How the partner network acts as a force multiplier for AWS in India

For leading cloud company Amazon Web Services (AWS), building a partner network in India to address the market requirements has always been a priority. The partnerships include deploying cloud solutions as well as innovating for different industries, no matter their size.

This engagement with the partner network also helps AWS develop solutions specific to a particular industry. Meanwhile, it is ramping up generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) initiatives and programmes as part of the partnerships.

In an e-mail interview with EnterpriseStory, Praveen Sridhar, Head of Partner Business, AWS India and South Asia said, “AWS in India continues to invest in both technology companies and solution system integrators or consulting partner companies, taking their solutions from India to the world.”

Edited excerpts.

Enterprise Story (ES): What roles are partners playing or AWS in India?

Praveen Sridhar (PS): Partners are our primary and most significant force multiplier. We believe that partners can use our technology to innovate and provide our clients with solutions by bringing in their use cases and industrial knowledge.

We believe that partners also play an important role in our generative AI strategy to help organisations of all sizes and developers of all skill levels build and scale generative AI applications with security and privacy, and ensure responsible AI. Our partners are trusted AWS experts developing specialised practices focused on horizontal and vertical use cases around the world to assist customers in meeting their generative AI objectives.

Partnerships with industry leaders like HCLTech and IBM aim to accelerate the adoption of AWS's advanced generative AI portfolio, enabling enterprises to build secure applications and leverage AI responsibly. Additionally, initiatives like the Innovation Lab, launched in collaboration with IBM at the IBM Client Experience Center in Bengaluru, provide clients with a platform to explore joint solutions and test prototypes, fostering innovation across industries.

ES: How does AWS select its partners in India?

PS: AWS provides tiers (Select, Advanced, Premier) to recognise organisations that have proven technical expertise and demonstrated customer experience. We also recognise the best partners in each tier offering more benefits and resources as partners grow with AWS. The tiers are:

• AWS Select Tier Services Partners are partners with trained and certified individuals, as well as customer experience.
• AWS Advanced Tier Services Partners are partners with a strong team of trained and certified technical individuals, and have proven customer experience.
• AWS Premier Tier Services Partners are the most experienced partners and are recognised as leaders in their respective geographical, vertical, or horizontal markets. They have deep technical expertise through multiple partner programmes and demonstrated success working with a large number of customers at scale.

ES: What are some of the key focus areas for AWS with its partners?

PS: We have launched different partner programmes and are continuously expanding our partner network to help partners succeed and better serve their customers.

AWS has a partner network programme called the APN programme for technology and consulting businesses that leverage AWS to build solutions and services for our customers. This programme helps companies build, market, and sell their AWS offerings by providing valuable business, technical, and marketing support.

Within this programme, we have the APN Customer Engagements Programme, which enables our customers to identify and engage with qualified APN consulting partners for specific AWS projects and workloads. By leveraging this programme, customers can ensure that they have the right partner for their specific needs, and partners can gain access to new business opportunities and expand their expertise in delivering AWS services and solutions.

Similarly, we have an AWS Competency Programme that validates and promotes AWS partners with demonstrated AWS technical expertise and proven customer success. Obtaining an AWS Competency enables partners to market and distinguish their businesses from AWS customers by demonstrating their competence in specialised areas across sectors, use cases, and workloads.

The AWS ISV Accelerate Programme provides independent software vendors (ISVs) with technical, marketing, and sales support to grow their businesses on AWS. Meanwhile, AWS Marketplace Channel Programmes simplify collaboration between ISVs and consulting partners to enhance deal closure and customer reach. The SaaS Factory Programme offers business and technical resources for technology partners to build, migrate, and optimise SaaS solutions on AWS. Additionally, the AWS Small and Medium Business (SMB) Competency helps SMB customers find validated partner offerings, including managed services and SaaS products tailored to their unique needs.

ES: How is AWS upskilling its partner network in AI and Gen AI?

PS: It is essential to make sure partner teams have received the most recent technology training, certification, and expertise. We provide registered partners with certification voucher programmes as part of our investments in talent development and certification. AWS offers more than 100 courses and learning resources on AI, ML, and generative AI.

Since 2017, AWS has trained more than 5.5 million individuals in India and 8.3 million across Asia-Pacific and Japan with cloud skills. Additionally, AWS recently announced a collection of free and low-cost training courses to help people understand, implement, and begin using generative AI. We encourage partners to select the skill in which they desire to excel, whether it is industry- or solution-area-specific.

ES: Can you talk about the success stories through partner associations for AWS in India?

PS: We are building long-term relationships with partners, some of which we have had since day one.

ShellKode is a born-in-the-cloud partner, recognised as an AWS Generative AI Competency Partner. Leveraging its deep expertise in foundation models, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning, ShellKode delivers scalable and impactful AI solutions. Since becoming an AWS Generative AI Competency Partner, ShellKode has built over 40 industrialised solutions and onboarded 100+ customers.

AWS has a multi-year strategic collaboration agreement with Rapyder Cloud Solutions for developing generative AI solutions to help customers gain new insights from their data easier and faster.