Homogeneous database migration for Oracle databases

AWS offers you the ability to run Oracle Database in a cloud environment. For developers and database administrators, running Oracle Database in the AWS Cloud is very similar to running Oracle Database in a data center. This section describes options for migrating Oracle Database from an on-premises environment or a data center to the AWS Cloud.

AWS offers four options for running Oracle Database on AWS, as described in the following table.

Option	Highlights	More information
Oracle Database on Amazon RDS	Managed service, provides easy provisioning and licensing	Amazon RDS for Oracle section
Oracle Database on Amazon RDS Custom	Managed service, but you retain administrative rights to the database and the underlying operating system	Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle section
Oracle Database on Amazon EC2	Self-managed, provides full control and flexibility	Amazon EC2 for Oracle section
Oracle Database on VMware Cloud on AWS	Minimal disruption, easy to manage	VMware Cloud on AWS for Oracle section

Notice

As of April 30, 2024, VMware Cloud on AWS is no longer resold by AWS or its channel partners. The service will continue to be available through Broadcom. We encourage you to reach out to your AWS representative for details.

Your application requirements, database features, functionality, growth capacity, and overall architecture complexity will determine which option to choose. If you are migrating multiple Oracle databases to AWS, some of them might be a great fit for Amazon RDS whereas others might be better suited to run directly on Amazon EC2. You might have databases that are running on Oracle Enterprise Edition (EE) but are a good fit for Oracle Standard Edition Two (SE2). You can save on cost and licenses for those databases. Many AWS customers run multiple Oracle Database workloads across Amazon RDS, Amazon EC2, and VMware Cloud on AWS. If you're moving to Amazon RDS Custom, make sure to review the requirements and limitations for Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle.