AWS Telecom Competency

AWS Partner has a company overview presentation that sets the stage for customer conversations about their AWS Telecom capabilities and showcases AWS Partner’s demonstration capabilities.

Presentation contains information about the AWS Partner’s AWS Telecom capabilities, including AWS specific differentiators, e.g., what is unique about the AWS Partner’s practice that can only be accomplished leveraging AWS.

Overview presentations contain:

• Company history
• Office locations
• Number of employees
• Customer profile, including number, size, and industries of customers
• Overview of Telecom practice
• Notable AWS projects

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Delivery of presentation by a business development executive at the beginning of the validation session. This should be limited to 15 minutes.

AWS Partner has internal mechanisms for maintaining their consultants' expertise on Telecom-related AWS services and tools.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• List of internal and/or external AWS-focused education events lead by AWS Partner staff (e.g. formal training, lunch and learns, meetups, user groups, etc.) in last 12 months.
• Resources provided by AWS Partner to staff for ongoing AWS skills development

AWS Partner must describe how Telecom opportunities are identified, how their sellers are trained to identify and sell those opportunities, and specific demand generation/lead generation efforts associated to their AWS Telecom practice.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• A description on how the AWS Partner engages with customers, their internal sellers, and AWS sellers if applicable.

AWS Partner must describe how and when they engage with AWS sellers and AWS Solutions Architects.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• A verbal description for how and when they engage AWS sellers or AWS Solutions Architects on an opportunity or in the form of a demonstration of the AWS Opportunity Management tool in AWS Partner Central with sales qualified opportunities submitted (sales qualified = budget, authority, need, timeline, and competition fields completed).

AWS Partner must have a process to ensure that there are sufficient Telecom trained personnel to effectively support customers.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• An established training plan including on-boarding processes that identify job roles (sellers, solutions architects, project managers) and required training paths
• A verbal description of methods used to allocate required resources to Telecom projects

AWS Partner has processes for working with customers to determine and define expected outcomes associated with the projects.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Project deliverable templates or other resources used for project scoping and definition

AWS Partner has processes to determine scope of work with specific criteria defining customer project with expected deliverables.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Project templates or other resources(e.g. RACI Matrix) used for project scoping and definition

AWS Partner has standard Statement of Work (SOW) templates for Telecom projects that can be customized to customer needs.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Default SOW template

AWS Partner assigns Project Manager to each project to ensure project remains on time and within budget.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Documentation to show that Project Managers were assigned to each of the 4 customer example projects.

AWS Partner has processes to document, manage, and respond to requests for changes to the project scope.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Documentation of change management practices

AWS Partner has a customer acceptance process.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Example customer training documents
• SOW language describing handoff responsibilities and acceptance criteria

AWS Partner implements customer satisfaction checkpoints as part of the project plan.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Project plan and customer satisfaction results for milestone-defined checkpoints

Mobile Network's real-time characteristics require network functions (e.g., 5G User Plane Function) to be designed and implemented at AWS Cloud Edge. AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must be experienced in using AWS Edge Services such as one or more of the following for Mobile Network solutions.

• Outposts Rack
• Outposts Server
• Snowball
• Snowcone

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Written description of how each submitted customer example use the specific AWS edge service.

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must be experienced in RAN capacity planning, dimensioning or tracking.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Process documents used for validation, optimization or tracking of radio capacity planning for production networks.

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must be experienced in implementing, integrating or managing Core Network solutions required for 5G or 4G/LTE Mobile Networks in compliance with 3GPP standard interfaces and integration points.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Documentation from reference examples illustrating experience with implementing, integrating or managing 5G or 4G/LTE Core Network solutions in compliance with 3GPP standard interfaces and integration points with clear definitions of AWS Service Partner's responsibilities and deliverables.

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must be experienced in validating interoperability between RAN and Mobile Core vendors.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• AWS Services Partner must provide "plugfest" participation or other customer example interoperability testing examples of validation between RAN and Mobile Core vendors.

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must be experienced in Core capacity planning or dimensioning.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Example of the process used for validation and optimization of Core Network capacity planning from customer references, illustrating approach to capacity planning across network, compute, storage and databases.

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must implement appropriate data security, governance and controls for the different types of data processed in Telco networks according to the implementation (RAN or Core Network), the use case (e.g., consumer network and private 5G) and Geo or Mobile Network Operator specific regulations.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Documents, best practices or SOPs on appropriate data security, governance and controls for data processing in Telco Networks.

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must ensure that implementations support latency, throughput and other performance critical Mobile Network KPIs through appropriate technology selection, implementation or managed services.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Example solution design or implementation to meet use case specific customer KPI or example managed service observability of KPIs.

