New AWS Awards Single Out Public Sector APN Members

Amazon Web Services honored partners with its inaugural AWS Public Sector Competency and Region Awards at AWS re:Invent 2019 in Las Vegas.

Amazon Web Services honored partners with its inaugural AWS Public Sector Competency and Region Awards at AWS re:Invent 2019 in Las Vegas.

The awards were based on partners’ success with their AWS competencies, demonstration of Amazon’s leadership principles, engagement with the AWS Partner Network (APN) and “customer-obsessed” results.

Here are the winners:

Education Competency Public Sector Consulting Partner Award: DLT

Education Competency Public Sector Technology Partner Award: Ellucian

Nonprofit Competency Public Sector Consulting Partner Award: JHC Technology

Nonprofit Competency Public Sector Technology Partner Award: Classy

Government Competency Public Sector Consulting Partner Award: General Dynamics IT

Government Competency Public Sector Technology Partner Award: Socrata

Big Data Public Sector Consulting Partner Award: Onica

Big Data Public Sector Technology Partner Award: Splunk and Sumo Logic

Migration Public Sector Consulting Partner Award: Smarttronix

Migration Public Sector Technology Partner Award: New Relic

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Public Sector Consulting Partner Award: Novetta

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Public Sector Technology Partner Award: C3

Asia Pacific Region Public Sector Partner Award: Technology One

Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean Region Public Sector Partner Award: Avanxo

Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region Public Sector Partner Award: Cloudreach

Read on to catch up on other partner news from AWS re:Invent

Deloitte’s ‘Safe Passage’ Program For SAP Customers

Deloitte launched a “Safe Passage” Program for SAP customers in collaboration with AWS.

The cloud services and solutions are designed to enable SAP-enabled companies to move any SAP application to the AWS cloud and for fast migration to SAP S/4HANA.

The goal is to help companies evolve to become a “Kinetic Enterprise” — an enterprise that is always ready to respond “amidst the rapid evolution of business, technology, industry, economic and geopolitical environments,” according to Deloitte.

Deloitte also is expanding its Deloitte Reimagine Platform -- a portfolio of 60-plus SAP cloud apps for internet of things (IoT), machine learning and advanced analytics – with new applications that run exclusively on AWS. They include the Deloitte IoT-enabled blockchain with SAP on AWS, which is designed to optimize product traceability while protecting transparency through transactional integrity using native AWS services such as Amazon QuickSight and AWS Lambda.

New AWS Competency Partners

AWS launched its new Public Safety and Disaster Response Competency with 17 consulting partners in place: 1901 Group, Abt Associates, ArdentMC, BAE Systems, Coalfire, CTAC, ECS, Element 84, Escala24x7, GDIT, Maxar Technologies, Myappsoftware, OneGlobe, PA Consulting, Verizon, VoiceFoundry and World Wide Technology.

The AWS Retail Competency launched with 50 APN members, including consulting partners 3Hold Technologies, CoreCompete, Daemon Solutions, Deloitte, IBM, Mobiquity, Onica, Peak, Pivotree, SoftServe and TensorIoT. Technology partners with the competency are Amperity, Amplitude, Aptos ONE, Balance Innovations, Braze, Bringg, Capillary Technologies, Censhare AG, CleverTap, Cloudinary, Contentful, ContentSquare, Cordial, Databricks, Domo, Epsagon, Fractal Analytics, Infor, Llamasoft, Looker, Magento Commerce, Manhattan Associates, Manthan Software, MicroStrategy, MoEngage, mParticle, New Relic, Pagely, Rigado, Segment, Singular, Snowflake, Talend Cloud, TIBCO, Trax, UltraServe, ViSenze, VTEX and XY.

AWS Outposts And Ingress Routing Partners

AWS announced the heavily anticipated general availability of the native version of AWS Outposts, its fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, application programming interfaces and tools to customer premises.

Consulting partners for AWS Outposts are 2nd Watch, Accenture, Bespin Global, Blazeclan Technologies, Blue Sentry, Booz Allen Hamilton/Aquilent, Candid Partners, Classmethod, Cloudreach, Cognizant, Contino, Deloitte, DXC Technology, Edrans, Enimbos Global Services S.L., GS Neotek | WiseN, HCL Technologies, Hitachi Vantara, Infosys, Iret | cloudpack, Linke, Logicworks, Mantalus, Megazone Cloud, nClouds, NEC, Nomura Research Institute, NTT, Onica, Pythian, Rackspace, Slalom, Smartronix, Sourced Group, Storm Reply, Tata Consulting Services, Tech Mahindra, Versent, Version I, Virtusa and Wipro.

