AWS: Certifications make partners more competitive

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has surveyed partners to get feedback on its belief that those that engage with training and certification are in a stronger position as a result.

To build a fuller picture of the value and impact of training and how it helps partners ease the skills crisis, the cloud player worked with ESG to conduct a global survey of partners.

The headline finding was that 90% of AWS partners agreed that having staff go through AWS training and certification put them in a better competitive position to succeed over the next three to five years.

It also became clear that speaking to an expert is important to customers, with more than 80% of partners stating that it made a difference to have certified staff on hand.

“Ingram Micro proudly surpassed the 200 AWS certifications milestone this year with the help of the training and certification team at AWS,” said Tim Fitzgerald, vice-president of global infrastructure as a service (IaaS) at Ingram Micro.

“Building the best cloud infrastructure requires deep technical knowledge and experience and we are committed to constantly strengthening our ability to offer partners and their customers a high level of skill and technical expertise globally,” he added.

On the skills front, more than half of those surveyed indicated that investing in training and certifications helped them recruit and retain cloud talent. Three-quarters of those quizzed added that having AWS trained and certified staff improved their ability to innovate and stay competitive.

Steven Kuei, general manager of eCloudrover, said training and certification provided a framework to help staff develop their skills.

“AWS training and certification is necessary for our employees in their career journey and we have designed AWS Certification as a metric of employee development plans. With this focus on AWS training courses and specialty certifications, our employees’ cloud skills are continually improved,” he said.

In a blog post sharing the findings, Mark Daigle, director of partner training at AWS, called on more partners to look at the benefits of training and certifications.

“AWS training and certification helps AWS partners deepen their AWS knowledge and skills, differentiate their business and better serve their customers. We offer more than 500 free, self-paced digital courses and on-demand webinars and classroom training courses for business and technical professionals,” he wrote.

“AWS partners attribute a positive return on investment to AWS training and certification, including improvements in business and operational efficiencies, recruitment and retention,” he added.