AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency

Service Offering Validation Checklist

February 2024 - 3.0

This AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency Checklist updated to version (3.0) has gone into effect on February 17, 2024. Partners may choose to use the previous checklist version (2.0) until May 17, 2024 when the checklist will no longer be in effect. All applications submitted after May 17, 2024 are required to comply with the current Validation Checklist requirements.

Introduction

The goal of the AWS Competency Program is to recognize AWS Partner Network Partners (“AWS Partners”) who demonstrate technical proficiency and proven customer success in specialized solution areas. The AWS Competency Partner Validation Checklist (“Checklist”) is intended for AWS Partners who are interested in applying for an AWS Competency. This Checklist provides the criteria necessary to achieve the designation under the AWS Competency Program. AWS Partners undergo an audit of their capabilities upon applying for the specific AWS Competency. AWS leverages in-house expertise and a third-party firm to facilitate the audit. AWS reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time.

Please note, this checklist defines the criteria for the AWS Modernization Competency. The program prerequisites and technical requirements of this specific category are different than those defined in the AWS Migration Competency checklist. Please refer to this document for all requirements.

Expectation of Parties

It is expected that AWS Partners will review this document in detail before applying for the AWS Competency Program, even if all of the prerequisites are met. If items in this document are unclear and require further explanation, please contact your AWS Partner Development Representative (“PDR”) or AWS Partner Development Manager “(PDM”) as the first step. Your PDR/PDM will contact the program office if further assistance is required.

AWS Partners should complete the Self-Assessment Spreadsheet linked at the top of this page, prior to submitting a program application. Once completed, AWS Partners must submit an application in APN Partner Central. Visit the AWS Competency Program guide for step-by-step instructions on how to submit an application.

AWS will review and aim to respond back with any questions within five business days to initiate scheduling of your technical validation or to request additional information.

AWS Partners should prepare for the technical validation by reading the Checklist, completing a self-assessment using the Checklist, and gathering and organizing objective evidence to share with the reviewer on the day of the technical validation.

AWS recommends that AWS Partners have individuals who are able to speak in-depth to the requirements and the customer examples during the technical validation. The best practice is for the AWS Partner to make the following personnel available for the technical validation: one or more highly-technical AWS certified engineers/architects in the area of competency specialty, an operations manager who is responsible for the operations and support elements, and a business development executive to conduct the overview presentation.

AWS may revoke an AWS Partner’s Competency designation if, at any time, AWS determines in its sole discretion that such AWS Partner does not meet its AWS Competency Program requirements. If an AWS Partner’s AWS Competency designation is revoked, such AWS Partner will (i) no longer receive benefits associated with its designation, (ii) immediately cease use of all materials provided to it in connection with the applicable AWS Competency designation and (ii) immediately cease to identify itself as a member of the AWS Competency.

AWS Partners should ensure that they have the necessary consents to share with the auditor (whether AWS or a third-party) all information contained within the objective evidence or any demonstrations prior to scheduling the audit.

AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency Category Definition

Solutions in the AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency provide emulation or automated refactoring technology to migrate Mainframe applications and their data from Mainframe systems to AWS.

Definitions

This Mainframe category applies to mainframe and midrange systems including IBM Z, Unisys ClearPath, IBM i, AS/400, which are collectively named Mainframe hereafter.

A mainframe workload is defined as a set of applications and their dependencies executing a cohesive set of business functions, and supported by a unique database or data store not shared with other workloads. It includes applications and their data. A Mainframe system can execute one or multiple workloads simultaneously.

A distributed system is defined as either a x86-based architecture system, or a Unix-based system. Such Distributed system can be located in any location and any data center within or outside of AWS.

The Mainframe Modernization competency is focused on technology, skills, and experience for migrating legacy mainframe workloads. Consequently, Linux-based source workloads are excluded from this competency and cannot be used for the case studies and customer examples. Partners with capabilities for Linux-based workloads' migration may apply to other categories within the Migration competency.

Requirements Overview

The subsequent sections of this document define the requirements for AWS Partners to achieve the AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency designation. These requirements are broken down into the following categories:

AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency Program Prerequisites - These requirements will be validated by the AWS Competency program team before scheduling a technical validation.

