Repeated Success : AWS MSP Winning Formula Revealed

Introduction

In this post, we'll be taking a closer look at AWS and the best practices it employs to manage its partners. These best practices help to differentiate partners in the marketplace and ensure that customers receive the best possible service.

AWS's commitment to quality is evident in how it works with its partners, providing them with the tools and support they need to offer exceptional customer service. If you're an AWS customer, you can trust that AWS and AWS MSP partners dedicate themselves to delivering the best possible experience.

About AWS

IT spending on cloud-related managed and professional services is predicted to increase from 39% to 53% by 2026.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services, including storage, computing power, and database management. It is a subsidiary of Amazon.com and is used by businesses and individuals worldwide to host websites, store data, and run applications.

AWS is known for its scalability, reliability, and ease of use, making it a popular choice for organisations of all sizes.

About the AWS MSP program

MSPs are expected to manage 65% of the public cloud spending.

The AWS MSP (Managed Service Provider) Program is an excellent opportunity for AWS partners to showcase their expertise in managing, delivering, and optimising AWS services for their clients.

With the program's recognition, customers can trust that MSP partners will provide high-quality managed and consulting services on the AWS platform. MSP partners enable customers to focus on growing their business while the partner takes care of the management and optimisation of AWS services.

The MSP program is for only the most elite of AWS partners and, as such, has a very high bar to entry, covering some 125 operational and technical controls providing extraordinarily granular practice scrutiny.

It's reassuring to know that a third-party auditor audits AWS MSP partners to ensure that they maintain the ever-changing benchmark.

MSP Benefits

As businesses continue to seek cloud-native solutions, it becomes increasingly complex to migrate legacy workloads to the cloud or manage hybrid workloads.

Many organisations are turning to MSPs to mitigate risk and optimise internal resources. Businesses can focus on their core value and reduce security risks by partnering with an AWS MSP partner.

According to IDC, IT spending on cloud-related managed and professional services is predicted to increase from 39% to 53% by 2026.

Also, MSPs are expected to manage 65% of the public cloud spend on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).

About Nasstar

As a long-standing AWS Premier Partner and?one of the first UK AWS partners to obtain the AWS MSP competency (as Smart421), we specialise in helping our customers increase agility, reduce costs and adapt to their needs through the power of the cloud.

With over 50 AWS-certified individuals, including an?AWS Ambassador , and AWS Competencies in Government, Data and Analytics, and DevOps, Nasstar helps customers like Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Rail Delivery Group (RDG) get workloads to the cloud rapidly and with confidence.

At Nasstar, we solve more than technology problems. We create competitive advantage, empowering organisations to work faster and smarter - always staying one step ahead on their AWS journey.

Nassstar Success

As an AWS MSP for almost a decade , we're committed to helping our clients continuously evolve and achieve their business goals.

Therefore, we were delighted to be recognised with the renewal of the AWS MSP again this year - this time against the latest iteration of its framework - a significant step-change from previous years.

Legacy Frameworks

In the past, a maximum score of 1000 was available; mandatory controls subtracted 200 points if not met, while optional controls provided 20 to 40 points based on their impact. A minimum score of 900 was required to pass the audit, so almost every mandatory control had to be met, or the score bolstered with some optional controls.

This scoring was unnecessarily complex, and the controls have undergone changes over time and no longer seem practical to be classified and arranged in the same way as before.

Framework update

Version 5.0.2, published in June 2023, was a much-needed rationalisation of the program’s framework. Due to our early renewal date, we would have been in the minority to have been certified through the new framework.

This iteration has dramatically changed in the following core areas:?