AWS Telco Service Partner must have processes to ensure that there are BSS trained personnel (TMForum certified) to effectively support customers.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• A  description of methods used to allocate required resources to BSS projects and data relating to levels of certification (e.g. TMForum certification)

AWS Telco Services Partner must be implement appropriate data security, governance and controls for the different types of data processed in Telco networks according to the implementation (BSS) and the use case (for example network performance management, real time charging ).

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Describtion of how appropriate data security, governance and controls for the different types of data processed in Telco networks is demonstrated in the provided customer example references.

AWS Telco Service Partner must have processes to ensure that there are BSS trained personnel (TMForum certified) to effectively support customers.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• A  description of methods used to allocate required resources to OSS projects and data relating to levels of certification (e.g. TMForum certification)

AWS Telco Services Partner must implement appropriate data security, governance and controls for the different types of data processed. This includes data integration between systems, for example shipping Data Records (XDRs) to a data lake. All integrated data pipelines between OSS systems and data lakes/data warehouses require appropriate encryption and data management.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Describtion of how appropriate data security, governance and controls for the different types of data processed in Telco networks is demonstrated in the provided customer example references.

When the implementation, migration, integration or managed service supports connections to on-premises facilities, the solution documentation must describe the hybrid connection’s SLA, performance and reliability, and the hybrid connectivity must offer encryption in transit. The solution can offer Direct Connect or VPN over the internet. However, the solution must offer and explain how a private connection can be enabled.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• A technology design or demonstration, including use case examples, or for managed service, observability and process description, from the example customer references submitted.

AWS CaaS partners must demonstrate experience in meeting regulatory compliance for end-customer implementations relevant to all applicable geographical regions. Examples include, but are not limited to: Payment Card Industry Data Standard Security (PCI), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Health Insurance Personal Accountability Act (HIPAA), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In addition, evidence of regulatory compliance of proper handling, including encryption, storage, retention, deletion of interaction recordings of any media type, including, but not limited to voice, video and digital transcripts must be provided for all end-customer implementations. Evidence of regulatory compliance for outbound communications such as, but not limited to, Short Message Service (SMS), voice calls, and social media or digital channels, as well as adherence to requirements for recipients to opt-out of such communications to the extent of applicable, regional requirements.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Documentation of appropriate data management processes which have been implemented and validated according to the required compliances.

AWS Partner must submit architecture diagrams depicting the overall design and deployment of its AWS Partner solution on AWS as well as any other relevant details of the solution for the specific customer in question.

The submitted diagrams are intended to provide context to the AWS Solutions Architect conducting the Technical Validation. It is critical to provide clear diagrams with an appropriate level of detail that enable the AWS Solutions Architect to validate the other requirements listed below.

Each architecture diagram must show:

• All of the AWS services used
• How the AWS services are deployed, including virtual private clouds (VPCs), availability zones, subnets, and connections to systems outside of AWS.
• Elements deployed outside of AWS, e.g. on-premises components, or hardware devices.
• how design scales automatically - Solution adapts to changes in demand. The architecture uses services that automatically scale such as Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Auto Scaling, and AWS Lambda.
• how design has high availability with multi-AZ or multi-region deployment. When intentional tradeoffs have been made (e.g. to optimize cost in favor of high availability), please explain the customer's requirements.

Please provide the following as evidence (required for all provided customer examples):

• An architecture diagram depicting the overall design and deployment of your solution on AWS.
• Explanation of how the major solutions elements will keep running in case of failure.
• Description of how the major solutions elements scale up automatically.

AWS expects all Services Partners to be prepared to create AWS accounts and implement basic security best practices. Even if most of your customer engagements do not require this, you should be prepared in the event you work with a customer who needs you to create new accounts for them.

Establish internal processes regarding how to create AWS accounts on behalf of customers when needed, including:

• When to use root account for workload activities
• Enable MFA on root
• Set the contact information to corporate email address or phone number
• Enable CloudTrail logs in all region and protect CloudTrail logs from accidental deletion with a dedicated S3 bucket

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Documents describing Security engagement SOPs which met all the 4 criteria defined above. Acceptable evidence types are security training documents, internal wikis, or standard operating procedures documents.
• Description of how Secure AWS Account Governance is implemented in one (1) of the submitted customer examples.