Common AWS Partner Practice Requirements - These requirements validate the mechanisms and organizational practices in place to ensure the AWS Partner is able to consistently deliver high quality customer outcomes for AWS projects.

Mainframe Modernization Practice Requirements - These requirements validate the AWS Partner's overall capabilities related to delivering Mainframe Modernization solutions for customers on AWS.

Mainframe Modernization Customer Example Requirements - These requirements validate whether the provided customer examples demonstrate Mainframe Modernization-specific best practices and align with the target customer use cases for this AWS Competency.

AWS Mainframe Modernization Competency Program Prerequisites

The following items will be validated by the AWS Competency Program Manager; missing or incomplete information must be addressed prior to scheduling of the technical validation.

  1. 1.0APN Program Membership

    1. 1.1Program Guidelines

      The AWS Partner must read the Program Guidelines and Definitions before applying to the Mainframe Modernization Competency Program. Click here for Program details.

    2. 1.2Services Path Membership

      Partner must be at the Validated or Differentiated stage within the Services Path. Partners should talk to their PDR/PDM about how to join the Services Path.

    3. 1.3AWS Partner Tier

      Partner must be an AWS Advanced or Premier Tier Partner.

  2. 2.0Example AWS Customer Deployments

    1. 2.1Mainframe Modernization Customer Examples

      AWS Partner must privately share with AWS details about 4 unique examples of Mainframe Modernization projects executed for 4 unique customer Mainframe workloads completely migrated to production on AWS. The completed migrations must show the Modernization of both application code and data, the functional equivalence between Mainframe and AWS, the termination of the Mainframe resources for the workload. Out of these 4 examples, at least two examples must be public.

      All customer references must have a production go live date within the last 10 years and must be for projects that are in production with customers, rather than in a ‘pilot’ or proof of concept stage.

      Please see the Mainframe Modernization Customer Example Requirements section below for additional detailed requirements related to these examples.

    2. 2.2Public Mainframe Modernization Case Study

      At least one of the provided customer examples must have a publicly available case study describing how the AWS Partner solution helped migrate a customer mainframe workload to AWS. This publicly available case studies may be in the form of formal customer case studies, white papers, videos, or blog posts.

      Publicly available case studies must include the following:

      • AWS Customer name
      • AWS Partner name
      • AWS Customer challenge
      • How AWS was leveraged as part of the solution
      • Outcome(s) and/or quantitative results

      Note: For best practice on how to write a public case study see the Public Case Study Guide.

  3. 3.0AWS Partner Self-Assessment

    1. 3.1AWS Partner Self-Assessment

      AWS Partner must conduct a self-assessment of their compliance to the requirements of the AWS Mainframe Modernization Consulting Partner Validation Checklist. A version of this checklist is available in spreadsheet format. Links to the appropriate Self-Assessment Spreadsheet can be found at the top of this page.

      • AWS Partner must complete all sections of the Self-Assessment Spreadsheet. For competency with multiple categories, AWS Partners will fill in details for the chosen application Category and mark other Categories as N/A.
      • Completed Self-Assessment Spreadsheet must be uploaded at the time of submitting an application in APN Partner Central.
      • It is recommended that AWS Partner have their AWS Partner Solution Architect, Partner Development Representative (PDR), or Partner Development Manager (PDM) review the completed Self-Assessment Spreadsheet before submitting to AWS. The purpose of this is to ensure the AWS Partner’s AWS team is engaged and working to provide recommendations prior to the validation and to help ensure a positive validation experience.
  4. 4.0Mainframe Modernization Prerequisites

    1. 4.1Mainframe Modernization Specific Customer Example Requirements

      • The AWS Partner may submit up to 20 customer examples in total to meet all the customer example requirements.
      • Customer examples must be related directly to the Mainframe Modernization segment.
      • Customer examples must be for completed projects completed within the past 10 years

Common AWS Partner Practice Requirements

The following requirements validate the mechanisms and organizational practices in place to ensure the AWS Partner is able to consistently deliver high quality customer outcomes for AWS projects. This section of the requirements are WAIVED if the associated offering has an approved Service Offering Foundational Technical Review OR if the AWS Partner has achieved another AWS Services Competency within the last 12 months.

