Accelerate Your Public Sector Practice: Updates and Key Partner Programs

By Mike Cannady, AWS Global Director, Partner Programs Worldwide Public Sector

For over 15 years, HAQM Web Services (AWS) has been at the forefront of public sector digital transformation, helping customers modernize across Government, Healthcare, Education, Nonprofit, State and Local, and Aerospace. AWS Partners continue to be critical in this journey, ensuring public sector customers realize their mission and goals.

With global public sector spending on cloud expected to reach $138B by 2028 (IDC Spending Guide), the opportunity for AWS Partners in public sector has never been greater. At AWS Summit Washington, DC, we are sharing updates and partner program enhancements to help AWS Partners capture the exciting opportunity in public sector.

In this post, we’ll explore these enhancements designed to accelerate your public sector business—from expanded AWS Government Competency categories to innovative generative AI programs. Whether you’re focused on government, healthcare, education, or nonprofits, these programs will help you deliver greater value to your customers while expanding your AWS business.

What’s new

New categories and enhanced benefits for AWS Government Competency

As government customers worldwide seek innovative ways to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and meet their mandates, they face unique challenges spanning compliance requirements, architectural considerations, and domain expertise. To address these unique needs, we’re updating the AWS Government Competency with new categories and enhanced benefits.

According to Canalys, 87% of customers highlight AWS Specializations as a top three differentiating factor for partner selection. The updated AWS Government Competency helps customers identify AWS Partners with government expertise across three specialized categories: Citizen Services, Defense and National Security, and Public Safety.

Additionally, we’re introducing AWS Government Day, an exclusive virtual event for AWS Government Competency Partners that delivers cutting-edge technical and business content from AWS experts (e.g., demos, roadmaps, industry trends). In response to strong Partner interest, we’re expanding our annual Competency Partner Leadership Circles (CPLCs) to include new annual regional events across EMEA and APJ. These in-person events connect Partners to AWS Sales leaders and government institution thought leaders.

AWS Partner Transformation Program: AWS Marketplace and Generative AI modules

The AWS Partner Transformation Program (PTP) has delivered more than 1,000 workshops globally since 2017, with graduates increasing their AWS Public sector launched opportunities by over 20% in 2024.

To accelerate this momentum, we’re launching the PTP AWS Marketplace Module to provide Partners with customized go-to-market (GTM) strategies aligned with public sector procurement processes, enhanced understanding of the AWS Marketplace value proposition and features, and accelerated pipeline development through high-touch engagement.

“The PTP AWS Marketplace Module was pivotal in helping us create our GTM plans to accelerate AWS Marketplace adoption across our ISV partnerships and reseller relationships,” said Jacqui Young, Managing Director – APAC at Westcon-Comstor.

Additionally, with 89% of public sector leaders considering generative AI adoption important for their organization, we’ve made updates to the PTP Generative AI Module to include HAQM Nova foundation models and Agentic AI content to prepare Partners for the next wave of AI innovation.

In Norway, Experis AS used what they learned in the PTP Generative AI Module to develop an HAQM Bedrock-based solution, reducing contract processing time for municipalities by 50-70%.

Enhanced Think Big for Small Business program

Small businesses are a cornerstone of innovation in the public sector, a fact underscored by the record $183 billion awarded to US small businesses in 2024 (source: SBA). To deepen our commitment to these Partners, we’re enhancing the Think Big for Small Business (TBSB) program with new benefits and resources.

We’re introducing TBSB Growth Days, in-person workshops designed to accelerate Partners’ AWS practice development for all partner types. Participants will engage with industry leaders, gain insights into growth acceleration programs, funding opportunities, and technical enablement pathways. Public sector customers can access small business solutions through a new public sector small business solutions AWS Marketplace page, providing added efficiencies, cost savings, and enhanced governance.

Since its launch, TBSB has empowered over 1,500 small and minority-owned businesses, including women and veteran-owned enterprises, across 78 countries. CC Tech, a US-based small business, utilized TBSB and won a contract with the Department of State to modernize citizen services worldwide.

Key programs and resources for public sector Partners

Beyond the latest enhancements announced at AWS Summit Washington, DC, AWS Partners can leverage comprehensive programs and resources to capture the growing public sector opportunity.

Maximizing co-selling opportunities

Co-selling with AWS enables Partners to unlock greater value and opportunities for customers while accelerating their own growth. According to the 2024 Canalys study, frequent co-selling Partners experienced 51% higher average revenue growth, 65% of Partners reported higher close rates and 54% saw larger deals as a result of co-sell motions.

