AWS Introduces Security Accreditation Exam, Touts Upcoming Industrial Software Partner Program

Amazon Web Services professionals can now validate their skills in protecting data and securing workloads deployed on the world's leading public cloud.

The AWS Certified Security–Specialty exam went live Monday to test partners' abilities around incident response, logging and monitoring, infrastructure security, identity and access management, and data protection. Applicants must hold an AWS Associate or Cloud Practitioner certification and are recommended to have at least five years of experience with security solutions, with two years securing AWS workloads.

Amazon also Monday introduced the Industrial Software Competency Program for validating third-party industrial applications built on its platform. That program will launch later this year.

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To achieve the security specialty, AWS professionals must demonstrate knowledge of specialized data classifications and AWS data protection mechanisms, data encryption methods and implementation mechanisms, secure internet protocols, and a working knowledge of Amazon's security services and features that secure production environments.

The test also evaluates familiarity with compliance regulations across different regions and countries, as well as an understanding of the trade-offs among cost, security and deployment complexity.

Because the security exam helps partners prove the expertise of their engineers, the team at TriNimbus, an Amazon partner based in Vancouver, Canada, will pursue that accreditation, Jarrod Levitan, TriNimbus' chief cloud officer, told CRN.

"Security has a large footprint on AWS and it’s a requirement of every system, especially with the increasing scrutiny and regulations on privacy," Levitan said. "Many organizations require compliance."

At Hannover Messe 2018, the world's largest industrial technology trade show that kicked off Monday in Germany, AWS announced the industrial competency for Amazon Partner Network (APN) technology partners delivering software that drives manufacturing processes.

"To receive the AWS Competency designation, APN partners must undergo rigorous technical validation related to industry-specific technology, as well as an assessment of the security, performance and reliability of their AWS solutions," Renata Melnyk, partner program manager for vertical and business applications, wrote on an AWS blog.

The coming program will be divided into sub-verticals around product design, production design and production/operations.

In validating those technology partners, Amazon hopes to give customers greater confidence in choosing solutions from the tens of thousands of developers in the AWS Partner Network, Melnyk said.

Amazon is also delivering new services focused on industrial Internet of Things and machine learning to complement those solutions.

In 2016, Amazon introduced an IoT competency for partners developing and implementing applications powering intelligent factories and other use cases for edge devices.

That program helps partners differentiate their products and services with a dedicated brand and logo they can use in marketing materials, and preferred access to market development funds and other business, technical and marketing resources.