Niche partners are those companies that offer very specific services on a type of technology, cloud, or area of focus. Often, these partners will be relatively small in size, but have some of the most experienced experts in their respective areas. They are used as subject matter experts on large projects or to own the delivery of a specific project in their area of expertise. At the stage of cloud computing today, there are niche SI partners that have a core competency in specific cloud vendors, and even specific services at one or all of the cloud vendors. The scale of this partner is not the driving force behind being selected for a customer requirement; their technical depth in the chosen area is the area to focus on. When evaluating niche SI partners, customers should consider the certifications of individual resources on the respective technologies, delivery time frames, and customer references where similar work has been done. Niche SI partners are often used to consult on cloud native design and architecture, big data architecture and data structure requirements, or security and compliance for specific industries or requirements.

An anti-pattern for using a niche SI partner is their ability to scale their people beyond their core competency.