AWS partner glossary: ACE, MDF, SCA, PRM in plain words

ACE (APN Customer Engagements)

What it is: AWS's co-sell program. Once you accept the ACE terms in Partner Central, you share your customer opportunities with AWS, and once you are ACE eligible you can receive referrals from AWS.
Why it matters for marketing: Your ACE records are what AWS sellers see of you, and launched opportunities count toward your tier.

AWS Marketplace

Rule change on July 1, 2026

What it is: AWS's catalogue where customers find, buy and deploy partner software and professional services. Since July 1, 2026, a co-sell opportunity needs an AWS Marketplace solution, an AWS Marketplace product or a partner solution attached before it can move to Committed or Launched.
Why it matters for marketing: Your listing is now part of the deal record, and AWS uses listing details to suggest partners to its sellers.

AWS Partner Marketing Central

What it is: The marketing area of Partner Central, under the Market tab. It holds Partner Ready Campaigns (ready-to-use campaign content), Agency Connect (pre-negotiated offers from agencies), Marketing Concierge (support from a virtual Partner Marketing Manager) and Marketing Academy (courses).
Why it matters for marketing: It is the free starting kit, and you need the Marketing Staff role, given by your Alliance Lead, to open it.

AWS Partner Network (APN)

What it is: AWS's program for companies that build, sell or deliver services and software on AWS. You join by completing registration in AWS Partner Central from the AWS console; registering is free, and AWS lists an annual APN fee for the Select, Advanced and Premier tiers.
Why it matters for marketing: Your tier, programs and badges all come from your APN membership, so every AWS claim on your site has to match it.

AWS Specializations (AWS Competency, AWS MSP)

Two types retire on June 1, 2027

What it is: Validations that prove your expertise in an industry, a use case or an AWS service. You earn one after a technical review that includes several customer success examples. AWS Competency and the AWS Managed Service Provider (MSP) program are the ones that stay. Retiring: AWS Service Delivery and AWS Service Ready Specializations will be deprecated on June 1, 2027. New applications are closed.
Why it matters for marketing: AWS lists partner badges, priority placement in Partner Solutions Finder, a better co-sell score and MDF among the benefits, and Premier tier needs three Competency, MSP or Well-Architected validations.

AWS Summit

What it is: AWS's free one-day regional conferences. In 2026, AWS Summit Toronto ran on June 3 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and AWS Partner Summit Toronto ran the day before. The 2027 dates were not posted when I checked.
Why it matters for marketing: Your AWS team and local customers are in one building for one day, so the meetings you book ahead matter more than booth traffic.

Events I plan around AWS Summits

Case study approval (customer success stories)

What it is: A published story of a customer project you delivered on AWS. AWS reviews several customer success examples when you apply for a Specialization, and AWS names or logos in your materials need AWS's approval in advance under its trademark guidelines.
Why it matters for marketing: Advanced and Premier partners can get a co-branded case study on AWS's Success Stories page, and proof is what AWS sellers look for before they bring you into a deal.

Co-sell and co-sell motions

Changed on June 16, 2026 (agentic co-sell)

What it is: Working a customer deal together with AWS through ACE. Since June 16, 2026, Partner Central agents give every opportunity one of three co-sell motions: AWS Field-engaged (an AWS sales team works it with you), Agent-engaged (the agents help you strengthen it) or Partner-led (you lead it, and no AWS seller is assigned).
Why it matters for marketing: The motion decides whether an AWS seller ever works your deal, and the part you control is the quality of your record.

Read the guide: how AWS scores the deals you share

CPPO (Channel Partner Private Offer)

What it is: The way a reseller sells a software vendor's product in AWS Marketplace. The vendor gives the channel partner a selling authorization at a wholesale price, and the channel partner sends one buyer a private offer with its own price and terms.
Why it matters for marketing: It keeps a consulting partner on the transaction when the customer buys software through AWS Marketplace, which changes what you can offer in a campaign.

FTR (Foundational Technical Review)

Faster since June 16, 2026

What it is: AWS's free, self-service review of a partner's software solution against AWS best practices. You can pass it with a SOC 2 Type II report or a Well-Architected Framework Review, results come back in minutes, and approval lasts two years.
Why it matters for marketing: AWS ties the FTR to the Qualified Software badge, a Partner Solutions Finder listing, program eligibility and funding benefits.

ISV Accelerate

MDF added in 2026

What it is: AWS's co-sell program for software partners that sell through AWS Marketplace. To join you need, among other things, a product generally available in AWS Marketplace, ACE eligibility, at least 5 launched and 15 qualified opportunities in the past 12 months, and at least $2,000 in recognized AWS revenue.
Why it matters for marketing: AWS account managers get incentives to co-sell these solutions through Marketplace private offers, and partners enrolled after January 1, 2026 can get MDF.

MAP (Migration Acceleration Program)

Scope widened in December 2025

What it is: AWS funding for customer migrations and modernizations, in cash or AWS Promotional Credits, at each phase of a migration. Since December 2025 it also covers generative AI and agentic features built during a modernization.
Why it matters for marketing: For a services partner, a migration offer reads differently when the customer knows part of it can be funded, if the project qualifies.

