I am thrilled to share that Fujitsu has recently achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) migration competency and DevOps competency.
As the AWS Lead Domain Architect for Fujitsu Oceania, I have been leading the local technical team in our journey to obtain the Migration Competency for Fujitsu globally.
What is the AWS Migration and DevOps Competency?
The AWS Migration Competency is awarded to partners who have delivered significant migration projects within the last three years. The competency recognises Fujitsu’s industry-leading AWS migration and transformation services, which are helping customers fast-track their cloud adoption journey. As a multi-cloud partner with deep expertise in cloud migration, we were able to demonstrate this with a large number of migration and application transformation AWS case studies.
In addition, the DevOps competency recognises Fujitsu’s exceptional cloud native infrastructure and application development and management in creating rapid proofs of concept and minimum viable products for client business problems.
What does this mean for our customers?
Often customers see that a partner has certain competencies and wonder what they mean. Well, it means we can prove that we can help you achieve a successful migration and progress your cloud adoption journey. It means we have done this before.
These AWS accreditations will benefit Fujitsu’s customers by accelerating their cloud transformation initiatives. This is particularly important for businesses that continue to face unpredictable market conditions due to external factors. Being able to rapidly launch new products, services, features and customer experiences with support from Fujitsu and AWS could be crucial for businesses that are recovering from, or capitalising on, recent market events.
With its newly enhanced AWS partnership status, Fujitsu can offer customers incentives and accelerators, such as financial assistance or collaborative proof of concept (POC) work in partnership with Fujitsu and AWS, to help them accelerate their value delivery and reduce their total cost of ownership.
Customers will have the benefit of both local and global Fujitsu and AWS expertise with a consistent level of migration excellence. This will lead to faster and more cost-effective cloud migrations that will deliver:
- A faster return on investment, with co-funded incentives and accelerators
- The ability to accelerate innovation with Fujitsu’s Digital Transformation Centre, coupled with AWS cloud-native services such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
- Access to Fujitsu business and cloud transformation experts to reimagine business opportunities
- Fujitsu’s proven AWS adoption accelerator pathways, which are underpinned by Fujitsu’s Springboard for AWS, built with cloud native AWS technology
- The ability to leverage a trusted multi-cloud partner that can accelerate the business to AWS and any other cloud platform as part of the organisational multi or hybrid cloud strategy.
The Audit Process
The competency has a full set of criteria that a partner must be able to demonstrate to pass the audit. These include detailing what Fujitsu can offer, how we work with AWS, and how our sales teams, architects and engineers acquire the most up-to-date knowledge of AWS services.
It is validated by an external third-party auditor assigned by AWS. In our case, this was Information Security Systems International (ISSI). As this is a global competency, we collaborated with teams across our various regions, including the United States, Europe and India, to present our migration competency. With the differences in time zones, we worked on the audit through the night, from 10pm to 2am New Zealand time, to accommodate for the auditor and our global teams.
One major hiccup we faced, was that our audit was postponed by a power outage in Mumbai two hours before the scheduled presentation time. It was a bit of a let-down as our team was all ready and prepared to present after months of gathering the required information. These things happen sometimes, and we regrouped the following week to get the audit done.
Our Journey with AWS
Although this is not the first major milestone in our AWS Partnership, it has certainly been one of the hardest. In Fujitsu Oceania, we have been an Advanced AWS partner for many years and a certified Managed Services Provider (MSP) prior to achieving this accomplishment. Over the last few years, we have also achieved Well Architected, Public Sector and Solution Provider competencies. We don’t do things lightly and this was a significant demonstration of our commitment to AWS as a partner and its platform.
At Fujitsu Oceania we have been investing heavily in our Multi-Cloud portfolio, with a significant push to take our customers on their cloud journey with confidence. This has meant that we have invested in our AWS capability significantly over the past few years and will continue to do so as we see more and more customers seeking to transform their IT landscapes to a more modern, cost effective and flexible cloud platform.
Conclusion
The MSP, DevOps and Migration Competency are the hardest competencies to achieve with AWS and organisations must undertake a very rigorous process to achieve any of them.
If you’re a partner interested in obtaining the migration competency, then my advice would be to:
- Make sure you know the case studies
- Align them to the Well Architected Framework
- Review the checklist
- Rehearse the Audit
- Be prepared to be questioned hard on how you work with your customers and how you take them on the journey!
If you’re looking for a migration partner with proven experience and capability to take you into this new and exciting cloud world, please reach out to us to find out how we can take you on the journey.