• Structure. The framework's design has been improved to align better with the operational and technical underpinnings of the program. Although the quantity of controls has increased, this update will undoubtedly help as the framework evolves.
• Scoring. The scoring process has been simplified significantly from previous versions. Each control now has just a mandatory or recommended requirement, and AWS Partners will be assessed against all requirements in the checklist during audits. However, partners only need to present detailed evidence for mandatory requirements. AWS reserves the right to introduce compulsory new requirements at any time. In most cases, net new requirements will first be published as recommended and then promoted to mandatory in a subsequent major version release of the validation checklist.
• Standards-Driven. The framework is now aligned with the?AWS Well Architected ?architectural best practices. This update makes sense as the mainstay of AWS best practices and will help any development under the existing six pillars in the future.

Our experience executing against the new framework has been a better, more intuitive experience than previous audits. However, the quality of the framework was sketchy in places, particularly around new controls. If we had started on version 5.0.2 instead of 5.0, the process would have been much smoother. Nonetheless, a job well done by the AWS MSP team!

Winning Formula

Maintaining the AWS MSP competency is a team game. Whether directly or indirectly, everyone in and supporting the AWS practice is impacted; whether working as an SME or temporarily backfilling the work of an SME, everyone is crucial to a successful outcome. Many thanks again, team! #teamworkmakesthedreamwork

A considerable benefit was access to a skilled AWS technical account manager (TAM) well-versed in the MSP program and AWS platform. Many thanks to our Senior TAM,?Keith Churchill , who we consider an extension of our AWS practice.

AWS TAMs are exclusively available to customers who have purchased AWS Enterprise Support. They provide personalised technical guidance and support to customers to help them optimise their AWS infrastructure and achieve their business goals.

At Nasstar, we take competency applications and renewals seriously, treating them like software projects. We utilise standard development tools such as Jira for task management and Kanban board reporting, and Confluence for collaborative documentation spaces.

We prioritise control reviews early to identify any risks to a successful audit. We ensure that we:?

1. Have adequate referenceable workload coverage for the timeframe in scope.
2. Have sufficient customer references for the timeframe in scope.
3. Are covered by all time-bound controls, controls that require evidence for the last x months, etc.
4. Prioritise mandatory controls, then move on to recommended controls - mindful that today's recommended controls are tomorrow's mandatory controls!

We assign each control to a subject matter expert (SME) in the relevant practice area. Our team ensures that each control is reviewed thoroughly and estimates are provided for any additional work that may be required. This process helps us to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to maintain a robust and efficient system.

Fortunately, as a mature AWS practice, Nasstar is well-versed in keeping in step and even driving industry trends. So, we stood poised to check off many recommended controls without additional effort or insight into the checklist.

We took advantage of the recent update to enhance our processes and documentation repositories in line with the MSP. Our goal was to simplify future audits and ensure that everything runs just as smoothly in subsequent years.

Common sense recommendations for success include the following:

• Maintain a separate audit and operation documentation space, linking the audit space to the operational space, with only minimal narrative for contextual use during the audit. This decouples the audit management from the day job while minimising the effort needed at the point of audit.
• Ensure multiple SMEs are trained on any given topic, workload, and control during the audit.
• Cite commonly used internally developed reference designs which partially or fully complete a control. Maintain, socialise and link to these from the audit space.
• Providing an investment estimate for any additional time needed to develop the practice to meet the framework, including any new updates.
• Engaging an AWS TAM early into the process with frequent checkpoints.
• Communicate the success and its benefits internally.
• Reward success!

Summary

In this post, we explored AWS and the best practices it employs to manage its partners.

Also, we looked at Nasstar as an outstanding example of a mature MSP partner with insight into what makes them successful in retaining this elite AWS partner competency.

About Me

As an experienced and Technical Practice Lead, I have a substantial history of delivering innovative cloud solutions and driving technical excellence in dynamic organisations.

With deep expertise in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, I am well-equipped to enable successful design and deployment.

My extensive knowledge covers various aspects of cloud, the Internet, security technologies, and heterogeneous systems such as Windows, Unix, virtualisation, application and systems management, networking, and automation.

I am passionate about promoting innovative technology, sustainability, best practices, concise operational processes, and quality documentation.

Note: These views are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation, employer or company mentioned within the article.