How to become an AWS Well-Architected MSP
Insight’s lead architect for AWS guides CRN through the process of winning the coveted status and the competitive advantage it brings
Insight is the most recent name to earn accreditation as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Well-Architected partner in the UK, joining the ranks alongside Computacenter, Cloudreach and Rackspace.
The AWS Well-Architected Framework assists cloud architects in building a secure, high-performing, resilient and efficient infrastructure for their applications, as well as providing a consistent approach for customers and partners to evaluate architectures and implement designs that can scale over time.
AWS claims that the accreditation helps partners to learn best practices, improve customer experience, drives more opportunities and reduces customer attrition.
Ozioma Uzoegwu, Insight's lead architect of AWS practice, told CRN that the status is handed out on a regional basis and that this award applies to the firm's EMEA operations, though the service is deliverable to customers worldwide.
The AWS Well-Architected status recognises those partners that display expertise in building and deploying workloads in AWS and that customers can trust those accredited to deliver expert consultancy, review of their AWS architecture and remediate their environments.
Insight had to meet certain criteria to attain the status from AWS and the process took around six months from start to finish, according to Uzoegwu.
He walked CRN through the steps involved in becoming an AWS Well-Architected partner.
The pillars
Those in the Amazon Partner Network (APN) must be either at Advanced Tier or Premier Tier, though Select Tier partners can become a part of the Well-Architected programme by fulfilling certain criteria.
The first of these requirements is to establish an "executive sponsor" in the organisation who will drive the Well-Architected initiative in the business, Uzoegwu explained.
The second requirement is to embed the principles of the Well-Architected framework into the business, including implementing its expertise in building applications on the public cloud platform, design principles and best practices.
"The idea is that any partner that wants to sign up to this programme will need to embed those principles into their business both in the way they deliver services to customers and in the way they serve customers as part of their business proposition," he said.
Identifying two people sufficiently trained in AWS was another key requirement for Insight. They had to be certified as AWS Solutions Architect Professionals and willing to serve as leads in delivering this service to customers.
"We had to get our teammates trained, and also attend the technical bootcamp organised by AWS to help build that capability and to help them understand how to deliver the service," Uzoegwu said.
The final requirement was to deliver four Well-Architected reviews to customers within EMEA, which included delivering the service, as well as remediating the customers' environment and showcasing what it has done with AWS to the latter's satisfaction.
The benefits
Uzoegwu said that he sees three key benefits to having this status as an AWS Well-Architected partner.
One is that Insight wants to be seen by customers as being a trusted provider across the three main public cloud providers and this certification showcases its abilities to customers around AWS.
It is also seen as a tool in helping Insight move away from its historical role as a transactional reseller.
"Insight is going through a transformation to become a lot more of a service provider than a traditional and transactional reseller," he explained.
"This is one of the areas we believe will help us grow our services numbers going forward.
"The AWS Well-Architected review is an optimisation service that will send our architects and our delivery team to help optimise our customers' environment with professional services, engagement. That is one of the key drivers that we have seen that will help us accelerate our services with AWS in EMEA.
"Our customers will have trust and confidence in engaging with us in helping them in their AWS cloud transformation projects.
"This is one of the key benefits that we are now seeing customers talking to us about AWS, given we've achieved this status."
The competitive advantage
Increased customer confidence in insight's technical capabilities is not the only competitive advantage Uzoegwu sees in the merits of being an AWS Well-Architected partner.
"It is all about optimising customers' environment and we've seen that this optimisation is not a one-off exercise, it is a continuous exercise that we carry out with customers," he stated.
Insight recommends that these exercises take place every three to six months and that it is a way in which it can develop the relationship further with the customer and offer additional services.
"This is something we go through with them on a three-to-six-month basis, offering strong value to our customers and making us a lot more sticky with them," he said.
"That's really the competitive edge; we have a lot of our competitors potentially just doing the billing piece. But customers need more than that; customers need a partner that will not just help them transact, but also help them to reduce their spend and to be more secure in the cloud."