AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog

New-Look AWS Service Delivery Validation Checklists for APN Consulting Partners

By Tyler VanGrunsven, Sr. Partner Product Manager at AWS

AWS Service Delivery-1The AWS Service Delivery Program enables customers to identify AWS Partner Network (APN) Consulting Partners with deep product expertise for specific AWS services. These APN Partners are validated by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for following best practices.

From helping customers run serverless code with AWS Lambda to deploying managed, secure, reliable, and high-performing Windows-based solutions on Amazon EC2 for Windows Server, customers can be confident they are working with a team that has proven success delivering AWS services.

To receive the AWS Service Delivery designation, APN Partners must undergo rigorous technical validation. They are assessed on the security, performance, and reliability of their AWS solutions.

As a result of passing such a high technical bar, AWS Service Delivery Partners receive a variety of program benefits. This includes access to funding and discounts, invitations to AWS service-specific roadmaps and feature releases before general availability, AWS marketing support, and priority consideration to publish technical content through AWS forums. Program benefits are in addition to APN tier benefits.

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

What’s in the Checklist for APN Consulting Partners?

These validation checklists outline for APN Consulting Partners the customer case study and technical criteria needed to achieve the AWS Service Delivery designation.

The VCLs are organized under three main categories:

  1. Prerequisites: These are the minimum requirements needed to qualify for the AWS Service Delivery Program. Those requirements include minimum tier level, customer case studies, AWS technical certifications, and more.
  2. Specific Technical Service Delivery Requirements: Each AWS Service Delivery has technical requirements that APN Partners must meet in order to qualify.
  3. AWS Common Technical Requirements: These are the AWS technical requirements based off the 5 Pillars of Well-Architected. This ensures each APN Partner solution and practice is well-architected based on AWS best practices.

What’s Changing?

  • Live Webpage Format: The AWS Service Delivery Validation Checklists have been migrated to a live webpage 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.
  • Downloadable Self-Assessments: Downloading in Excel format the VCL specific to the AWS Service Delivery application allows APN Partners to track their progress to completion, and easily submit their self-assessment when applying.
  • Standardized Common Technical Requirements: Previously, our common requirements were seen as subjective between AWS Service Delivery designations and resulted in an inconsistent experience when preparing for the application. In this new format, our common technical requirements have been standardized across all designations to provide more clarity and prescriptive guidance within the checklist.

NEW! View the New Validation Checklists

Released August 10, 2020 (Partner Central login required)

Released May 18, 2020

Additional Resources

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