# AWS Partner Tiers Explained: Select, Advanced, and Premier Consulting Partners

Key Takeaways

  • The AWS Partner Network (APN) ranks consulting partners into tiers — Select, Advanced, and Premier — based on certifications, customer references, and revenue commitments.
  • Higher tiers mean more AWS-validated expertise, deeper co-selling support, and access to more AWS funding programs, but not automatically a better fit for every project.
  • AWS resellers (transact via AWS Marketplace or Solution Provider Program) are a related but distinct track from consulting partners.
  • Choosing a partner tier should be driven by your project's complexity and support needs, not tier prestige alone.

What Is the AWS Partner Network?

The AWS Partner Network (APN) is AWS's formal program for consulting and technology companies that build, sell, or implement solutions on AWS. Within APN, consulting partners — the companies that design architectures, migrate workloads, and manage AWS environments for customers — are organized into tiers that reflect their depth of AWS expertise, validated success, and investment in the AWS ecosystem.

Partner tiers exist so customers have a quick signal of reliability before committing to an AWS consulting engagement. They are earned, not purchased outright — each tier has specific requirements around certified staff, customer references, and AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) completion for partner solutions.

The Three Consulting Partner Tiers

Select Tier

Select is the entry tier for AWS consulting partners. Requirements typically include:

  • At least one AWS Certified individual on staff
  • A documented customer reference showing successful AWS delivery
  • Active APN membership in good standing

Select-tier partners are often smaller firms or newer entrants to AWS consulting. They can be a strong fit for well-scoped, lower-complexity projects — a single workload migration, a proof of concept, or ongoing managed services for a stable environment.

Advanced Tier

Advanced tier requires meaningfully more:

  • Multiple AWS Certifications across the team, often including at least one Professional-level certification
  • Several verified customer references across different use cases
  • Demonstrated revenue running through AWS (AWS usage generated for customers)
  • A documented internal methodology for AWS delivery

Advanced partners have proven repeatable delivery across more than one engagement, which typically means better internal processes, escalation paths with AWS, and broader bench strength if your project needs more than one specialist.

Premier Tier

Premier is the highest consulting tier. Requirements are the most rigorous:

  • A large team of AWS Certified professionals across multiple specializations (DevOps, security, data & analytics, migration, etc.)
  • A high volume of verified, successful customer references
  • Significant AWS-driven revenue
  • Participation in AWS Competency Programs (e.g., Migration Competency, Security Competency) that further validate specific domain expertise
  • A dedicated Partner Development Manager relationship with AWS

Premier partners get the deepest access to AWS co-selling support, technical escalation, and joint go-to-market programs. For large, multi-year, or highly regulated migrations, Premier partners typically bring the broadest bench and the most AWS-side support when things get complicated.

# Example: checking a partner's listed competencies via the AWS Partner Solutions Finder
# (This is a conceptual API illustration — AWS Partner data is primarily browsed
# via the AWS Partner Solutions Finder UI, not a public CLI)
curl -s "https://partners.amazonaws.com/api/search?competency=Migration&tier=Premier" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" | jq '.partners[] | {name, tier, competencies}'

AWS Resellers vs. Consulting Partners

It's worth separating two related-but-different tracks:

  • Consulting Partners design, build, and manage AWS solutions as a service — architecture, migration, DevOps, managed operations.
  • AWS Resellers (through the Solution Provider Program or AWS Marketplace) sell AWS usage itself, often bundling billing, support, and sometimes implementation services, letting customers get a single consolidated invoice and a local point of contact for procurement.

Many partners operate in both roles simultaneously — reselling AWS consumption while also delivering the engineering work. If billing consolidation, local currency invoicing, or regional procurement support matters to you, confirm your prospective partner's reseller status explicitly, since not every consulting partner is also an authorized reseller.

{
  "partner_evaluation_checklist": {
    "tier": "Advanced or Premier for production workloads",
    "competencies": ["Migration", "Security", "DevOps"],
    "reseller_status": "Confirm if billing consolidation needed",
    "reference_customers": "Ask for 2-3 in your industry vertical",
    "team_certifications": ["Solutions Architect Professional", "DevOps Engineer Professional"]
  }
}

How to Choose the Right Tier for Your Project

Tier alone shouldn't decide your partner choice. Weigh it against:

  1. Project complexity — A single EC2-to-RDS migration doesn't need Premier-tier overhead; a multi-region, multi-account enterprise migration usually does.
  2. Industry-specific competencies — A Premier partner without healthcare or financial services competency may be less useful than an Advanced partner with a proven HIPAA or PCI-DSS track record.
  3. Ongoing support model — Confirm whether the partner offers managed services after go-live, not just one-time delivery.
  4. Direct references — Ask for customers in your industry and company size, regardless of tier.

Diagram: AWS Partner Tier Progression

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  <text x="55" y="140" font-weight="600">Select</text>
  <text x="50" y="160" class="label">1+ certified staff</text>
  <text x="50" y="178" class="label">1 reference</text>

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  <text x="305" y="120" font-weight="600">Advanced</text>
  <text x="300" y="140" class="label">Multiple certifications</text>
  <text x="300" y="158" class="label">Several references</text>
  <text x="300" y="176" class="label">AWS revenue proof</text>

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  <text x="550" y="169" class="label">Dedicated PDM</text>
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FAQ

What's the difference between an AWS Advanced and Premier partner? Premier partners have deeper certified staffing, higher AWS-driven revenue, and typically hold additional AWS Competency validations in specific domains, plus a dedicated AWS Partner Development Manager — Advanced partners have proven repeatable delivery but with less scale and fewer specialized validations.

Do I need a Premier partner for a small AWS project? Not necessarily. A Select or Advanced partner with the right domain experience and good references can deliver smaller, well-scoped projects just as effectively, often at a lower engagement cost.

Is an AWS reseller the same as an AWS consulting partner? No — resellers sell AWS usage/billing, often through the Solution Provider Program, while consulting partners deliver architecture, migration, and operations work. Many companies do both, but you should confirm each capability separately.

How do I verify a company's actual AWS partner tier? Ask for their APN Partner ID and verify their listed tier and competencies in the AWS Partner Solutions Finder, rather than relying solely on marketing claims.

Need Help Choosing the Right AWS Partner?

F9infotech works across the full tier spectrum of AWS delivery needs — from scoped migrations to ongoing managed operations. Talk to our team about matching your project's complexity to the right level of AWS partner support.