AWS consulting services: what they include and how to choose a partner
Country Manager, Sweden
AI, DevOps, Security, and Cloud Solutioning. 12+ years leading enterprise cloud transformation across Scandinavia
AWS consulting services help organisations plan, build, migrate and optimise workloads on Amazon Web Services. They are delivered either by AWS Professional Services, Amazon's own consulting arm, or by AWS Partners such as Opsio. Typical work covers cloud strategy, architecture, migration, security, cost optimisation and DevOps, ending in a handover or a managed service.
Key takeaways
- "AWS consulting" means two different suppliers: AWS Professional Services, or one of the AWS Partners validated in the AWS Partner Network. Mid-sized projects are usually delivered by partners.
- Common engagements are readiness assessments, landing zones, migrations, Well-Architected reviews, cost optimisation, security and compliance, and DevOps or platform builds.
- Check a partner's tier and validated competencies in the AWS Partner Solutions Finder, and ask for references with similar workloads.
- Migrations can qualify for AWS funding through the Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), usually arranged by a Migration Competency partner.
- Agree up front on deliverables, knowledge transfer and who runs the environment after go-live.
What are AWS consulting services?
AWS consulting services are professional services that help you use AWS well. A consultant brings architecture, migration and operations experience so your team does not have to learn every lesson on production systems.
There are two kinds of provider:
- AWS Professional Services: Amazon's own consulting organisation, usually engaged for large enterprise programmes, and able to work alongside partners.
- AWS Partners: independent consulting firms and managed service providers in the AWS Partner Network. Partners hold tiers (Select, Advanced, Premier) and can earn AWS Competencies that AWS validates through technical reviews and customer references.
What do AWS consulting services include?
Scope varies by provider, but most engagements fall into one of these areas.
| Service | What you get | Typical trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud strategy and readiness assessment | Inventory of applications, a business case, a migration approach per workload and a roadmap | Data centre contract ending, a board-level cloud decision |
| Landing zone and governance | Multi-account structure, identity, network, logging and guardrails built as code | Starting on AWS, or cleaning up accounts that grew without a plan |
| Migration | Rehost, replatform or refactor of workloads, with cut-over planning and testing | Moving from VMware, physical servers or another cloud |
| Architecture and Well-Architected review | Assessment against the six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, with a prioritised fix list | Before go-live, after incidents, or yearly |
| Security and compliance | Security baseline, logging and detection, encryption, and mapping to ISO 27001, NIS2 or GDPR | Audits, new regulation, customer requirements |
| Cost optimisation and FinOps | Rightsizing, Savings Plans, tagging, budgets and reporting | Cloud bill growing faster than usage |
| DevOps and platform engineering | CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, containers (ECS, EKS) and observability | Slow releases, manual deployments |
| Data and AI | Data platforms, analytics and generative AI on services such as Amazon Bedrock | New data products or AI use cases |
How does an AWS consulting engagement work?
Most projects follow five stages, whatever the provider calls them.
- Discovery and assessment. The consultant maps your current environment, dependencies, costs, skills and compliance needs. Our AWS readiness assessment guide shows what a good assessment covers.
- Design. Target architecture, landing zone, security model, a migration strategy per workload and a cost estimate.
- Build and migrate. Infrastructure as code, pilot migrations, then waves of workloads with testing and rollback plans.
- Optimise. Performance tuning, rightsizing, Savings Plans and a Well-Architected review once workloads are live.
- Handover or run. Documentation and training for your team, or a move into a managed service with agreed SLAs.
Short engagements, such as a Well-Architected review, take a few weeks. A data centre migration can run for months, delivered in waves.
AWS Professional Services or an AWS Partner?
| Factor | AWS Professional Services | AWS Partner |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Large, strategic programmes and complex enterprise estates | Most projects, from a single workload to a full migration |
| Scope | AWS services only | AWS, plus often hybrid, Microsoft 365, other clouds and day-to-day operations |
| After go-live | Usually hands over to you or a partner | Many partners also run the environment as a managed service |
| Local presence | Varies by country | Choose a partner with offices, language and time-zone overlap in your region |
How to choose an AWS consulting partner
- Verify tier and competencies. Look the partner up in the AWS Partner Solutions Finder. AWS Competencies and Specializations are validated through technical assessments and customer success examples, so they say more than certification counts.