Define standard approach to access customer-owned AWS accounts, including:

• Both AWS Management Console access and programmatic access using the AWS Command Line Interface or other custom tools.
• When and how to use temporary credentials such as IAM roles
• Leverage customer's existing enterprise user identities and their credentials to access AWS services through Identity Federation or migrating to AWS Managed Active Directory

Establish best practices around AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and other identity and access management systems, including:

• IAM principals are only granted the minimum privileges necessary. Wildcards in Action and Resource elements should be avoided as much as possible.
• Every AWS Partner individual who accesses an AWS account must do so using dedicated credentials

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Security engagement Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) which met all the 2 criteria defined above. Acceptable evidence types are: security training documents, internal wikis, standard operating procedures documents. Written descriptions in the self-assessment excel is not acceptable.
• Description of how IAM best practices are implemented in one (1) of the submitted customer examples.

AWS Partner has defined metrics for determining the health of each component of the workload and provided the customer with guidance on how to detect operational events based on these metrics.

Establish the capability to run, monitor and improve operational procedure by:

• Defining, collecting and analyzing workload health metrics w/AWS services or 3rd Party tool
• Exporting standard application logs that capture errors and aid in troubleshooting and response to operational events.
• Defining threshold of operational metrics to generate alert for any issues

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Standardized documents or guidance on how to develop customer workload health KPIs with the three components above
• Description of how workload health KPIs are implemented in (1) of the submitted customer examples.

Create a runbook to document routine activities and guide issue resolution process with a list of operational tasks and troubleshooting scenarios covered that specifically addresses the KPI metrics defined in OPE-001.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Standardized documents or runbook met the criteria defined above.

Deployments are tested or otherwise validated before being applied to the production environment. For example, DevOps pipelines used for the project for provisioning resources or releasing software and applications.

Use a consistent approach to deploy to customers including:

• A well-defined testing process before launching in production environment
• Automated testing components

Please provide the following as evidence:

• A deployment checklist example or written descriptions met all the criteria defined above.

Establish internal processes regarding how to secure traffic within VPC, including:

• Security Groups to restrict traffic between Internet and Amazon VPC
• Security Groups to restrict traffic within the Amazon VPC
• Network ACL to restrict inbound and outbound traffic
• Other AWS security services to protect network security

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Written descriptions/documents on network security best practices met the criteria defined above.
• Description of how network security is implementation in one (1) of the submitted customer examples.

Establish internal processes regarding a data encryption policy used across all customer projects

• Summary of any endpoints exposed to the Internet and how traffic is encrypted
• Summary of processes that make requests to external endpoints over the Internet and how traffic is encrypted
• Enforcing encryption at rest. By default you should enable the native encryption features in an AWS service that stores data unless there is a reason not to.

All cryptographic keys are stored and managed using a dedicated key management solution

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Data encryption and key management policy met the criteria defined above.
• Description of how data encryption is implementation in one (1) of the submitted customer examples.

Changes to infrastructure are automated for customer implementation

• Tools like AWS CloudFormation, the AWS CLI, or other scripting tools were used for automation.
• Changes to the production environment were not done using the AWS Management Console.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Written description of deployment automation and an example template (e.g., CloudFormation templates, architecture diagram for CI/CD pipeline) met the criteria defined above.

Incorporate resilience discussion and advise a RTO&PRO target when engaging with customer. Customer acceptance and adoption on RTO/RPO is not required.

• Establish a process to establish workload resilience including:
• RTO & RPO target
• Explanation of the recovery process for the core components of the architecture
• Customer awareness and communication on this topic

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Descriptions or documents on workload resilience guidance met the three criteria defined above
• Description of how resilience is implementation in one (1) of the submitted customer examples including reasons for exception when RTO&RPO is not defined

Determine solution costs using right sizing and right pricing for both technical and business justification.

Conducted TCO analysis or other form of cost modelling to provide the customer with an understanding of the ongoing costs including all the following 3 areas:

• Description of the inputs used to estimate the cost of the solution
• Summary of the estimates or cost model provided to the customer before implementation
• Business value analysis or value stream mapping of AWS solution

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Description of how to develop cost analysis or modeling with the critical components defined above
• Cost analysis example in one (1) of the submitted customer examples. Acceptable evidence types are: price calculator link, reports or presentations on business values analysis

AWS Telco Mobile Network Service Partner must indicate one or more of the following service types provided to the customer:

• Build a new solution on AWS,
• Migrate an existing solution to AWS
• Integrate and deploy a solution on AWS
• Manage a solution on AWS

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Description of service type(s) of each of AWS Partner's customer case studies

Mobile Network often consists of AWS services and network functions in AWS Region and Edge. For example, a mobile network may use AWS IAM service and its management plane functions in AWS Region and AWS Outposts and Control Plane and Data Plane functions at AWS Edge. AWS Partner must be experienced in design, integration, deployment, or management of Mobile Network end to end across AWS Region and Edge.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Mobile Network solution design or service documents involving both AWS Region and Edge end to end.

