3 changes to AWS’ Migration Acceleration Program (MAP)

Written by Sarah Davis | Jul 25, 2025 4:00:00 AM

With the meteoric rise of cloud computing over the past 18 years, it was surprising to hear Andy Jassy proclaim during a Q1 financial reporting presentation that “at least 85% of global IT spend goes to on-prem infrastructure.”

Cloud platforms are eager to capture a larger portion of that on-prem spend. End users will be the ultimate winners as they shift away from their own infrastructure and adopt a cloud-native approach migrating to IaaS.

Enter: the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), which was recently updated to make migrating to AWS even more compelling and cost effective.

And the best part? By working with an AWS Premier Tier partner with the AWS Migration Competency like RapidScale, you can leverage the know-how to secure the maximum amount of MAP funding, as well as get expert help to architect and execute your move to AWS.

What Is AWS MAP?

According to Gartner, 83% of data migration projects fail or run over budget. AWS MAP is a cloud migration program that helps mitigate common migration pitfalls by providing the following:

Tools to reduce costs and accelerate migration
AWS investment and additional monetary incentives
Guidance and hands on keys from certified AWS MAP partners

The biggest benefits of MAP include:

Reduce and optimize your cloud migration costs to minimize tech debt
Receive significant funding from AWS for your migration
Migrate efficiently and easily with measurable ROI
Improve operational resilience re: agility, performance, security, and scalability

AWS MAP is intended for businesses with $100k+ in annual recurring revenue (ARR) from AWS workloads.

3 Major Changes to MAP

AWS is streamlining MAP to support its scale, speed, and evolution. These updates went into effect on July 1, 2024.

The three most notable AWS MAP updates are:

1. MAP Strategic Partner Incentives (SPIs)

SPIs provide incremental funding for Greenfield, VMware, and modernization customers.

Greenfield customers can get 10% (max $100k) of their ARR funded via partner cash.
VMware customers can get 10% (max $200k) of their ARR funded via partner cash.
Modernization customers with $500k+ in post-migration ARR can get 10% (max $100k) of their ARR funded via partner cash.

2. Scaled Funding & Partner Cash Investments

Businesses can earn up to $2 million in partner funding. Previously, the maximum funding available through MAP was $460k.

MAP Lite is available to businesses with a minimum $100k ARR, opening up the playing field from the previous minimum of $250k.

3. Simplified Approvals

The approval process is simplified into one consolidated AWS Business Approval. The funding structure is also simplified, and $1:$1 customer matching is no longer required.

AWS MAP Funding Simplified: MAP vs MAP Lite

	Assess	Mobilize	Migrate & Modernize
MAP ($500k-$10M ARR)	5% of ARR (max $75k)¹	20% of post-migration ARR1 Modernization SPI: 10% (max $100k) of ARR1\ Greenfield SPI: 10% (max $100k) of ARR1 VMware SPI: 10% (max $200k) of ARR1	25% of post-migration ARR² 10% of ARR for database & analytics² 50% of ARR in credits for SAP & Oracle apps²
MAP Lite ($100k-$500k ARR)	5% of ARR (max $75k)¹	Greenfield SPI: 10% (max $100k) of ARR¹ VMware SPI: 10% (max $200k) of ARR¹	15% of post-migration ARR² 10% of ARR for database & analytics² 50% of ARR in credits for SAP & Oracle apps² VMware: 10% of ARR²

1 – funding provided in partner cash
2 – funding provided in credits

If your ARR is under $100k, MAP can provide 15% of your post-migration ARR, plus credits for database & analytics, SAP & Oracle apps, and VMware.

What Pain Points Does AWS MAP Solve?

Cloud migrations can be chaotic. Businesses often sink precious time and money into cloud migrations that only cause headaches down the line, which require more time and money to fix. But high pain, low gain doesn’t have to be the name of game.

MAP doesn’t just offer tremendous discounts that impacts your bottom line. It also offers AWS experts who ensure your transition is successful.

With AWS MAP, you and your engineering team don’t have to worry about:

Data loss
System downtime
Security risks like data leakage or unauthorized access
Sinking sufficient resources and budget into migrating
Project overload, time constraints, or delays due to lack of internal staff

AWS MAP frees your business to optimize your cloud migration costs without sacrificing security, scalability, or resilience.

Using the AWS MAP Updates to Maximize Your Cloud Migration ROI

As your business scales, your cloud strategy should scale alongside it. With the 2024 updates to AWS MAP, you have a high-ROI growth opportunity to migrate to the cloud smoothly and cost-effectively.

RapidScale is a Certified MAP Partner with one of the deepest benches of certified experts in the industry. We make innovation easy. For a deeper dive into the potential funding available through AWS MAP, speak to an AWS solution specialist today.

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