGE AND PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING

FOR SALES AND LEADERSHIP – APN PARTNERS
AWS PartnerCast – Build an AWS Storage Specialization with APN Navigate – Business: This session will walk you through the newly-announced APN Navigate for Storage track, which provides AWS Partners with step-by-step guidance to build a specialized practice in AWS storage solutions. Watch a demo of the APN Navigate experience, learn about how it can prepare your organization for an AWS Competency, and participate in a Q & A with an AWS storage expert! Session is October 21, 2020 @ 8a PDT. Please share this registration link with your partners.

FOR TECHNICAL STAFF - APN PARTNERS

Networking Best Practices for Your Serverless Applications

When: Sept 29, 2020, 11:00 AM (PT) | 2:00 PM (ET)

Type: Service Deep Dive | Level: 300

Networking plays an important role in your design decisions for building a serverless application and you have many options to consider. What are the benefits and drawbacks of connecting a Lambda function to a VPC? How should you configure your subnets, route tables, and other networking aspects to best support your application’s needs? In this tech talk we'll cover best practices for security, high availability, and cost. We'll also review service endpoints, cross account access, and provide insight on how to minimize the configuration overhead of a large virtual private network.

What you'll learn:

• Learn when to use Amazon VPC with your Lambda based applications
• Understand best practices in networking for Lambda based applications
• Learn how to properly configure gateways, endpoints, and network security controls for Lambda based applications

Speaker(s): Chris Munns, Sr. Manager/Prin. Developer Advocate, AWS

Who Should Attend: Developers, DevOps Engineers, SRE's, Operations, Network Administrators

Register Now

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

Centralized cross-account management with Cross-Region copy using AWS Backup

Many organizations begin their cloud journey with a single AWS account and gradually expand their cloud presence into a multi-account environment for regulatory, compliance, security, or cost tracking purposes. Organizations often choose to deploy workloads and applications in multiple Regions on AWS Global Infrastructure for high availability, scalability, and performance. Building and operating in multi-account and multi-Region environments requires global disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity strategies. Customers want a centralized backup management process that consolidates and automates Cross-Region backup tasks across their AWS accounts to reduce overhead and improve backup compliance.

FROM TECH DATA EXITCERTIFIED: Accelerate Your Modernization Efforts with a Cloud-Native Strategy

This whitepaper should be shared with customers and partners who are modernizing applications on the AWS cloud. It covers how to put all the pieces together to maximize the benefits of the cloud.

AWS EVENTS UPDATE

IMAGINE: Nonprofit Online Summit Presented by AWS

Wednesday, October 28, 2020 | 11:00 AM - 1:45 PM EDT

Presented by Amazon Web Services (AWS), IMAGINE: Nonprofit Online is a no-cost event that brings together nonprofit leaders, technologists, and innovators to discuss how technology can help drive a positive impact for both people and our planet. This virtual event combines thought leadership and mission-specific case studies to create an educational, collaborative, and inspirational experience you won't want to miss. Nonprofit leaders will deliver lightning talks where they will share their journeys in taking technology-centric approaches to solve for big challenges and how they've achieved their desired outcomes.

Take advantage of opportunities to network virtually with other nonprofit visionaries, teams across Amazon supporting and serving nonprofits, and AWS technology partners.

Multiple representatives from your organization are welcome to attend.

Registration for the AWS Public Sector Summit Online is now live. As a reminder, this iteration of the Public Sector Summit Online is targeted at time zones that are not in the Western Hemisphere. Register Here.

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

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!