AWS Public Sector Partners Get Globally Expanded Security, Professional Services Support
The hyperscaler also honored eight public sector partners of the year.
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AWS has expanded its Global Security and Compliance Accleration (GSCA) program to eight countries.
The program aids partners in satisfying regulatory, compliance and security requirements. It provides guidance at no cost and a stable of experts.
As of May, partners could leverage the GCSA in four countries: the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Now it also touches France, Singapore, New Zealand and Spain.
Jeff Kratz, general manager of worldwide public sector partners at AWS, said the expansion stemmed directly from customer feedback.
“Public sector customers are looking for partners they can trust to secure data and build secure applications and processes. The GSCA program identifies partners in regions across the globe that have a core competency and capability to both support and accelerate AWS customers in their journeys to meet various public and private sector regulations and compliance frameworks,” Kratz told Channel Futures.
The program formerly went as ATO on AWS.
Non-U.S. partners leveraging the program include CyberCX in Australia and New Zealand, Euris in France, Horangi in Singapore, T-Systems in Spain and 6point6 in the U.K.
Kratz said his team views security as a key focus.
“AWS is architected to be the most secure cloud computing environment today, with more than 300 security, compliance and governance services and features available,” he said.
He added that the GSCA developed in part for a need to address the public sector’s specific security needs.
He pointed to Virginia-based stackArmor, which engages with federal security requirements like FedRAMP, FISMA and CMMC. The company built its ThreatAlert ATO Accelerator solution, which reportedly reduces cuts 40% of the time and cost associated with gaining Authority to Operate (ATO).
In another case of global expansion, AWS made its public sector professional services initiative available in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore.
AWS ProServe Ready taps into AWS Professional Services (AWS ProServe) to help partners on public sector subcontract engagements.
AWS in March 2021 launched its Think Big for Small Business (TBSB) partner program. The program supports small, medium-size or minority-owned companies selling into the public sector.
Kraft reported that more than 400 partners spanning 41 countries have participated in TBSB. Moreover, he said the program has helped partners establish more than 1,200 public sector opportunities.
“TBSB provides partners with expedited access to AWS Partner Programs, financial incentives and additional visibility with customers and AWS teams,” Kratz told Channel Futures. “I started my career in a startup, and I can share from personal experience that smaller businesses may have more challenges with workforce training, marketing or technical solution scaling than larger enterprises. TBSB program participants consistently grow from the resources provided in the program.”
According to Kratz, small business draw 27% of federal contracting funds in the U.S.
He pointed to the Brazilian system integrator Extreme Digital Solutions (EDS), which employs around 250 people. The firm provides managed and professional services to Brazilian federal customers.
“By participating in the TBSB program, EDS accelerated their timeline to earn a Migration Competency, and developed their go-to-market strategy to better address government agency challenges. EDS has helped government agencies in Brazil save between 60% and 80% by adopting cloud first strategies and realizing cost reductions with infrastructure and platforms,” Kratz said.
Kratz highlighted the AWS Solution Spark program, which allows public sector partners to develop open-source solutions. The partners build tools on top of AWS open-source software.
For example, partners can harness the Service Workbench on AWS, Performance Dashboard on AWS and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) Works.
Kratz highlighted MyappSoftware, which is leveraging Solution Spark to sell to government customers. Solution Spark’s Performance Dashboard lets them build customized dashboards between governments and their constituents.
Kratz said Myappsoftware has generated more than 80 opportunities from Performance Dashboard since July 2022.
“Solution Spark brings the value added that we need for our customer, to allow everyone to understand their data in an easy way inside or outside the company,” MyappSoftware CEO Juan Carlos Lopez said.
AWS has selected nine partners for its new Sustainability Cities Accelerator Cohort.
AWS announced the program back in the spring, and hundreds of partners applied. The nine winners will receive specialized AWS training, up to $100,000 in AWS Activate credits and opportunities for further mentoring, training and networking.
The program seeks to address the problem of greenhouse gas and energy use that come from infrastructure. According to the United Nations, infrastructure creates approximately 30% of energy-related greenhouse gas emmissions.
Accelerate Wind, BlocPower, Conservation Labs, Ecolibrium, ElectricFish, Hello Energy, Runwithit Synthetics Synthetics, VIA and Vutility are the newly minted cohort members.
AWS also gave awards to eight public sector partners. Those are part of a much larger list of partner award winners.
It named Slalom its Education Partner of the Year.
AWS named BJSS its Healthcare Partner of the Year.
AWS gave Cardinality.ai its award for State or Local Government Partner of the Year.
AWS named Databricks its Federal Government Partner of the Year.
AWS named Databricks its Federal Government Partner of the Year.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its compliance and professional services support for public sector partners.
AWS at its annual re:Invent 2022 conference this week announced the global expansion of multiple partner programs that help serve government customers. The hyperscaler has brought its public sector-focused security and compliance program and professional services initiative into four new countries, respectively.
Jeff Kratz, general manager of worldwide public sector partners at AWS, said his team is focusing more on enabling speedier, more secure response to customer needs. He said that stemmed directly from partner feedback.
AWS’ Jeff Kratz
“Today, public sector customers are facing a variety of challenges — increased cybersecurity threats and tightening budgets to name a few. Additionally, over the last few years as a result of the pandemic, governments have had to move faster than ever before to support citizens,” Kratz told Channel Futures. “My team and I don’t expect this pace of transformation to slow — in fact, we think citizens will want to see even more increased speed and accessibility in the coming years.”
AWS also announced nine companies that have earned a spot in its exclusive new sustainability cohort. It also unveiled its public sector partner awards.
Scroll through the 14 images above to see the latest news and awards for AWS public sector partners.
Also check out Channel Futures’ Day coverage of re:Invent 2022.
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