# Best practices
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Choosing to retire applications can be a complex decision, especially during a migration to the AWS Cloud. The following sections provide best practices to use in your decision-making process.

**Topics**
+ [Consider a migration factory approach](best-practice-1.md)
+ [Identify and retire applications early in your migration](best-practice-2.md)
+ [Be data-driven and use discovery tooling to avoid disruptions](best-practice-3.md)
+ [Schedule a controlled stop](best-practice-4.md)
+ [Reassess if the application should be migrated](best-practice-5.md)
+ [Retire the application](best-practice-6.md)