4.1 Migration Assessment

Migration Strategies (The 7 Rs) - Cheatsheet

StrategyAlso known asDescriptionUse Case
RehostLift and ShiftAutomate moving VM to EC2.Speed is critical. No code changes.
ReplatformLift, Tinker, ShiftMove to Managed Service (RDS, Elastic Beanstalk).Reduce admin overhead. Optimization.
RefactorRe-architectRewrite app (Microservices, Serverless).Cloud-native features. Scaling/Performance required.
RepurchaseDrop and ShopSwitch to SaaS (Salesforce, Workday).Replace legacy software entirely.
RelocateHypervisor ShiftVMware Cloud on AWS.Move vSphere VMs without conversion.
RetainDo NothingKeep as-is.App not ready or dependency issues.
RetireDecommissionShut down.Redundant apps.

Assessment Services

AWS Application Discovery Service

  • Function: Discovery of on-prem servers.
  • Agentless: Uses OVA file in VMware. Collects config and performance.
  • Agent-based: Installs on OS (Linux/Windows). clearer dependency mapping and process-level details.

AWS Migration Hub

  • Function: Tracks the status of migrations across multiple tools (DMS, MGN, SMS).
  • Home Region: You pick a “Home Region” to store status data (status data is regional; migrations can be anywhere).