New-Look AWS Competency Validation Checklists for APN Technology Partners

By Chris Alvarez, Sr. Partner Product Manager at AWS
By Tyler VanGrunsven, Sr. Partner Product Manager at AWS

To receive the AWS Competency designation, which showcases top AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners to customers, organizations must undergo rigorous technical validation. They’re also assessed on the security, performance, and reliability of their Amazon Web Services (AWS) solutions.

To help APN Technology Partners understand this process and our validation requirements, we are releasing new versions of the AWS Competency Validation Checklists (VCL).

The checklists highlighted in this post are specific to APN Technology Partners. If you’re an APN Consulting Partner, please see this blog post for your VCLs.

What’s in the Checklist for APN Technology Partners?

The validation checklists outline the customer case study and technical criteria needed for APN Technology Partners to achieve the AWS Competency designation.

The AWS Competency Program is built to go beyond the meaning of the word “competent.” It’s one of the toughest designations an APN Partner can achieve and maintain, giving customers complete confidence in choosing top APN Partners to team up with.

The validation checklist are organized under three main categories:

Prerequisites: These are the minimum requirements needed in order to qualify for the AWS Competency Program. Those requirements can include minimum tier level, customer case studies, AWS technical certifications, etc.
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Specific technical competency requirements: Each AWS Competency has sub-categories within the track that have their own technical requirements. These are the specific Competency technical requirements that a partner must meet in order to qualify.
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AWS common technical requirements: These are the AWS technical requirements based off the 5 Pillars of Well-Architected. This is to ensure each APN Partner solution and practice is well architected based off the AWS best practices.

What’s Changing?

Live web page format: The AWS Competency Validation Checklist has been migrated to a live web page format. The traditional PDF format has been removed and is no longer available. This provides a better user experience, consistency across all VCLs, and better version control.
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Downloadable self-assessments: Downloading the VCL specific to the AWS Competency application in Excel format allows APN Partners to track their progress to completion, and easily submit their self-assessment when applying.
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Standardized common technical requirements: Previously, our common requirements were seen as subjective between Competencies and resulted in an inconsistent experience for APN Partners when preparing for the application. In this new format, our common technical requirements have been standardized across all Competencies to provide more clarity and prescriptive guidance within the checklist.

AWS Technology Validation Checklist Effective Dates

The AWS Competency program will honor APN Partners who use the previous checklist version for 60 days after the newest version has been published, if applicable.

All applications submitted after 60 days of the VCL publication date will be validated against the most recent checklist version found on the AWS Competency program page.

NEW! All Checklists for APN Technology Partners

Released or updated April 7, 2020

Released February 17, 2020

Team Up with an AWS Competency Partner

If you want to be successful in today’s complex IT environment, and remain that way tomorrow and into the future, teaming up with an AWS Competency Partner is The Next Smart.

The AWS Competency Program verifies, validates, and vets top APN Partners that have demonstrated customer success and deep specialization in specific solution areas or segments.

See how AWS Competency Partners are driving customer success >>