Mainframe Modernization Practice Overview

  • POV-001 - Customer Presentation

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

    Presentation contains information about the AWS Partner’s AWS Mainframe Modernization 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 Mainframe Modernization 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.
  • POV-002 - Maintaining AWS Expertise

    AWS Partner has internal mechanisms for maintaining their consultants' expertise on Mainframe Modernization-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
  • POV-003 - AWS Partner Solution Selling

    AWS Partner must describe how Mainframe Modernization 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 Mainframe Modernization 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.
  • POV-004 - AWS Sales Engagement

    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).
  • POV-005 - Training for Internal Personnel

    AWS Partner must have a process to ensure that there are sufficient Mainframe Modernization 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 Mainframe Modernization projects

AWS Partner Delivery Model

  • PRJ-001 - Expected Outcomes

    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
  • PRJ-002 - Scope

    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
  • PRJ-003 - Statement of Work

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

    Please provide the following as evidence:

    • Default SOW template
  • PRJ-004 - Project Manager

    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.
  • PRJ-005 - Change Management

    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

Customer Satisfaction

  • CSN-001 - Customer Acceptance for Projects

    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
  • CSN-002 - Customer Satisfaction Aligned to Project Milestones

    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

Mainframe Modernization Practice Requirements

The following requirements apply to the AWS Partner's Mainframe Modernization practice.

Mainframe Modernizations

  • MMPR-001 - Mainframe Modernization Technical Expertise

    AWS Partner must submit 3 active employee LinkedIn profiles demonstrating deep technical expertise and experience with tool-based modernizations from Mainframe to distributed systems.

  • MMPR-002 - Tool-based Discovery Offering

    AWS Partner must submit a Mainframe modernization discovery offering description showing the discovery tools being used including tool vendor name(s) and product name(s). These tools can be third-party tools or internal tools.

  • MMPR-003 - Modernization Methodology Offering

    AWS Partner must submit a Mainframe modernization offering description showing the modernization methodology being used, including when applicable the tool vendor name(s) and product name(s). These tools can be third-party tools or internal tools.

  • MMPR-004 - 4R’ Modernization Pattern

    AWS Partner must submit Mainframe modernization offerings’ descriptions demonstrating the AWS Partner supports Mainframe modernization with methodology and toolset for Replacing, Replatforming, Automated Refactoring or Rearchitecting. Replatforming and automated refactoring technology examples are provided here.

  • MMPR-005 - Partner with AWS ProServe or AWS Migration Competency Consulting Partner

    AWS Partner must either be an existing AWS Migration Competency Consulting Partner, or demonstrate a partnership in place with AWS ProServe or another existing AWS Migration Competency Consulting Partner.

Mainframe Modernization Customer Example Requirements

All of the following requirements must be met by each submitted customer example.

The information provided for these customer examples will be used by AWS for validation purposes only. AWS Partner is not required to publish these details publicly. AWS will accept one example per customer and will not accept examples for customers who are an internal or affiliate company of the AWS Partner.

All customer examples must describe solutions that have been built by the AWS Partner and deployed in production within the past 20 years. ‘Pilot’ or proof of concept projects will not be accepted.

All customer examples provided will be examined in the Documentation Review of the Technical Validation. The AWS Partner solution will be removed from consideration for inclusion in the AWS Competency if the AWS Partner cannot provide the documentation necessary to assess all customer examples against each relevant checklist item, or if any of the checklist items are not met.

Modernization Characteristics

  • MMC-001 - Mainframe Workload Modernization Duration

    For each customer example, the Mainframe workload modernization project must be completed in less than 3 years. This applies to individual Mainframe workloads modernization, not necessarily the complete mainframe modernization.

  • MMC-002 - High Availability

    The customer example must demonstrate the modernization of an online workload that was deployed in a highly available configuration in the target Distributed environment. Please explain if there was no such requirement from the customer. The partner must choose the examples that demonstrate this requirement to meet repeatability and consistency of practice.

