Updates to the AWS Foundational Technical Review

By Jing Ning, Sr. Partner Solution Architect – AWS
By Krystle DuBeau, Sr. Product Manager – AWS
By Renata Lai, Senior Product Manager – AWS

As part of the AWS Partner experience transformation, we’re streamlining the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) process—including extending the renewal period and waiving the FTR for partners that have completed an AWS Well-Architected Framework Review.

The AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) helps partners adopt AWS technical best practices specific to their software or solution. Partners can leverage the FTR to adopt security and technical best practices, increase discoverability, and accelerate their journey with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Qualified solutions and services are published in AWS Partner Solutions Finder and internal AWS sales discovery tools. These listings highlight partners’ superpowers and detail the use cases and industry workloads the solution supports, making it easier for customers to find the right partner for the right opportunity.

This post covers the latest updates to the FTR and key benefits for partners.

2024 Updates

The latest updates save partners’ time and increase efficiency, while continuing to ensure they have the foundational AWS capabilities needed for customer success:

• FTR waived with AWS Well-Architected Framework Review: Partners on the Software Path who completed an AWS Well-Architected Framework Review led by AWS within the last 12 months and without high-risk items can now use this to obtain FTR approval. This reduces duplicative efforts for partners who have already adopted AWS best practices.
• Renewal period extended from 2 to 3 years: Partners on the Software Path and Services Path are required to submit FTR renewal requests before the due date to maintain the Validated stage. The extended renewal period saves partners’ time, while ensuring their solutions continue to meet the standards set by the FTR.

Benefits

Validating solutions through the FTR allows partners to target specific industries and use cases, showcase their skills, remediate risks for security and reliability, enhance their offering discoverability, and accelerate their partner journey to differentiated solutions.

• Adopt AWS best practices: The FTR provides guidance on adopting best practices that are key to customer success. Adopting the right foundation increases the long-term success of partner solutions and establishes scalable mechanisms.
• Increase your visibility: Solutions validated through the FTR are published in AWS Partner Solutions Finder where AWS customers can find and engage with partners based on their unique business needs. These validated solutions are also searchable by AWS Sales team to support co-sell motions. Partners have incorporated these listings in their go-to-market activities, Immersion Days, workshops, and social posts to target specific customers and enhance their campaigns.
• Differentiate your solution: As a solution scales, adopting the right foundation can help accelerate your journey to AWS Specializations, such as AWS Competency and AWS Service Delivery.

Partner testimonials

We introduced the FTR for partners on the Services Path in 2023 with the following pilot partners: SoftServe, CDW Canada, Reply, AhnLab, Autoverse, IT Era, Futurails, Forward Security Inc, kreuzwerker GmbH, PhoenixDX, Skaylink GmbH, tecRacer, XalDigital, IDS Corporation (Sunny Cloud), TekStream Solutions, CGI Inc, and ISBC.

“Conducting this FTR, my team was able to fill the gaps and improve [our] service,” says Ruslan Kusov, Cloud CoE Director of SoftServe. “The first FTR helped SoftServe start creating more repeatable solutions and packaging them to services.”

By validating their services, partners can earn customer trust, develop their go-to-market activities, and grow their business. “Having our services validated by AWS helps us demonstrate our expertise and relationship with AWS,” says Adrian Wnek, AWS Alliance Lead from Skaylink.

Sven Ramuschkat, Founder and CEO of TecRacer Group says, “The FTR increases visibility of our consulting services and helps customers find proven and high-quality partner services in the marketplace.”

Eligible solutions

The FTR is applicable to software solutions, or a broad range of packaged, end-to-end solutions, which can be delivered via repeatable consulting engagements, including:

• Software solutions: The software products that run on or are integrated with AWS. Examples include SaaS application running on AWS or a product deployed on Amazon EC2 running in the customer’s AWS account.
• Professional services: A range of services that supplement customers’ teams with specialized skills and experience to help them achieve sustainable business advantages. Professional services include the design, implementation, deployment, and adoption of AWS cloud-based solutions. They may also include training and ongoing support.
• Consulting services: As part of the wide range of professional services, consulting services are often provided as a standalone service. Examples include regulatory and compliance consulting, risk management and controls, and cost optimization. Partners offering consulting services produce artifacts such as compliance reports, security posture assessments, and Well-Architected Framework reviews.
• Managed services: Full lifecycle solutions—from consultation on initial solution design to building applications, through ongoing optimization and support. Examples include security management, incidence response, application management, application modernization, and CI/CD pipeline management.

Partners can validate and publish multiple eligible solutions. The FTR validates a partners’ technical and customer engagement capabilities and mitigates risks for customers, partners, and AWS.

Each solution is validated against a set of foundational controls. This includes assessing technical capabilities in areas like, security, reliability, operational excellence, domain expertise, and risk mitigation; as well as customer-facing capabilities like project management, solution implementation, and outcome assessment.

Get started

AWS Partners on the Software Path or Services Path can learn more about applying to review and validate their service offerings in the FTR Guide (Software I Services) in AWS Partner Central (login required).

Once a solution is created and the Foundational Technical Review is requested in Partner Central, a Partner Solutions Architect will reach out with next steps.