Every AWS Competency, and what it takes

Why a Competency matters

AWS lists the benefits: partner badges, priority placement in Partner Solutions Finder, a better co-sell score, access to AWS sales, MDF, MAP funding and discounts.¹

For a services firm, it is also how you reach Premier. Premier needs three Competency, MSP or Well-Architected validations. See what each tier gets you.

What every Competency asks for

Services firms. Advanced or Premier tier, and you stay Advanced to keep it. Four customer examples from four separate customers, in production, completed in the last 18 months, at least two of them public. Certifications that vary by Competency. A self-assessment in Partner Central, then a review and a technical validation by AWS and a third-party firm.²

Software companies. The Software path at Validated or Differentiated, with a valid Foundational Technical Review for that exact product. Four customer examples, at least two public. No certifications. An AWS Solutions Architect reviews it.³

Keeping it is continuous now. Since August 29, 2025, if you fall out of compliance, you get six months to fix it before you lose the Competency. AWS updates the checklists every February and August.⁴

Three examples with numbers

• DevOps, services. At least 4 people with an Associate certification (Developer, SysOps or CloudOps Engineer) and at least 4 with DevOps Engineer Professional.²
• Networking, services. At least 5 people with the Advanced Networking Specialty, and projects with complex networks such as multi-VPC, multi-Region, Transit Gateway or Cloud WAN.⁵
• Small and Medium Business, services. 20 launched ACE opportunities with unique customers at USD 1,000 or more in annual recurring revenue each, over the last 24 months. Down from 50.⁶

MSP is a separate program, with a third-party audit against its own checklist.¹⁰

Industry Competencies

These validate your work for customers in one sector.¹

• Advertising and Marketing Technology. Ad platforms, audience data, measurement.
• Automotive. Software-defined vehicles, connected mobility, manufacturing.
• Consumer Goods. Commerce, supply chain, product development.
• Cyber Insurance. Security assessment for insurers and their clients.
• Education. Teaching, learning and campus operations.
• Energy and Utilities.
• Financial Services. Banking, capital markets, insurance, payments.
• Government. Citizen services, defense and public safety. It absorbed the Public Safety and Smart City Competencies on June 19, 2025.⁹
• Healthcare and Life Sciences.
• Manufacturing and Industrial. Smart manufacturing, operational technology, engineering.
• Media and Entertainment. Broadcast, content production, direct to consumer.
• Nonprofit.
• Retail. Digital commerce, merchandising, customer engagement.
• Small and Medium Business. Practices that serve customers under USD 100 million in revenue.⁶
• Telecom and Travel and Hospitality.

Use case Competencies

• AI. Renamed from Generative AI on November 30, 2025, when AWS added three agentic AI categories: applications, tools and consulting services.⁷
• Business Value Realization. New in June 2026, for Advanced and Premier partners with a qualifying domain Competency.
• Cloud Operations and DevOps. Two separate Competencies.
• Data and Analytics.
• Digital Sovereignty and Digital Workplace.
• IoT.
• Machine Learning. New applications paused on August 20, 2026.⁴
• Migration and Modernization.
• Managed Security Services (MSSP) and Security. Security has eight categories, from AI Security to Governance, Risk and Compliance.
• Resilience. Open to software partners since 2025.
• Supply Chain.

Workload Competencies

• Amazon Connect Customer Services. New on June 16, 2026. The first Competency tied to one AWS service, and it replaces the Amazon Connect Service Delivery designation.⁸
• Built-in. Partner software integrated with AWS foundational services, verified by AWS.
• Mainframe Modernization.
• Microsoft Workloads. The software side has a deprecation notice from February 27, 2026.⁴
• Networking and Storage.
• Oracle and SAP.

Retired since 2025: Containers on August 29, 2025, and Conversational AI on October 27, 2025.⁴ AWS shows the full list in Partner Central; four of the 43 did not appear in the public announcements I checked.

Service Delivery ends in 2027

AWS retires the Service Delivery and Service Ready Specializations on June 1, 2027. New applications are closed.¹¹ Validation for single AWS services is moving into Competencies, starting with Amazon Connect. If you hold a Service Delivery badge today, plan the Competency that replaces it.