Migrating to the cloud comes with attractive benefits that can significantly improve your company’s IT environment. But even experienced cloud engineers find the process overwhelming.
Luckily for everybody, AWS offers native tools to make your migration journey smooth and cost-effective. The complicated part is knowing which tools are available and when to use them.
An AWS migration tool is a specialized software solution built to facilitate the transfer of your data, applications, and workloads from on-premises environments or other cloud platforms to AWS.
AWS migration tools help automate and streamline various aspects of the migration process, such as data replication, server configuration, and dependency validation. They ensure that your migration is efficient, secure, and minimally disruptive to your operations.
When you use the right tools at the right time, you can achieve a smoother transition, reduce downtime, and ensure that your applications are optimized for the AWS cloud environment.
Let’s take a look at the different types of AWS migration tools to start getting familiar with their use cases.
AWS offers migration tools for the different phases of the migration process. Understanding the capabilities of these tools can help you choose the best ones for your needs.
It is important to note that within each of these categories of AWS migration tools, there are various options for different needs and use cases.
It's essential to evaluate which tools are most suitable for your organization based on specific criteria.
Before evaluating AWS migration tools, start by understanding your current infrastructure and defining migration goals. Start by analyzing your…
Look for user-friendly interfaces and tools that simplify the migration process.
When evaluating any migration tool, be sure to account for the following factors as well:
Armed with this information, you can properly evaluate what we consider to be the best AWS migration tools below.
Read our blog on The Benefits of Cloud Migration –And The Risks of Ignoring It here.
Choosing the right set of AWS migration tools can make or break the success of your cloud migration.
That’s why we’ve reviewed some of the best tools available to the public. We’ve highlighted their key features and benefits to help you make an informed decision.
We’ve organized these tools by their use cases in each AWS migration phase:
This tool is also known as “The AWS Cloud Adoption Readiness Tool” or CART. It’s designed to transform your idea of moving to the cloud into a detailed plan following AWS best practices.
CART provides a detailed roadmap and highlights areas that need improvement, all of which is essential for a successful migration plan.
The cloud readiness assessment begins with a survey that assesses your cloud migration readiness across six perspectives: business, people, process, platform, operations, and security.
After completing the survey, the tool generates a detailed report with a heatmap and radar chart, which helps in planning and communicating the cloud strategy with stakeholders.
Use cases: Organizations in the initial planning stages of cloud migration, businesses needing detailed readiness assessments, and companies looking to create a structured migration plan.
StratusGrid, a certified AWS Partner, can help your organization perform a Cloud Readiness Assessment. Contact us for a consultation here.
The AWS Migration Evaluator provides insights to build a data-driven business case for migration to AWS. This tool is particularly useful for justifying cloud migration costs and optimizing migration strategies
It analyzes your current infrastructure and workloads, and uses that data to offer a detailed cost analysis and migration planning resources. The AWS Migration Evaluator can help your organization make informed decisions and ensure a smooth transition to the cloud.
Use Cases: Businesses justifying cloud migration costs, organizations seeking to optimize their migration strategy, and enterprises requiring detailed financial planning for migration.
ADS automates the discovery of applications and their dependencies and provides crucial information about your company’s existing infrastructure. This is important for organizations with complex environments and large-scale migrations to calculate their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) when migrating to AWS.
Use cases: Enterprises with complex on-premises environments, organizations needing to map dependencies, and companies preparing for large-scale migrations.
AMS simplifies the migration process by automating the conversion of source servers to AWS.
It supports continuous data replication and non-disruptive testing. This approach minimizes manual processes and downtime during migration, making it suitable for lift-and-shift migration solutions.
Use cases: Companies needing a lift-and-shift migration, organizations requiring minimal downtime during migration, and businesses modernizing applications post-migration.
Migration Hub offers centralized tracking of migration progress across multiple AWS and partner solutions.
It offers visibility and control over the entire migration process, which makes it a great tool for managing multiple migrations.
The AWS Migration Hub collects server and application inventory data, offers network visualization, and supports various AWS and third-party tools.
Use cases: Enterprises managing multiple migrations, companies needing comprehensive migration tracking, and organizations using a variety of AWS migration tools.
Note: You can find other tools integrated into AWS Migration Hub such as AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) and AWS Server Migration Service (SMS). We’ll go over those tools later in this article.
Formerly named AWS Landing Zone, the AWS Control Tower helps organizations set up and govern a secure, multi-account AWS environment quickly and efficiently. Its features make this tool essential for organizations needing governance and rapid account setup.
Use cases: Enterprises needing governance over multiple AWS accounts and companies requiring automated account management.
Migration Hub Orchestrator automates and streamlines migration tasks across different AWS services with predefined workflow templates. It supports complex migration workflows and end-to-end tracking, and is useful for large-scale migrations.
Orchestrator supports the following tasks:
Use cases: Companies managing complex migration workflows, organizations needing end-to-end migration tracking, and businesses aiming to streamline their migration process.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) facilitates database migrations to AWS with minimal downtime and zero data loss.
It supports both homogeneous (migrating databases between the same type of database engine) and heterogeneous (migrating databases between different types of database engines) migrations, as well as continuous data replication. Therefore, it’s suitable for organizations with complex database environments.
In fact, AWS DMS supports migration between 20-plus database and analytics engines, including SQL Server.
Use cases: Organizations migrating databases with complex schemas and dependencies.
AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) automates the migration of on-premises servers to AWS. It’s ideal for enterprises with large server workloads
AWS SMS incrementally replicates your server VMs as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) to prepare your server virtual machines for deployment on Amazon EC2. This approach simplifies the migration process and minimizes downtime.
Use cases: Enterprises moving large server workloads, organizations seeking automated server migration, and businesses aiming to minimize downtime during server migration.
Now that we’ve explored the tools essential for planning and executing your AWS migration, let's take a look at the AWS tools specifically designed to streamline data transfer for your migration.
Efficient data transfer is extremely important for a seamless cloud migration. AWS offers several tools to ensure that data moves securely and efficiently between other environments and AWS.
Here are some of the top AWS tools for data transfer:
Using these AWS tools, your organization can efficiently transfer data and ensure a smooth and secure migration to the AWS cloud.
Don’t know where to start? Contact StratusGrid for a consultation on the right AWS migration tool to use for a secure and successful migration.
Whether you need help with initial assessments, choosing the right tools, or optimizing your migration strategy, we're here to support you.
MigrateOne is a specialized AWS migration program that leverages the combined expertise of StratusGrid and three other certified AWS Partners.
This program offers end-to-end migration services, from initial assessment and planning to execution and optimization.
By choosing MigrateOne, you benefit from the collective knowledge and experience of 4 leading AWS certified partners.
Ready to start your cloud migration journey with the best in the business? Contact us today to get started with MigrateOne and take the first step towards a seamless and efficient AWS migration.
We can also help you leverage the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) program to accelerate your cloud migration journey.
BONUS: Find Out if Your Organization is Ready for The Cloud ⤵️