Short answer: what AWS ACE is

AWS ACE is the APN Customer Engagements program, the system partners use to register and co-sell opportunities with AWS through the Partner Central pipeline manager. It is how a partner shares a deal with AWS, gets a partner development rep involved, and becomes eligible for co-sell support and funding. Used well it opens the AWS field; used as a data-entry chore it produces nothing.

What is AWS ACE?

AWS ACE stands for APN Customer Engagements, the mechanism inside AWS Partner Central where partners submit opportunities and referrals to AWS and, in return, gain access to co-sell motions, partner development support, and funding programs. A partner logs an opportunity with the customer, deal size, and stage; AWS validates it; and from there the deal can be shared with the relevant AWS account team. It is the connective tissue between a partner’s pipeline and the AWS Partner Network.

The point of ACE is bidirectional visibility. When a partner shares an opportunity, AWS can see where the partner is active and bring its field into the deal. When AWS has a customer need a partner can fill, it can route that referral back. The program only works when both directions flow, which is the same principle that governs every healthy co-sell relationship: value has to move both ways, or one side stops showing up.

Why AWS ACE matters in 2026

AWS ACE matters because for any company building on AWS, the co-sell relationship with the AWS field is often the largest single source of partner-influenced pipeline available. The AWS field is enormous, and a partner that is invisible in ACE is invisible to that field. Registering opportunities is how a partner earns the attention, the funding, and the introductions that turn a cloud relationship into sourced revenue.

The stakes track the broader shift toward partner-surrounded selling. Omdia and Jay McBain estimate roughly 96% of tech-industry deals are partner-surrounded, and marketplace and cloud co-sell motions are a growing share of that. Crossbeam and HubSpot data show partner-involved deals produce about 3x the pipeline and 40% higher win rates. ACE is the front door to that motion with the largest cloud provider, so treating it as an afterthought leaves the biggest co-sell channel most software companies have on the table.

How AWS ACE actually works

ACE produces when a partner runs it as a co-sell motion, not a compliance form. The order below is what separates partners the AWS field engages from partners it ignores.

1. Register opportunities early and cleanly. Log deals in the Partner Central pipeline manager with real customer detail and stage, while they are still shapeable. A late, thin registration gives the AWS field nothing to act on.

2. Meet the eligibility bar for co-sell. Reach the partner tier and validation status that unlock AWS-originated referrals and funding. Sharing your pipeline is what earns the right to receive theirs.

3. Build the relationship with a partner development rep. Treat your AWS partner development or partner sales rep as a working counterpart, not a portal. A named human on the AWS side is what turns a registered opportunity into a warm introduction to the account team.

4. Keep the pipeline current. Update stages and outcomes so the shared view stays accurate. A stale ACE pipeline erodes trust with the AWS field the same way a stale forecast erodes trust with a CRO.

5. Close the loop on outcomes and funding. Track which registered deals the AWS field actually influenced and tie that back to funding claimed and revenue won, so the program is measured rather than assumed.

Common pitfalls

• Treating ACE as data entry. A partner that logs opportunities to satisfy a portal, with no relationship behind them, gets validation and nothing else. The registration is the start of a co-sell motion, not the end of a task.

• Registering late. Deals shared after they are effectively closed give the AWS field no room to help. Early, honest registration is what makes co-sell support possible.

• Ignoring the partner development rep. The named AWS counterpart is what turns a registration into an introduction. A partner who never builds that relationship is registering into a void.

• Letting the pipeline go stale. Outdated stages and missing outcomes make the shared view untrustworthy, and an untrustworthy pipeline gets deprioritized by the AWS field.

• Not measuring influence and funding. A partner that cannot tie ACE-registered deals to influenced revenue and claimed funding cannot prove the program works or argue for more support.

What this looks like in practice

A software company building on AWS was registering opportunities in ACE but seeing nothing come back from the AWS field. When we looked, the registrations were thin and late, logged the week a deal was about to close, with no partner development relationship behind them. We changed two things. First, opportunities went into the pipeline manager early, with real customer context, while there was still room for AWS to help. Second, the alliance lead started treating the AWS partner development rep as a weekly working counterpart, sharing the account list and asking for specific introductions. Within a quarter the AWS field began routing referrals back, funding became accessible on qualifying deals, and the co-sell pipeline the company could attribute to AWS grew from noise to a number the CRO tracked. Nothing about the tool changed. The motion behind it did.

Forecastable’s POV

ACE is where I see the most co-sell value left unclaimed, because partners treat it as a form instead of a relationship. Registering an opportunity is not co-selling. It is the request to co-sell. The value comes from what happens after registration: the partner development rep who knows your name, the account team who takes the introduction, the funding that becomes available because you have shown the AWS field where you are active. A partner that logs deals and stops has done the paperwork and skipped the work.

The principle underneath it is bidirectionality, and it is the same one that governs every co-sell motion I install. You share your pipeline so AWS can bring its field. AWS shares its referrals so you can grow. The moment one side treats the other as a lead-capture tool rather than a partner, the flow stops. The partners who win in ACE are the ones who keep the shared pipeline honest and the relationship human.

Forecastable runs the co-sell motion as part of the service, and the senior team uses the platform to connect the opportunities a partner shares with the AWS field back to CRM pipeline and revenue, so the program is measured, not assumed. The judgment about which deals to register and which introductions to ask for is human. The tracking that proves ACE produced is software. Both are what turn a cloud relationship into sourced pipeline.

Forecastable is an independent third-party professional services company. Our observations are based on publicly available information as of August 2026 and our own client experience.

Frequently asked questions

What does AWS ACE stand for?
AWS ACE stands for APN Customer Engagements, the program inside AWS Partner Central where partners register and co-sell opportunities with AWS. It connects a partner’s pipeline to the AWS field for co-sell support, introductions, and funding.

How do partners use AWS ACE?
Partners submit opportunities and referrals in the Partner Central pipeline manager with customer, deal size, and stage detail. AWS validates the opportunity, and eligible partners can then share deals with AWS account teams and receive AWS-originated referrals in return.

What are the benefits of AWS ACE?
Access to the AWS field for co-sell, referrals routed back from AWS, eligibility for funding programs, and visibility into where a partner is active. The benefits scale with the partner’s tier, validation status, and the strength of the partner development relationship.

Why is my AWS ACE pipeline not producing?
Usually because registrations are late and thin, or there is no partner development relationship behind them. Registering early with real context and treating the AWS partner development rep as a working counterpart is what turns registrations into co-sell.

How does AWS ACE relate to co-selling?
ACE is the registration and sharing layer of an AWS co-sell motion. Registering an opportunity is the request to co-sell; the value comes from the bidirectional flow of pipeline and referrals between the partner and the AWS field that follows.

How do you measure AWS ACE performance?
By tying ACE-registered opportunities to AWS-influenced revenue and funding claimed, not by counting registrations. Registrations describe effort; influenced pipeline and won revenue describe outcome and justify more AWS support.

Next step

Look at your ACE pipeline and ask whether the AWS field is sending anything back. If referrals only flow one way, the fix is not more registrations; it is earlier, cleaner ones and a real working relationship with your partner development rep.

Start your growth journey now and we will turn your AWS co-sell into a measured motion. You can also see how this fits our wider partner program work.