  • MMC-003 - Batch

    The customer example must demonstrate the modernization of a batch workload relying on a job control language. Please explain if there was no such requirement from the customer. The partner must choose the examples that demonstrate this requirement to meet repeatability and consistency of practice.

  • MMC-004 - Data Encryption

    The customer example must demonstrate how AWS Partner implemented data encryption (both in-transit and at-rest) in the target Distributed environment to address security requirements. Please explain if there was no such requirement from the customer. The partner must choose the examples that demonstrate this requirement to meet repeatability and consistency of practice.

  • MMC-005 - Security Server

    The customer example must demonstrate how AWS Partner migrated security server definitions (users, groups, profiles, etc) from the Mainframe to the target Distributed environment. Please explain if there was no such requirement from the customer. The partner must choose the examples that demonstrate this requirement to meet repeatability and consistency of practice.

  • MMC-006 - Mainframe Languages

    At least seven customer examples must demonstrate the modernization of workloads written in one of the following languages:

    • COBOL
    • PL/1
    • Assembler
    • Natural
    • Easytrieve
    • RPG
    • CA Gen

Documentation

  • MMCE-001 - General Customer Example Information

    AWS Partner must submit the following details:

    • Name of the customer
    • Customer challenge
    • Proposed solution
    • Third party applications or solutions used
    • Start date of the engagement
    • End date of the engagement
    • Date the project entered production
    • Outcome(s)/results
  • MMCE-002 - Mainframe Application And Data Modernization

    The Mainframe modernization customer example project must include both application code and corresponding data modernization. It must be migrated to production on AWS, including functional equivalence test between Mainframe and Distributed, and termination of the Mainframe resources. AWS Partner must submit details showing these conditions are met.

  • MMCE-003 - Modernization Project 4R' Approach

    The Mainframe modernization customer example project must use one of the following approaches: replatforming, refactoring, replace, re-architecting, using tool or methodology to migrate both application and data. AWS Partner must submit details showing these conditions are met.

  • MMCE-004 - Source Mainframe Details

    AWS Partner must submit details relevant to the Mainframe source workload which was migrated including:

    • Project timeline with start and end date, and milestones
    • Project business case which can include TCO estimate, modernization cost, ROI, business value
    • Application and data discovery approach, tool(s), and AWS service(s)
    • Application modernization approach, tool(s) and AWS service(s)
    • Data modernization approach, tool(s), and AWS service(s)
    • Dependencies modernization approach and tool(s) (scheduler, printing, outputs, reports, security)
    • Test case creation approach and tool(s)
    • Functional Equivalence Test approach and tool(s)
    • Production cut-over approach and tool(s)
    • Mainframe termination details
  • MMCE-005 - Mainframe Modernization Details

    AWS Partner must submit details relevant to the Mainframe workload modernization project including:

    • Project timeline with start and end date, and milestones
    • Project business case which can include TCO estimate, modernization cost, ROI, business value
    • Application and data discovery approach and tool(s), AWS service(s)
    • Application modernization approach and tool(s), AWS service(s)
    • Data modernization approach and tool(s), AWS service(s)
    • Dependencies modernization approach and tool(s) (scheduler, printing, outputs, reports, security)
    • Test case creation approach and tool(s)
    • Functional Equivalence Test approach and tool(s)
    • Production cut-over approach and tool(s)
    • Mainframe termination details
  • MMCE-006 - Target AWS Environment Details

    AWS Partner must submit details relevant to the target migrated environment on AWS, including:

    • For each customer environment: customer landing zone environment, AWS Services, middleware, third party software.
    • Security requirements and corresponding implemented solution(s)
    • Availability requirements and corresponding implemented solution(s)
    • Development tool chain and code deployment pipeline
  • MMCE-007 - Target Architecture Diagram

    AWS Partner must submit architecture diagrams depicting the overall design and deployment of the target AWS environment. Each architecture diagram must show:

    • Major components of the architecture, and how they combine to provide the AWS Partner's solution to customers.
    • All of the AWS services used, using the appropriate AWS service icons.
    • High-availability components or features if a project requirement

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