• AWS held its 2024 Equity Equivalent Investment Program (EEIP) Partner Awards this week.
• The awards honoured the cohorts of the EEIP who had excelled in the program.
• The goal of the EEIP is to foster the growth of diversity and inclusion in the AWS ecosystem.

The leader of the cloud infrastructure market, AWS, held its 2024 Equity Equivalent Investment Program (EEIP) Partner Awards in Johannesburg on Thursday evening.

The AWS Equity Equivalent Investment Program seeks to foster diversity and inclusion in the South African AWS Partner ecosystem. Black-owned SMEs are invited to participate in an 18 – 24 month enablement and acceleration program with the goal of building their business. This naturally has the benefit of maintaining Amazon’s dominant position in the market but the course has huge benefits for the SMEs as well.

“The awards were a significant occasion for us to take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate our outstanding partners who are part of the global community of 130 thousand AWS Partner Network partner. These partners have grown from strength to strength, increasing their revenues at an average rate of 126 percent, while also creating jobs for youth in South Africa. Their performance is nothing but exemplary, and their contributions foster diversity and inclusion in the South African AWS Partner Ecosystem,” country manager for AWS in South Africa, Chris Erasmus said in a statement.

To date, the AWS EEIP program has onboarded 27 partners since 2020. This year’s awards recognised 100% Black owned SMEs who raised the bar.

The winners of the 2024 AWS EEIP Partner Awards are:

Training and Certification: Awarded to partners who exceeded their certification requirements.

• Cohort 1 Winner: Disraptor
• Cohort 2 Winner: Batsamayi
• Cohort 3 Winner: Pax Divitae

Innovation: Recognising partners who demonstrated innovation on behalf of their customers.

• Cohort 2: Batsamayi
• Cohort 3: One Linkage

AWS Specialisation Programme: Awarded to partners who earned specialisation based on technical expertise validated by AWS or third-party auditors.

• Cohort 1: Reliance Cloud
• Cohort 2: Cloudza
• Cohort 3: Koedr

Partner Tier Progression: Recognising partners who were first to achieve Advanced tier on the Amazon Partner Network in less than 18 months.

• Cohort 1: Disraptor
• Cohort 2: Batsamayi
• Cohort 3: Pax Divitae

Software Path Validation: Awarded to partners who validated their software path.

• Umdoko Internet Solutions

Training Path Validation: Awarded to partners who validated their training path.

• Think Tank

Social Impact: For partners contributing to social impact through the AWS YES4YOUTH programme by encouraging youth development and job creation.

• Reliance Cloud
• Disraptor
• Solvyng
• Cloudza
• Batsamayi

“Through the EEIP, AWS empowers underrepresented voices, fostering diversity, while providing invaluable support to SMEs on their journey to cloud-centric success,” said Erasmus.

“As one industry, we look forward to driving innovation together, empowering our economy, and creating lasting impact in the South African market and beyond,” the country manager added.