- Ask for comparable references. Same type of workload, similar size and, ideally, the same regulatory context.
- Check who does the work. Meet the architects and engineers, not only the account team. Ask about their AWS certifications.
- Agree on deliverables. Architecture documents, infrastructure-as-code repositories you own, runbooks and a training plan.
- Clarify the run model. Who operates the environment after go-live, with what SLAs, and what that costs.
- Ask about funding. Partners can apply for AWS programmes on your behalf, such as MAP for migrations.
How much do AWS consulting services cost?
There is no list price. Providers quote fixed-price packages for defined work (such as an assessment or a Well-Architected review), time and materials for open-ended projects, or a monthly fee for ongoing consulting combined with managed services. The main cost drivers are the number of workloads, how much refactoring is needed, compliance requirements and how much your own team does.
For migrations, the AWS Migration Acceleration Program follows three phases: Assess, Mobilize, and Migrate and Modernize. It combines tools, training, expertise from Migration Competency partners and AWS investment to offset initial migration costs. Eligibility and funding depend on the size of the migration. See our explainer on how AWS MAP works.
Example: from one data centre to a multi-AZ AWS foundation
ET Network ran its services from a single data centre, without enough redundancy for a growing customer base and rising demands on availability and security. It engaged Opsio as its cloud architecture partner. As the ET Network case describes, Opsio designed and built a cloud-native architecture on AWS. The design covers high availability across multiple Availability Zones, automated infrastructure provisioning, containerised workloads and security controls. Opsio worked at every level, from project management and architecture to deployment and testing, using a DevOps delivery model the in-house team could keep evolving.
How Opsio helps
Opsio is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner with the AWS Migration Competency, with offices in Karlstad, Sweden and Bangalore, India. Our AWS consulting covers assessments, landing zones, AWS migration, Well-Architected reviews, security, DevOps and FinOps. After go-live we can run the environment under our AWS managed service.
Frequently asked questions
What does an AWS consultant do?
An AWS consultant assesses your environment, designs the target architecture on AWS, and helps build, migrate and secure workloads. They also optimise cost and performance, and either train your team to run the environment or hand it to a managed service.
Does Amazon offer consulting services?
Yes. AWS Professional Services is Amazon's own consulting organisation. AWS consulting is also delivered by AWS Partners, which AWS validates through partner tiers, Competencies and Specializations.
What is the difference between AWS consulting and AWS managed services?
Consulting is project work with a defined outcome, such as a migration or a review. Managed services are ongoing operations under an SLA: monitoring, patching, backup, security and cost control. Many organisations use one partner for both, so the people who built the environment also run it.
How do I verify an AWS partner?
Search for the company in the AWS Partner Solutions Finder. Its listing shows the partner tier, validated Competencies and Specializations, and published customer references.
Can AWS fund a migration project?
Often, yes. Through the Migration Acceleration Program, AWS can invest in assessment, mobilisation and migration for qualifying projects. A Migration Competency partner usually helps prepare the business case and apply.
Related reading: aws cloud consulting services.
Related Articles
About the Author
Country Manager, Sweden
Johan leads Opsio's Sweden operations, driving AI adoption, DevOps transformation, security strategy, and cloud solutioning for Nordic enterprises. With 12+ years in enterprise cloud infrastructure, he has delivered 200+ projects across AWS, Azure, and GCP — specialising in Well-Architected reviews, landing zone design, and multi-cloud strategy.
Editorial standards: This article was written by a certified practitioner, named in the byline above. We revise it when the technology or regulation it covers changes; the dates above show the latest update. Opsio maintains editorial independence — we recommend solutions on technical merit, not commercial relationships.
