Today at AWS re:Invent, 2013 Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), introduced new programs, solution competencies and partner benefits for its AWS Partner Network (APN) program. In addition, AWS announced the twenty-two 2014 Premier Consulting Partners, a designation that recognizes partners that provide superior customer service and expertise in building and migrating customer solutions on AWS. AWS also announced that the AWS Marketplace now features more than 1,100 different software products pre-configured for the AWS Cloud across 24 different categories that customers can purchase with a single click. For more information, visit http://aws.amazon.com/partners/overview/.

With the rapid adoption of AWS across industries and various sizes of organization, customers are increasingly asking for partner solutions in areas such as value-added software, established business applications, developer tools, and consulting expertise to help them deploy and manage mission-critical workloads on the AWS cloud. The AWS Partner Network (APN) program, which provides technical, business and marketing support for the AWS partner ecosystem, has grown to more than 8,000 technology and consulting partners worldwide. Similarly, since the beginning of the year, the number of products available in the AWS Marketplace has increased 71 percent, and hours of usage of AWS Marketplace products has increased by more than 700 percent.

“The growth of the AWS Partner Network and AWS Marketplace continues to accelerate as customers actively seek partners with the products and expertise to help them take advantage of the AWS cloud,” said Terry Wise, Director, Worldwide Partner Ecosystem, AWS. “Our partners are critical to helping customers run their applications on AWS, and we will continue to invest in delivering the programs, tools and training to help our partners grow their cloud businesses, differentiate their offerings, and drive success for our joint customers.”

New APN Competencies for Microsoft Exchange, Oracle and SAP

AWS grants APN Competencies to Consulting Partners who have attained proficiency in a specific specialization or use case. Attaining a Competency enables APN members to differentiate themselves to AWS customers by demonstrating their expertise in helping customers plan, implement, migrate, and manage a specific solution on the AWS cloud. Today, AWS introduced three new Competencies for partners including Microsoft Exchange, SAP, and Oracle applications on the AWS cloud. To learn more about APN competencies, visit: http://aws.amazon.com/partners/overview/apn-competencies/.

Enhanced programs, lead management, training and support

APN partners have asked AWS to help them reach more customers, improve their expertise with AWS, and expand support for trials and proof-of-concepts. To address these needs, AWS plans to introduce and expand the following new APN programs and initiatives in 2014:

• APN Advanced Channel Program provides high-performing AWS channel partners with a new, “Advanced Channel Partner” designation that gives them access to expanded technical support and content.
• APN SaaS Accelerate Program provides specialized technical content and support for ISVs who are running SaaS applications on AWS.
• APN Partner Leads is a new pilot program that will provide leads and opportunities to a select number of APN’s top consulting partners.
• APN Business Development Training Series is designed to provide partners with the training and information they need to engage on business development opportunities with their partners.
• APN Market Development Funding enables select technology and consulting partners to apply for funding to support their market development activities.
• APN Partner Support Center programmatically connects partners with the AWS staff to answer questions and help them gain a better understanding of APN’s benefits and resources.
• Expansion of APN Reference Implementations & Test Drives makes it easier for partners to provide test software for customers and deploy popular software into production.

Twenty-two Consulting Partners named 2013-2014 Premier Partners

The AWS Premier Consulting Partner designation highlights the top APN Consulting Partners globally that have distinguished themselves by investing significantly in their AWS practice, growing their AWS business, providing exceptional customer service and helping a large number of customers run their applications on AWS. The 2013-2014 Premier Consulting Partners include: 2nd Watch, Accenture, Aquilent, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bulletproof Networks, Capgemini, Cloudnexa, Cloudpack, Cloudreach, Cognizant, Control Group, Datapipe, Dedalus, Infosys, Nomura Research Institute (NRI), Razorfish, Slalom Consulting, Smart421, Smartronix, smartShift Tech Inc., Storm Reply and Wipro. For full details visit: http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/premier-consulting-partners/.