MDF (Marketing Development Funds)

What it is: AWS funding that helps offset your marketing costs to drive demand and build pipeline, paid as cash reimbursement or AWS Promotional Credits. For services partners, AWS lists MDF as an Advanced and Premier tier benefit; Specializations and ISV Accelerate also list it.
Why it matters for marketing: It pays part of approved campaigns and events, and you need an Amazon Payee Central account before you can submit a request.

How I put funding to work

Opportunity Quality Score

New on June 16, 2026

What it is: A score out of 100 that AWS gives every opportunity you share in Partner Central. It measures how complete and specific your record is: the customer's business problem (the main driver), next steps, what you need from AWS, and the solution and AWS services involved.
Why it matters for marketing: Together with how strategic the deal is to AWS, it sets the co-sell motion, and AWS sellers sort deals by motion first, then by score.

Read the guide: how AWS scores the deals you share

Checked against
AWS Partner Central documentation

Partner Business Plan

What it is: The business plan you build with AWS for your partnership. AWS requires one at Advanced and Premier tiers, and Partner Central has had a business planning feature for it since November 2024, for partners working with an AWS partner team.
Why it matters for marketing: It is where your campaigns and funding asks get agreed with AWS before the year starts.

The Summit stage, where I write it with you

Partner Central

Moved into the AWS Management Console on November 30, 2025

What it is: The AWS service where partners manage their work with AWS: opportunities, funding, solutions, listings and programs. Access now runs through IAM in the AWS console. Partner Central agents, first launched March 16, 2026, now add pipeline insights, sales plays and funding recommendations, in the console or in your CRM through MCP.
Why it matters for marketing: It is where AWS reads about you, so whoever fills it in is doing marketing, whether they know it or not.

Partner Solutions Finder

What it is: AWS's public directory where customers search for partners by industry, use case, location and product. Select, Advanced and Premier partners get a listing, managed in Partner Central.
Why it matters for marketing: It is a public profile customers can find, and Specializations get priority placement in it.

Partner tiers: Select, Advanced, Premier

What it is: The three tiers of the services path. Each asks for more accredited and certified people and more launched opportunities (3, 20 and 50, with a minimum total monthly recurring revenue at each tier); Advanced adds a Partner Business Plan, and Premier adds an Executive Business Review, three Competency, MSP or Well-Architected validations, and all of it held for more than six months.
Why it matters for marketing: Select gets the tier badge, a Partner Solutions Finder listing and Partner Ready Campaigns; Advanced and Premier add MDF, a co-branded case study on AWS's Success Stories page and an APN Blog post.

Pick your summit

Checked against
AWS partner tiers page

PDM (Partner Development Manager)

What it is: The AWS person who manages your partnership with AWS, if one is assigned to you. AWS sends partners to their PDM for some programs, such as Forward Deployed Engineering.
Why it matters for marketing: A PDM can carry your plan into AWS planning and toward sellers; without one, the plan and the seller outreach are on you.

Checked against
APN Blog, June 30, 2026

POA funds (Partner Opportunity Acceleration)

Where proof-of-concept funding sits today

What it is: AWS funding for proofs of concept and migrations, paid as cash reimbursement or AWS Promotional Credits, available from Select tier up.
Why it matters for marketing: ACE lists it among its benefits, one more reason to keep your opportunity records complete. You need an Amazon Payee Central account to request it.

Private offer (and express private offer)

Express private offers in co-sell since June 16, 2026

What it is: A custom deal in AWS Marketplace, with pricing, terms or a license agreement negotiated for one buyer and visible only to that buyer's accounts. An express private offer automates it: the buyer answers a short questionnaire and gets an offer within the seller's preset rules, and AWS sellers can now invite customers to one in co-sell deals.
Why it matters for marketing: It turns a Marketplace listing into a buying path for real deals, and AWS asks you to name the contracting path in your opportunity record.

PRM (Partner Revenue Measurement) and the Attributed Revenue Dashboard

New in 2026, sets funding from 2027

What it is: PRM measures the AWS consumption your products drive, through resource tagging, a user agent string or AWS Marketplace metering, so AWS can attribute that revenue to you. The Attributed Revenue Dashboard in Partner Central, launched on April 23, 2026, shows it by product, AWS service and billing period.
Why it matters for marketing: AWS says that starting in 2027, PRM attributed revenue will be used to determine partner funding benefits, with requirements rolled out program by program.

See it in the change tracker

re:Invent

What it is: AWS's main yearly conference, in Las Vegas. re:Invent 2026 runs November 30 to December 4, and the Partner Keynote is on Wednesday, December 2, from 3 to 4 PM Pacific.
Why it matters for marketing: AWS announces a lot of partner program changes that week, and the people you want to meet are all in one city, so meetings get booked weeks ahead.

Events I plan around re:Invent

SCA (Strategic Collaboration Agreement)

What it is: A multi-year agreement between AWS and a partner, with defined goals, milestones and AWS investment. Partner Central treats SCA as a funding program: SCA budgets show in funding recommendations, and the agreements are managed in Contract Central.
Why it matters for marketing: If your SCA includes marketing, the funding helps only when those campaigns run and you can show them at review.