Earlier this year, we expanded the SaaS co-sell benefit (also known as SaaS Revenue Recognition) to all AWS ISV Accelerate Partners, including eligible Startups. Previously, this was an invite-only benefit for large technology solution Partners. Per a Forrester Consulting study, ISVs experience 50% faster deal closure when transacting in AWS Marketplace.

To expand multi-partner engagement and deal management, we also launched Partner Connections in AWS Partner Central, enabling AWS Partners to find and connect with other complementary Partners through search and AI-driven recommendations, facilitating multi-partner deals—which average six times larger than single-partner deals.

Partner collaboration for integrated business outcome solutions

By 2028, nearly 60% of all IT spend will come from Line of Business budgets rather than central IT (IDC Guide). To help Partners capitalize on this shift in buying behavior, the Business Outcomes Xcelerator (BOX) program offers Partner Matchmaking Events for AWS Partners to find other Partners with complementary capabilities for joint line of business (LOB) solution development. Partners in BOX are eligible for cash and credits funding, as they progress through solution development and complete program milestones.

We’re tailoring matchmaking events for public sector use cases. For example, when a U.S. Government Agency needed better healthcare access, Salesforce and Leidos collaborated to build a digital front door, making it easier for patients to receive care.

Accelerating Partner innovation with generative AI

As generative AI continues to transform industries worldwide, we’re making investments to help Partners develop and deliver innovative generative AI solutions. The AWS Generative AI Impact Initiative, a $50 million investment announced in 2024, enables Partners to accelerate development of public sector-specific solutions leveraging AWS generative AI services and infrastructure.

The AWS Generative AI Competency validates AWS Partners with demonstrated generative AI expertise helps customers more quickly adopt generative AI solutions and strategically position themselves for the future. AWS Generative AI Competency Partners provide a full range of services, tools, and infrastructure—with tailored solutions in areas like security, applications, and integrations to give customers flexibility and choice across models and technologies. In addition to AWS Specialization benefits, AWS Generative AI Competency Partners are eligible for funding and go-to-market activities.

Help customers meet sovereignty and compliance requirements

The sovereign cloud market is projected to exceed $250 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual rate of 27% (IDC Market Forecast). Over 80% of enterprises are either already deploying or planning to implement sovereign workloads within the next two years. This trend reflects growing concerns about data protection, operational autonomy, and regulatory compliance across sectors and regions.

The AWS Digital Sovereignty Competency helps AWS customers, including public sector organizations, easily find trusted AWS Partners with advanced sovereignty capabilities and solutions. Partners benefit from a focused go-to-market strategy session facilitated by AWS Digital Sovereignty experts to help them build targeted plans to build and sell their sovereignty solutions.

Deloitte, an AWS Digital Sovereignty Competency Partner, worked with Ireland’s Office of Revenue Commissioners to establish a Landing Zone to automate the implementation of detective and preventative controls, in compliance with GDPR and the Irish Government’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy requirements.

The AWS Global Security & Compliance Acceleration (GSCA) Program helps AWS customers meet regulatory requirements across Public sector, healthcare, financial services, and privacy sectors at no cost. The GSCA and BOX Program now includes the European Sovereign Cloud (ESC) Compliance Accelerator. This solution, available in AWS Marketplace, combines expertise from SecureIT, Second Front Systems, CloudSmart and Schellman to help organizations meet five key European security standards (C5, ISO 27001, DORA, NIS2, and ISO 42001).

Accelerating Partner AWS practice development

Partners can accelerate their public sector practice through AWS-led and Distributor-led enablement resources via our Accelerated Development framework, which provides prescriptive, tailored guidance to meet specific business goals. Working with AWS experts, Partners strengthen their GTM readiness, technical validation, and APN alignment through structured assessments and milestone-based progression.

Partners that completed the Accelerated Development framework increased their public sector pipeline by 94%. For example, through the framework and guidance from an Authorized Distributor, early-stage Partner XQ is now an AWS ISV Accelerate Partner with an AWS Security Competency and Zero Trust solutions available in AWS Marketplace.

Take action

From enhanced Government Competency benefits and new PTP modules to expanded support for small businesses and digital sovereignty solutions, we’re empowering Partners to capture the growing public sector opportunity. These updates reflect our dedication to helping you build, market, and grow your public sector practice.

To learn more about maximizing these benefits and accelerating your public sector, contact your AWS Partner representative, visit AWS Partner Central or explore AWS Public Sector programs.