# Planning large VDI migrations to the AWS Cloud
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*Martin Guenthner, Amazon Web Services (AWS)*

*December 2023* ([document history](doc-history.md))

In the migration space, large-scale migrations of applications are a well-established pattern. Many organizations also need to migrate virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs). However, because VDIs are end-user facing and have special requirements, in terms of availability, accessibility, and provisioning, this type of migration requires special considerations and planning compared to typical large-scale migrations.

This guide describes multiple architectural decision points for planning a large-scale migration of on-premises VDIs to the AWS Cloud. It also includes some additional recommendations for migrating from a Citrix environment, but these recommendations can also apply to other source technology stacks.

This guide helps you plan a large VDI migration to the AWS Cloud by providing a checklist of decisions that you'll need to make during the migration. As you complete the checklist, you'll be making informed decisions about the migration and the target architecture, which includes [Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ec2/) instances and [Amazon FSx](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/WindowsGuide/what-is.html) file shares.

The technical and non-technical considerations in this guide can also be used to evaluate alternatives to traditional VDI solutions, such as [Amazon WorkSpaces](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/latest/adminguide/amazon-workspaces.html) or [Amazon WorkSpaces Applications](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appstream2/latest/developerguide/what-is-appstream.html). As part of your migration planning, we recommend that you do a feasibility assessment to consider migrating to these services.

## Intended audience
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This guide is intended for VDI platform owners who are considering a platform migration to AWS, storage architects who support the migration approach, and compliance and risk teams who guide the decision-making process for reliability requirements.