Technology partners that have been tested on Outposts to provide integrated storage, networking, security, and industry-specific solutions are Cisco, Citrix, Cohesity, Druva, Dynatrace and Veritas. Independent software vendors whose solutions that have been tested and validated on AWS Outposts are GE Healthcare and OSI Soft.

In 2020, APN Technology Partners will be able to validate their solutions in the Outposts lab and customer environment under the AWS Outposts Ready program.

The newly launched Amazon virtual private cloud (VPC) ingress routing helps customers more easily integrate third-party network and security appliances into their network. Partners with virtual appliances that currently support it include 128 Technology, Aviatrix, Barracuda, Check Point, Cisco, Citrix Systems, FireEye, Fortinet, Forcepoint, HashiCorp, IBM Security, Lastline, NetScout Systems, Palo Alto Networks, ShieldX Networks, Sophos, Trend Micro, Valtix, Vectra and Versa Networks.

NetScout Customer Win With PropertyRoom.com

Westford, Mass.-based NetScout Systems announced that PropertyRoom.com chose the service assurance, security and business analytics company to monitor its hybrid cloud on AWS by transforming packet data into smart data.

PropertyRoom.com selected the NetScoutVirtual nGeniusONE and vSTREAM solutions, along with Amazon VPC ingress routing enhancements and traffic mirroring, to help ensure application and service performance across its data centers and AWS environments.

“After migrating to AWS, we needed a solution that could work with AWS to further increase performance and security monitoring,” PropertyRoom.com CEO Andrew Nash said in a statement. “After migrating to AWS, we needed a solution that could work with AWS to further increase performance and security monitoring. NetScout helped us quickly identify the root cause of server and application issues while reducing our overall costs.”

PropertyRoom.com’s IT team, which monitors east/west traffic running in the data center and on AWS in addition to north/south traffic between on-premises and the cloud, now can pinpoint the network, session, enabler, database, application or other service performance issues so they can be corrected.

Alert Logic Integrates With AWS IAM Access Analyzer

Houston-based Alert Logic, a managed threat detection and response company, unveiled the first of several planned integrations with the new AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Access Analyzer.

AWS IAM Access Analyzer, launched at re:Invent, is a new feature that makes it easier for security teams and administrators to ensure their policies only provide the intended access to AWS services and resources such as compute instances and storage buckets.

Alert Logic’s initial integration, designed to improve customer security in cloud environments, will notify businesses via the Alert Logic Console that an externally-shared resource must be verified by a customer as being authorized and having appropriate permissions.

"Visibility is key to any threat detection effort, particularly in dynamic cloud and hybrid IT environments," Chris Noell, head of product management for Alert Logic, said in a statement. "By notifying customers in near real-time of the resource being shared externally, we allow IT teams to respond rapidly when necessary thereby thwarting or minimizing the impact of costly, damaging and potentially high-profile breaches."

InterVision Earns AWS Premier Consulting Partner Status

InterVision has achieved AWS Premier Consulting Partner status, the APN’s top tier for partners.

“We have always felt confident in our cloud capabilities, but obtaining AWS Premier Consulting Partner status is validation of our ability to lead clients on a successful cloud journey,” InterVision CEO Aaron Stone said in a statement. “Achieving AWS Premier Consulting Partner status recognizes our deep bench of AWS-trained and -certified consultants, project management and professional services teams who consistently deliver measurable outcomes using AWS services.”

The St. Louis-based IT service provider also has AWS DevOps, storage, government and education competencies.

CIS Debuts New Benchmarks, Hardened Images

The Center for Internet Security (CIS), an AWS technology partner, announced new benchmarks and hardened images on AWS Marketplace to help cloud customers remain secure.

The East Greenbush, N.Y.-based CIS launched a new Department of Defense, STIG-compliant CIS benchmark and hardened image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, along with new CIS hardened images for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.

Other hardened images for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CentOS 8 and Oracle Linux 8 will be released in coming weeks, according to CIS.

AWS Marketplace lists more than 24 CIS hardened images in all regions, including the GovCloud (U.S.) regions and AWS for the Intelligence Community.

Unisys Adds New Security Features For CloudForte For AWS

Unisys is now offering two new CloudForte capabilities for AWS: the Unisys Cloud Compliance Director and Cloud Architecture Navigator.

CloudForte is the Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys’ solution for automating and accelerating secure digital transformation and cloud operations. The new features further help customers enhance security and optimize operations for workloads delivered on AWS and in hybrid- and multi-cloud environments.

Cloud Compliance Director provides an automated capability for cloud security posture management by removing security blind spots proactively. It incorporates a continually updated database of key security regulations and constantly monitors for compliance, showing status through an easy-to-read graphical dashboard.

Cloud Architecture Navigator takes a phased approach to cloud optimization. It supports continual review and optimization of how cloud implementations match changing technology and fluctuating workload requirements across cost, security, performance, reliability and operations.

Aruba Simplifies Branch Deployments With AWS

Aruba Networks unveiled the integration of the Aruba SD-WAN solution with the newly announced AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager to simplify the deployment and management of networks connecting remote branch locations to Amazon VPCs.

Customers deploying the Aruba SD-WAN solution alongside AWS will have the ability to monitor and manage connectivity between AWS resources and their on-premises locations using either Aruba Central or AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager in a simple and intuitive manner, according to Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company based in Santa Clara, Calif. Aruba Central automates the process of setting up and managing these networks using application programming interfaces to interact with AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager.

Aviatrix CloudWAN Debuts

Aviatrix unwrapped Aviatrix CloudWAN, a new service that embraces native cloud services from AWS -- including the new AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager -- and extends Aviatrix’s intelligent orchestration and control to existing Cisco IOS branch office routers.

Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Aviatrix is an advanced networking and security services provider for multi-cloud enterprises.

Aviatrix CloudWAN enables optimal-path and lowest-latency routing to applications running on AWS, according to the company. It uses customers' Aviatrix cloud-native networks to reach their existing Cisco IOS branch routers and directly reconfigure virtual private network settings and border gateway protocol routes to point to AWS and leverage AWS Global Accelerator. Customers leverage existing Cisco branch office routers without requiring expensive hardware or software upgrades, Aviatrix said.

“CloudWAN extends Aviatrix’s intelligent orchestration and control reach beyond the cloud core to enterprise branch offices in a way that enables Cisco branch routers deployed worldwide to connect to AWS with the least latency possible,” Sherry Wei, Aviatrix’s founder and chief product officer, said in a statement.

Logz.io Introduces Open Source-Based Cloud Observability Platform Powered By ELK And Grafana

Logz.io launched a new cloud observability platform powered by the open-source ELK and Grafana.

Delivered as a fully managed, developer-centric cloud service, the platform allows engineers to reduce time to resolution, increase productivity and integrate security into DevOps workflows by providing a single pane of glass for monitoring, troubleshooting and securing distributed cloud workloads and Kubernetes.

Logz.io, based in Boston and Tel Aviv, is an open source-based log management and cloud security solution provider.

“As today’s builders and creators, developers rely on open source for its flexibility, creativity and innovation, but scaling, managing and hosting open-source monitoring and logging tools can be resource and time-intensive,” Logz.io CEO Tomer Levy said in a statement. “We firmly believe developers are most productive when they are free to use community-driven, open-source tools, but we recognize the challenges that come along with scaling these solutions to fit businesses. We built the Logz.io Cloud Observability Platform because we want every software engineer in every company to have access to tools like ELK and Grafana without being bogged down by maintenance or scale.”

ExtraHop’s New Cloud Security Integration

ExtraHop’s Reveal(x) Cloud now automates quarantining of compromised Amazon (EC2) instances and accelerates forensic investigations in the cloud with continuous packet capture.

The Seattle-based ExtraHop specializes in cloud-native network detection and response. Its new integration allows security operations teams to create a range of customizable response automations, from quarantining and blocking to ticketing and tagging.

“Though AWS supports strong controls, companies are responsible for securing their own workloads, which is a daunting task with the current cybersecurity skills shortage and nascent cloud security market," Jesse Rothstein, ExtraHop’s cofounder and chief technology officer, said in a statement. "Our Reveal(x) solution provides SecOps teams with advanced visibility, detection and response for hybrid environments.”