Migrating With AWS Application Migration Service

With the ever-changing nature of the digital world, today’s businesses seek ways to efficiently migrate their applications to the cloud.

AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN) comes off strong as a partner in simplifying the process with which organizations can make their move to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Let’s understand the details of AWS MGN to see for whom this service is the most beneficial, what its array of advantages is, practical use cases, and major things to consider on the journey of migration. Small startups or large enterprises—all can benefit from understanding how AWS MGN can facilitate their cloud migration to achieve optimal performance and scalability at minimal risk.

What is AWS Application Migration Service?

AWS MGN is an automated lift-and-shift solution that simplifies the process and accelerates the migration of servers into AWS. It replicates source servers into AWS and automatically converts them for cloud use, which reduces downtime and compatibility issues. Applications can then be re-platformed or re-factored to take advantage of AWS services, offering a rapid path to modernization.

The Best-Fit Scenarios for AWS Application Migration Service

Large-scale migration with multiple migration waves: This strategy is ideal for data center exits and large-scale migrations where time constraints are not easy to manage. Here, the applications would be migrated in pre-planned waves, balancing downtime and effort. Applying one uniform migration approach to all systems allows for a simplified process that accommodates size and speed requirements.
Single application migration that requires minimal downtime: It is ideal for the migration of business-critical applications with minimal or near-zero downtime. If the application’s downtime fits within MGN’s recovery time objective, it can be treated similarly to large-scale migrations.

What Are the Advantages?

Cost-effective: One tool supports multiple use cases, which reduces the number of tools required or specialized skills. It is also cost-effective with AWS pay-as-you-go pricing and a free 90-day period per server.
Easy setup: Replication is easy and intuitive; therefore, the setup time is quick, and it does not require any specialized training.
Rapid scaling: MGN provides the functionality to scale quickly by deploying agents on the source machines, hence managing large migrations in no time.
Automation: Most of the manual work is automated by the Cloud Migration Factory, managed across multiple servers, and orchestrated in migration waves, speeding up the process and reducing errors.
Wide OS support: MGN supports a wide range of x86 operating system architectures, thus being able to fit into most enterprise environments.
Source environment flexibility: MGN supports migrations from any source environment, such as on-premise environments, other clouds, or AWS regions, for seamless transitions.
Application-agnostic: Works with any application running on source servers to provide broad compatibility and flexibility.
Modernization opportunities: MGN allows for modernization at migration, including the implementation of disaster recovery or operating system conversion, among others, thus making the transition to the cloud smoother.

What Are the Use Cases?

· On-Premises Applications

AWS MGN is an incredible way to migrate on-premise applications from environments such as SAP, Oracle, and SQL Server into AWS. Running either on physical servers, VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or other infrastructure, MGN offers a lift-and-shift migration that is second to none. With MGN, your source servers—be they physical or virtual—are replicated to your AWS account; further, it automatically converts those when you’re ready to launch on AWS. You may quickly and simply re-platform or re-factor your apps once they are operating on AWS by utilizing AWS services and capabilities.

· Cloud-Based Applications

AWS MGN also supports the migration of applications from other public clouds into AWS. With this transition, access is unlocked to AWS’s comprehensive portfolio of more than 200 services aimed at driving innovation, reducing costs, and improving availability. For example, organizations can achieve up to 66% in infrastructure cost savings, up to a 77% reduction in licensing requirements, and even a 43% faster time-to-market for newer features (AWS Cloud Migration). It provides necessary technical, operational, and organizational support to allow seamless cloud transformation.

· Between AWS Regions

AWS MGN simplifies the migration of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) workloads across AWS Regions, Availability Zones, or Accounts. This flexibility helps organizations meet business, compliance, and resilience needs. For instance, workloads may need to be relocated to a region closer to company offices or data centers for improved performance. Alternatively, balancing workloads across multiple regions can enhance disaster recovery and operational resilience. The re-hosting approach that MGN follows makes the migration of EC2-hosted workloads between regions a bit easier without complex reconfigurations.

· Application Modernization

Beyond migration itself, AWS MGN can modernize applications during and/or after the migration process is complete. Users can choose their own or make use of built-in modernization actions such as cross-region disaster recovery, upgrading Windows Server versions, or converting Windows MS-SQL BYOL to AWS licenses. The enhanced post-launch template allows users to configure AWS Systems Manager documents and parameters to optimally tune applications for the cloud with better performance, reliability, and scalability.

What Are Some Considerations?

Clustered system migrations: Systems with shared block storage, like Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) and Microsoft SQL Server Always On availability groups, have very specific migration procedures that might require longer cutover windows.
High data change rate systems: Systems characterized by high rates of data changes, such as Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) databases, may require greater performance or network capacity and, therefore, be more complex to migrate.
Adequate network bandwidth: The network bandwidth shall be able to handle data transfer during the migration and cutover window. AWS MGN does not offer an offline shipping option, such as AWS Snowball.
Downtime window: A brief downtime window (within an RTO of minutes) is expected for migration. Elastic Block Store (EBS) disks created from snapshots may have reduced performance at the start, which can extend the time required for databases to reach full performance after cutover.

Conclusion

Migrating to the cloud is the most important step to making your business agile, cost-effective, and highly scalable. AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN) makes this migration smooth and seamless with its powerful automated solution that provides minimum downtime, yet maximum flexibility. Whether it be migrating on-premises systems, moving between AWS Regions, or modernizing applications, AWS MGN offers a streamlined approach, independent of application type, which reduces risk and accelerates your cloud adoption journey. AWS MGN supports large-scale migrations, single applications, and a variety of source environments. Therefore, it enables businesses to re-host easily to AWS while building a foundation for continued innovation and optimization.

Is your organization ready for AWS migration? With a comprehensive experience and proven methodology, zCon Solutions helps organizations migrate smoothly. Our professional team combines automated assessment with data migration techniques for the re-engineering of applications that best fit the cloud. Our migration strategy is specifically fitted to your needs, setting you up for long-term success. Contact us today to begin your AWS migration journey with confidence.