AWS announced 247 new AWS Competency, Service Delivery, Service Ready, and MSP partners added in December. For ISVs, AWS competencies are often misunderstood. They’re pursued late, treated as marketing validation, or assumed to matter only to services partners. In reality, competencies increasingly show up in enterprise software buying decisions, especially when deals involve security review, architecture approval, or Marketplace procurement.
The badge itself doesn’t close deals. But the absence of one can quietly slow them down.
What Changed in AWS Competencies This Month
The December update highlights growth across four partner designations that matter differently for software companies:
AWS Competency Partners
These recognize partners with proven customer success and technical depth in specific workloads or industries, including security, data & analytics, DevOps, and emerging areas like generative AI.
For ISVs, competencies increasingly act as a shortlist filter. Buyers don’t always understand the nuance, but they do understand that AWS has reviewed something beyond a slide deck.
AWS Service Ready Products
Service Ready validation is particularly relevant for software companies. It confirms that a product integrates cleanly with specific AWS services and follows architectural best practices.
In regulated or risk-averse environments, this often becomes table stakes for moving from proof-of-concept to production.
AWS Service Delivery Partners and MSPs
While more services-oriented, these still affect ISVs indirectly. Customers often pair software with delivery partners, and AWS prefers combinations that reduce execution risk. Products that align cleanly with validated delivery partners tend to move faster through internal AWS and customer workflows.
What Are AWS Competencies Actually Doing for Software Companies?
In real buying motions, AWS competencies function less as promotion and more as risk compression.
For software buyers, especially in mid-market and enterprise accounts, competencies answer three quiet questions:
- Has AWS seen this product work in the real world?
- Will this create friction with our cloud or security teams?
- If something breaks, are we in an unsupported edge case?
Competencies don’t guarantee approval. But lacking them often means more scrutiny, longer review cycles, and additional proof requests — especially when deals involve Marketplace, co-sell, or security sign-off.
Where Teams Still Get Stuck
Across software companies we work with, a few patterns repeat:
ISVs pursue competencies too late.
Often after deals are already enterprise-shaped, when procurement or security teams start asking uncomfortable questions.
Sales teams don’t know how to use them.
Competencies exist, but sellers can’t explain what they mean in buyer terms — so they never show up in deal conversations.
Competencies are treated as marketing assets instead of deal infrastructure.
Badges go on the website, but aren’t mapped to pipeline stages where they actually matter.
None of these are fatal. But they explain why many software companies feel underwhelmed after earning validation.
The Reality of AWS Competency Adoption for ISVs
A few grounded observations:
- Most buyers don’t differentiate between competency types. They see “AWS validated” and assume credibility — the nuance matters more internally than externally.
- The value shows up late in the deal. Competencies rarely create inbound demand, but they often unblock stalled deals.
- There is lag between attainment and impact. It takes time for sales, partners, and AWS teams to internalize that a product is “safe” to recommend.
This is why competencies feel underpowered when measured only against lead volume. Their real value is in deal velocity, fewer objections, and cleaner Marketplace execution.
How Software Teams Should Think About Competencies
For ISVs, competencies work best when they are treated as operational readiness, not positioning.
They should reinforce:
- Why your product is safe to standardize on AWS
- Why security and platform teams don’t need to reinvent validation
- Why AWS sellers are comfortable attaching your product to their accounts
If a competency doesn’t clearly reduce buyer risk or internal friction, it won’t justify the effort required to earn it.
Closing Perspective
AWS will continue expanding its competency framework because customers still need help separating signal from noise. For software companies, the opportunity isn’t in collecting badges — it’s in understanding where AWS validation intersects with real buying friction.
Most of these updates point in a clear direction, but direction and adoption are not the same thing. Real partner motions take time to develop, and most teams are still working through the fundamentals of cloud GTM.
These changes are worth tracking. Just don’t confuse interest with readiness.