Migration Launch Guide

This guide offers guidance on the resources that customers commonly use when migrating to or modernizing on AWS. The guide is not intended to be a prescriptive implementation guide for cloud migration or modernization, after all ‘There is no compression algorithm for experience’ (Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO). The guide has been prepared by an experienced team of AWS Customer Solutions Managers that actively support customers in their AWS migration journey.

The Migration Launch Guide acknowledges that no two cloud journeys are the same. So it provides guidance on both technical and non-technical topics and considers the various degrees of cloud maturity an organization may have. If you are participating in the Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), you will find useful information regarding both the program and its onboarding requirements, to help you to fully leverage its advantages.

The section on AWS Transform introduces the agentic AI services and specialized agents available to accelerate your migration and modernization journey—from assessments and VMware migrations to Windows, mainframe, and custom code transformations.

The section on Delivering a migration program describes the phases of a migration journey. It gives guidance on how to plan your migration, considerations for staffing and allows you to get acquainted with some of the tools you can use to simplify, automate and guide you through your migration.

The section on Modernization pathways outlines structured approaches to modernizing application portfolios after migration. Most organizations choose a combination of pathways to meet specific business outcomes.

After implementing a modernization pathway, the Generative AI insights for modernization pathways section maps the insights and use cases that become available as a natural next step in the journey.

As you progress your Organizational readiness by using AWS, you can find guidance on how to determine where you are on your cloud journey. The tools that help identify potential gaps in your organizations’ plan, skills and governance, and allow you to focus on what is important to you.

To get a head start on cloud operations, see Operational readiness.

The section on Education and enablement presents the most useful mechanisms to enable your organization to fully leverage AWS tools and services.

If you need additional support or a deep-dive into any discussed topic in this Migration Launch Guide, see Getting support.

Finally, we have collated all relevant links from this guide into the Resources section.