AWS is retiring the standalone Partner Central portal and moving into the AWS Management Console. After that date, legacy co-sell tools lose access to pipelines, funding workflows, and reseller approvals. No grace period. Here's what's changing and what your alliance team needs to do right now.
Check Your Status - No Credit Card RequiredDeadline
September 30, 2026
Legacy System
System Expires
With Vela
< 30 minutes
For years, ISVs managing co-sell pipeline between their CRM and AWS have used the standalone AWS Partner Central portal — a separate authentication realm with its own login, its own dashboard, and its own API. AWS has decided to retire this experience entirely by September 30, 2026. On that date, the standalone portal closes, and all Partner Central functionality moves into the AWS Management Console.
This is not a feature deprecation or a gradual sunsetting. It is an authentication and portal architecture change. After September 30, 2026, any ISV co-sell tool, any integration, and any workflow still pointing to the legacy standalone portal will break. Immediately.
What breaks after September 30:
Opportunities submitted through non-compliant integrations will not reach your AWS PDM. Deals in flight stop moving. Pipeline that took months to build becomes inaccessible overnight. No error. No notification. Just silence.
AWS PRM compliance is tied directly to funding eligibility. ISVs on non-compliant integrations lose access to MDF claims, co-sell development funds, and partner incentive programs on September 30. For ISVs with active marketing campaigns and customer acquisitions tied to MDF funding, this is a revenue cliff.
Private offer workflows and reseller authorization chains running through legacy connectors will fail silently or reject outright. Channel partners waiting on approval get stranded. No escalation path. Support tickets reference "portal retirement."
While the AWS migration is the most urgent compliance event, Azure introduced its own mandatory field requirement in January 2026 that is already affecting ISVs today. All API-based Azure co-sell referral submissions must now include the Marketplace Intent field.
Submissions missing this field fail silently or are rejected without notification. Most ISVs on older Azure sync integrations do not know their submissions are failing. If your Azure co-sell acceptance rate has dropped unexpectedly in 2026, a missing Marketplace Intent field is the most likely cause.
Simultaneously, Microsoft's App Accelerate program launched in 2026, opening a new nomination-based co-sell pathway for ISVs below the $100K ACR threshold. This is a net-new buyer segment entering the co-sell ecosystem for the first time. ISVs below that threshold now have a formal on-ramp, but the prerequisite requires an active transactable Azure Marketplace listing.
App Accelerate eligibility requires your SaaS offer to be listed as a transactable application on the Microsoft commercial marketplace. This requires implementing three integration surfaces: the SaaS Fulfillment API v2 (landing page + resolve/activate flow), a webhook endpoint for lifecycle events, and (if you use custom meters) the Marketplace Metering Service API for usage reporting.
Vela has built a complete reference implementation of this integration, captured as the "Azure Marketplace Transactable SaaS Billing API — End-to-End Implementation" guide. The guide covers the full SaaS Fulfillment v2 flow, webhook security and ACK patterns, metering service rate limits and 24-hour window management, and includes working Node.js reference code for every integration point.
If your engineering team is building this from Microsoft Learn docs and SDKs, it typically takes 4–6 weeks. With the reference implementation, most ISVs complete it in 1–2 weeks. Vela can share this guide with your team as a starting point.
Vela has migrated fully to the AWS Partner Central API for Selling, replacing all legacy batch sync patterns with direct API connectivity. Our customers are not exposed to the September 30 cutoff. ACE opportunities, funding requests, and reseller workflows run on the current, certified AWS integration. No legacy connectors. No sunset risk.
Vela's co-sell sync layer includes the mandatory Marketplace Intent field in every Azure referral submission. Your co-sell acceptance rates will not drop due to a missing field. We validate the intent value at submission time and ensure every referral reaches Microsoft's referral inbox.
For ISVs entering Microsoft's App Accelerate program, Vela provides the complete "Azure Marketplace Transactable SaaS Billing API — End-to-End Implementation" guide, covering SaaS Fulfillment API v2, webhook lifecycle handling, and the Marketplace Metering Service API with working Node.js code. Your engineering team can accelerate their build from 4–6 weeks to 1–2 weeks using this reference.
Get a 15-minute technical review of your co-sell and funding pipelines to identify any legacy connector risk in your current setup.
Start Your Technical ReviewFor alliance teams switching from a legacy connector or DIY integration, onboarding to Vela requires no migration project. Provide your AWS credentials (an IAM role with read-only access to Partner Central data) and Vela connects directly to your account. Real-time API access activates immediately. Your co-sell opportunities, funding requests, reseller workflows, and compliance data begin syncing within minutes.
No engineering resources. No sprint planning. No downtime. No data loss. Your historical pipeline remains in your CRM; Vela syncs future opportunities and funding state forward.
The entire onboarding process takes under 30 minutes from the moment you connect your first cloud account to the moment your alliance team is seeing live data in Vela.
What happens if I miss the AWS Partner Central 3.0 migration deadline?
On September 30, 2026, any tool or integration still routing through the legacy standalone Partner Central portal will lose access to co-sell opportunities, funding workflows, reseller approvals, and solution metadata. There is no grace period and no fallback. Your pipeline visibility and funding access become unavailable immediately.
How do I know if my current co-sell tool will stop working after September 30?
The easiest way to check: ask your co-sell tool vendor directly, "Do you use the AWS Partner Central API for Selling, or are you still using an older integration pattern?" If they're unclear, or if the tool was built more than 18 months ago without recent updates, it's likely using a legacy approach. Vela offers a free 15-minute technical review to assess your current setup and identify any risk.
What is the Azure Marketplace Intent field requirement?
Microsoft's commercial marketplace requires every co-sell referral submission to include a Marketplace Intent field, indicating whether the customer is interested in purchasing from the marketplace, evaluating the product, or neither. This field became mandatory in January 2026. Submissions missing this field fail silently. Vela populates this field automatically on every Azure referral submission.
How long does migrating to AWS Partner Central API for Selling take?
If you're switching to Vela, the entire onboarding takes under 30 minutes from credential connect to live syncing. If you're building a custom integration to the Selling API yourself, it typically takes 2–4 weeks for a small team, depending on your existing infrastructure. The Selling API is well-documented, but the implementation involves resolving tenant credentials, handling OAuth, mapping your CRM schema to the API contract, and testing reseller/funding workflows.
What is the AWS Partner Central 3.0 deadline for ISVs?
September 30, 2026. On this date, AWS is retiring the standalone Partner Central portal and consolidating all functionality into the AWS Management Console. Any integration or tool still pointing to the old portal will lose access to co-sell pipelines, funding requests, and reseller workflows. There is no extension.
Check your current AWS sync status and confirm your alliance team's pipeline stays live across the migration.
Start Free Trial - No Credit Card Required