AWS Exec: Revamping MAP Program Is ‘Game-Changing’ For Partners

“[MAP] is going to include AI new builds in addition to the migrations. This means it’s not just for migrations. So it’s not just something moving onto AWS, it’s actually the creation of AI workloads on AWS that will count for MAP,” AWS’ Julia Chen tells CRN.

Amazon Web Services partner program leader Julia Chen believes the new changes being made inside its Migration Acceleration Program will be “game-changing” for AWS partners.

“[MAP] is going to include AI new builds in addition to the migrations,” Chen, vice president of Partner Core, tells CRN. “This means it’s not just for migrations. So it’s not just something moving onto AWS, it’s actually the creation of AI workloads on AWS that will count for MAP.”

MAP is AWS’ most popular cloud migration funding program which is evolving from a migration program into a unified investment vehicle, Chen said.

[Related: Cloud Market Share Q1 2026: AWS, Microsoft, Google Battling In AI Era]

AWS has consolidated what were previously separate, overlapping programs into one unified program that allows partners to move faster and include funding for AI-based new builds for the first time ever.

“It is something that we need and everyone’s asking for,” Chen said. “Right now, the catalyst actually for a lot of migration and modernization, is these AI augmented business outcomes. So we want to make sure that we include all of this because we want MAP to be a holistic program.”

Additionally, AWS MAP has also introduced performance-based rewards including enhanced pre-sales benefits, faster deploy payments, delivery excellence badges, and greater visibility through its Solution Matching Engine.

MAP Deploys AWS Transform; New Rewards

AWS’ MAP program can now deploy AI-powered workflows including AWS Transform to reduce delivery costs, speed approvals, and cut administrative friction.

“AWS Transform, which is our tool that will help our partners and our customers to accelerate migration faster and modernization, is a tool that comes alongside MAP as well now and we really encourage our partners to use it,” Chen said.

“It can help with VMware migrations, mainframe modernization, various other different modernization and migration use cases. So the two of them together, the expansion of MAP and also the advent of the AWS Transform into the market, we think is going to be game changing for our partners,” she said.

Partner Migrations Have Grown 400 Percent Since 2020

Since the relaunch of MAP in 2020, partner migrations have grown nearly 400 percent with 167 percent more partners now leveraging MAP, Chen said.

“This program has been hugely successful,” she said. “We don’t want our partners having to go to many different places to get the funding for something that’s so fundamental as AI augmented business outcomes that pulls through migration and modernization. So that’s the reasoning behind the expansion of MAP,” Chen said.

AWS generated $37.6 billion in total sales during the first quarter of 2026, representing a 28 percent revenue increase year over year.

The Seattle-based worldwide cloud leader now has an annual run rate of $150 billion.