Businesses are seeing a massive shift from on-premise to cloud-based data centers. And most companies are choosing AWS as their remote data services due to the following metrics:

• AWS continuously reduces costs, with the initial price revised 107 times since its launch.

• AWS infrastructure has 3.6x higher energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprint.

If data security and scalability are a priority, AWS application migration is the right choice for your business.

Benefits of AWS application migration

Here are the top 3 benefits you should consider. 

1. Increased user productivity

AWS application users lose less time due to server downtime, outages, and reloads. As a result, the servers are highly efficient, leading to greater productivity and profitability for the users.

1. Centralization and scalability

Companies looking to scale need to run multiple servers for data storage. With AWS, you get a centralized data infrastructure that gives higher control over planning, testing, and spending.

1. Reduced costs

AWS has different plan tiers, including an always free one. Migrating to AWS is simple with the management console, and companies only need to pay for what they use after opting for free or short-term trials. 

Every company requires a unique AWS migration process, depending on their short and long-term goals. But every AWS application migration has the same three basic steps.

What is the process for AWS application migration

Here's a 3-step process on a broad level. 

Step #1: Assess requirements

The assessment process measures the amount of data to be migrated to cloud servers. It also checks the readiness of data, estimated costs, and expected results of the migration.

Moreover, you also need to analyze staff readiness as migrating to the cloud changes several work processes. 

Amazon offers excellent tools such as Migration Evaluator and Migration Hub that helps you calculate and optimize data and resources to be migration-ready. 

Step #2: Build a migration plan

The first step uncovers several goals and gaps that must be addressed while planning a migration. Some common migration strategies companies adopt include the forklift method and hybrid strategy. 

AWS data migration might be simple, but your data still needs to be ready to be moved to the cloud. Lifting data from legacy systems directly may seem feasible but can create issues such as data loss and misinterpretation in the long run. 

To avoid such complications, Amazon offers several tools to help you build a migration strategy. 

For instance, using AWS Management and Governance, you can create compliant and secure baselines that are cost-effective. 

The planning step also includes making your staff cloud-ready. 

Adopting a gradual migration plan and training for cloud fluency are steps to ensure continued productivity, even when your data center moves remote. 

Step #3: Migrate data

The complete migration process takes several weeks to months, depending on the technology networks and partners, the data readiness, and the migration scale. 

You can employ third-party data migration tools or choose manual migration if it is on a small scale. 

However, using Amazon-managed tools is a secure option as it can handle migration through various pathways, including direct networks and storage gateways. 

Once data migration is complete, you must continuously assess and optimize data for cost-effectiveness and security.

The bottom line

AWS migration is a highly-supported cloud infrastructure, with Amazon providing several tools and guides to make migration feasible. 

As most businesses look towards cost-effective and compliant options, AWS infrastructure has become the current best choice for cloud migration.