Tech Data kicks off second wave of AWS Practice Builder scheme

Tech Data has rolled out the second wave of its AWS Practice Builder scheme as it looks to get more resellers into a position to sell public cloud services.

The distributor has been running the programme – which takes resellers from scratch to the point where they can bill for services in four months – since June and has now reached the stage where it wants to bring a fresh wave of partners on board.

Those that signed up in the first wave will continue to progress through the programme to get to the point where they can qualify as AWS Select tier partners, but the distie has capacity to take on more to follow their example.

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the first phase of the AWS Path and, having proved it works, we are paving the way for the next group of resellers,” said Matt Child, managing director, advanced solutions at Tech Data, UK and Ireland.

“The methodology is tried and tested and with demand for AWS services still growing in both the commercial and public sectors, we are preparing to bring more resellers on board.”

The distributor shared the thoughts of some of those that have been going through the programme, with the responses indicating that the months since the June launch had been spent fruitfully.

“Working with Tech Data and having their support, guidance and training has enabled DSI to get skilled up to become an official AWS partner, as well as helping accelerate our training,” said Dave Lyons, technical director at DSI. “One of our employees completed their Cloud Practitioner course in three weeks and is currently 80% of the way through their Solutions Architect training.”

Andrew Denton, head of pre-sales at Jigsaw24.com, said the distributor had helped the firm and its internal teams gain the expertise needed to push towards AWS Select partner status.

Tech Data has been looking to improve cloud skills across the channel for more than two years after launching its Cloud Practice Builder, with the aim of helping resellers get to grips with the technology and skilled up around some of the leading vendors in the public cloud space.

The Tech Data announcement comes just days before AWS kicks off a three-week virtual re:Invent conference that has several partner sessions, including a keynote from Doug Yeum, head of worldwide channels and alliances at Amazon Web Services. It takes place next week.