For the 16th consecutive year, Gartner has recognized Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, and once again placed AWS highest on the Ability to Execute axis. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the longest-running Leader in this Magic Quadrant.

In Gartner’s words: “Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. AWS offers a comprehensive range of AI, cloud infrastructure, platform and transformation services, targeting a broad array of requirements and use cases.”

According to Gartner, “Leaders distinguish themselves by offering a set of services suitable for strategic adoption and having an ambitious and well-aligned roadmap. They can serve a broad range of use cases, although they do not excel in all areas, may not necessarily be the best providers for a specific need and may not serve some use cases at all. Leaders in this market have appreciable market share and many referenceable customers.”

There are three areas where we believe AWS continues to deliver significant value for customers.

Where AWS is delivering value

A deep ecosystem that compounds. AWS has the broadest partner network, the largest pool of certified practitioners, and the most extensive training and certification programs in cloud computing. That ecosystem effect compounds: more partners build on AWS, more talent trains on AWS, and more customers benefit from a broader pool of both.

A commercially coherent approach to agentic AI. When I talk to customers, the pattern is clear: they do not need another model marketplace. They need the security, governance, and operational tooling to move agents from prototype to production. That is what AWS delivers, with Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, and a framework-agnostic architecture designed so you can bring the agent framework and models of your choice.

Meeting customers where they are, across clouds. Enterprises operate across multiple clouds and on-premises environments. AWS Interconnect, AWS Systems Manager, and the broader multi-cloud management portfolio provide managed connectivity and operational tooling across providers. Meeting customers where they are, even when that means operating across multiple providers, is not a concession. It is a commitment to solving the real problem.

One of the capabilities Gartner highlighted is transformation. Here is why that matters.

Every enterprise I work with is facing the same collision: leadership wants agentic AI in production, but the applications and infrastructure that would support those agents have not been touched in a decade or more. Mainframe systems still run claims processing. Windows applications still run core financials. VMware environments still host hundreds of production workloads. Technical debt is not a backlog item anymore. It is the barrier between you and the AI strategy your CEO announced last quarter.

This is the problem AWS Transform was built to solve. AWS Transform is the only unified service that modernizes across all workload types: mainframe (COBOL, PL/I), .NET, Java, Windows Server, SQL Server, VMware infrastructure, and custom applications. One workspace, shared governance, natural language experience.

What makes this approach different from tools that rely solely on large language models is the deterministic AI Knowledge Graph underneath. It maps the full application landscape, resolves cross-program dependencies from source (including copybooks), and delivers traceable, bounded outputs. Every transformation step traces back to the original business logic. Full human-in-the-loop checkpoints ensure you stay in control.

The results speak for themselves. ADP extracted over 8,000 undocumented business rules from more than 200 programs and is now scaling for 1.1 million clients with results in weeks, not years. Experian transformed 687,000 lines of .NET code. And across the broader customer base, four out of five customers come back and expand to additional projects.

Partners compound this further. Accenture, Capgemini, HCLTech, Kyndryl, and Wavicle build and monetize differentiated capabilities on the Transform service while retaining full ownership of their IP. The Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) can fund partner-led assessment phases, removing the evaluation barrier entirely.

Key takeaways

• AWS is the longest-running Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, placed highest on Ability to Execute.
• AWS continues to invest across three key areas: a deep partner and practitioner ecosystem, a commercially coherent approach to agentic AI, and meeting customers where they operate across clouds.
• Technical debt across mainframe, Windows, and VMware environments is now the primary barrier to AI adoption. AWS Transform provides a unified, deterministic, partner-extensible path to modernization across all workload types.
• Customers are completing transformation projects in weeks that previously took years, and the majority expand to additional projects after their first engagement.

Get the report

Download the full 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services to see the complete evaluation.

To learn more about how AWS Transform can help you modernize your applications and infrastructure, visit aws.amazon.com/transform.

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Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, By Alessandro Galimberti, Carolin Zhou, Douglas Toombs, Dennis Smith, Ed Anderson, Tobi Bet, Chuck Lawton, 1 September 2026