Choosing a migration approach for relocating your VMware applications and workloads to the AWS Cloud - AWS Prescriptive Guidance
OverviewBusiness outcomes

Choosing a migration approach for relocating your VMware applications and workloads to the AWS Cloud

Rodolfo Jr. Cerrada, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

March 2022 (document history)

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.

Overview

This guide helps you find a migration approach for relocating your VMware applications and workloads to and from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. The guide is based on the relocate migration strategy and is applicable during the portfolio assessment stage of the migration process. The relocate strategy minimizes impact on your organization by enabling you to move infrastructure to the cloud without the need to rewrite applications, modify application architecture, modify existing operations, or purchase new hardware.

The following migration approaches are covered in this guide:

  • VM Import

  • VM Export

  • VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX)

  • VMware HCX OS Assisted Migration (OSAM)

Use this guide to find the migration approach that aligns with your source and target platforms. This guide is intended for managers, architects, and consultants who want to accelerate the migration of virtual machines (VMs) to or from the AWS Cloud by following streamlined decision-making guidelines.

Targeted business outcomes

You can expect the following outcomes after relocating your VMware applications and workloads to the AWS Cloud:

  • Your teams can deliver innovation faster by gaining access to a broad range of ready-to-use AWS services without limitations on compute resources.

  • Your organization can simplify operations by reusing existing VMware skillsets for operating in the cloud and getting continued access to VMware Cloud Foundation technologies, including VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, VMware NSX, and VMware vCenter Server across both on-premises data centers and the AWS Cloud.