AWS Telco OSS Service Partner must indicate one or more of the following service types provided to the customer:

• Build a new solution on AWS,
• Migrate an existing solution to AWS
• Integrate and deploy a solution on AWS
• Manage a solution on AWS

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Description of service type(s) of each of AWS Partner's customer case studies.

AWS Telco Service Partner must provide details of each function in the TMForum TAM Framework listed below per customer case (minimum of 8 for OSS):

• Service Inventory Management
• Service Test Management
• Service Order Management
• Service Problem Management
• Service Quality Management
• Resource Order Management
• Resource Performance Management
• Fault Management
• Resource Inventory Management
• Resource Test Management
• Workforce Management
• Location Management
• Network Number Management (incl. IP Address Management)
• Resource Domain Management

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Reference design documentation from customer examples where the described functions are implemented, migrated, integrated or managed

AWS Telco BSS Service Partner must indicate one or more of the following service types provided to the customer:

• Build a new solution on AWS,
• Migrate an existing solution to AWS
• Integrate and deploy a solution on AWS
• Manage a solution on AWS

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Description of service type(s) of each of AWS Partner's customer case studies.

AWS Telco Service Partner must provide details of each function in the TMForum TAM Framework listed below per customer case (minimum of 6 for BSS):

• Sales and Care Customer Channels
• Customer Order Management
• Service Order Management
• Configure Price Quote
• Product Catalog
• Customer Relationship Management
• Partner Management
• Supplier Management
• Charging
• Billing & Revenue Assurance Please provide the following as evidence:

• Reference design documentation from customer examples where the described functions are implemented, migrated, integrated or managed.

AWS Telco CaaS Service Partner must indicate one or more of the following service types provided to the customer:

• Build a new solution on AWS,
• Migrate an existing solution to AWS
• Integrate and deploy a solution on AWS
• Manage a solution on AWS

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Description of service type(s) of each of AWS Partner's customer case studies.

AWS Telco Services Partner must be able to perform implementation, integration, migration or management of solutions in the CaaS domains of (1) Contact Center, (2) Unified Communications, and (3) Communication Platform as a Service. Each customer reference must demonstrate a minimum of three CaaS capabilities in one of the three CaaS domains:

(1) Contact Center * Workforce Management * Call Recording and Analytics * Interactive Voice Response * Automated Call Distribution or Routing * Real-time and Historical Contact Center Reporting * Conversational Bots * Natural Language Understanding or Automated Speech Recognition * AI/ML-based Solution

(2) Unified Communications * Enterprise telephony * Meetings (audio/video/web conferencing) * Unified Messaging * Instant messaging * Mobility * AI/ML-based Solution

(3) Communication Platform as a Service * Short Message Service (SMS) * Email * Push Notifications * Social Media * Outbound Voice * AI/ML-based Solution

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Architecture or services documentation illustrating clearly how the customer reference demonstrates development, migration, integration or management of solutions provide the above capabilities to the Telco customer.

AWS Telco Media & TV Service Partner must indicate one or more of the following service types provided to the customer:

• Build a new solution on AWS,
• Migrate an existing solution to AWS
• Integrate and deploy a solution on AWS
• Manage a solution on AWS

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Description of service type(s) of each of AWS Partner's customer case studies.

The reference example is to be within the video division of the telecom company, such as MVPD, channel aggregation or IPTV, as opposed to the broadband, mobile, enterprise, customer service division. The reference shall include the deployment of software (for update, migration or a new solution), solution integration or end to end solution managed services.

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Architecture or services documentation illustrating clearly how the reference provides specific Media&TV solutions and/or services to the customer, addressing functional areas such as MVPD, channel aggregation or IPTV.

The reference customer examples must be focused on at least one of the following:

• Ingest: processing, and/or presentation of metadata associated with live or on demand assets in preparation or as part of delivery to Telco subscribers
• Management of live or on demand assets: for the purpose of telco subscriber consumption including DVR (Digital Video Recording) and personalization solutions for telco subscribers
• Delivery of live or on demand video assets to telco subscribers
• UI (User Interface) / UX (User Experience) for video systems (for example STB (Set Top Box), OTT (Over The Top) applications, Smart TV, Mobile)
• Securing of asset delivery platform including: limiting asset access to authenticated and authorized users only, anti-theft solutions
• Capture and/or presentation of subscriber data related to telco video system performance measurement and analysis

Please provide the following as evidence:

• Architecture or services documentation illustrating clearly how the customer reference demonstrates development, migration, integration or management of solutions provide the above capabilities to the Telco customer.