AWS Migration Services Part1

Overview

In this article we are going to discuss the different service related to discovery & migration data either from AWS to AWS or On-premises to AWS and when features, use case for each one of them.

There is a ton of services that can be used to migrate either for application or database such as the below services:

• AWS Application Migration Services (AWS MGN)
• AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
• AWS Datasync
• AWS Migration Hub
• AWS Transfer Family
• AWS Application Discovery
• AWS Modernize Mainframe Application

Let's start with the application & databases then move to the data migration services:

Application & Database Migration Services

AWS MGN: it's a service that used to help companies to lift and shift their physical, virtual or cloud-servers with facing any compatibility or performance issues, it simplifies the moving process for large servers to AWS,

It eliminates compatibility issues by the below features:

• Block-level replication: By replicating at the block level, MGN is largely agnostic to the applications, databases, and file systems running on the server. It is copying the underlying disk data, not interpreting the files.
• Automated OS conversion: When a test or cutover instance is launched, MGN automatically handles the necessary conversions to make the server boot and run natively on AWS infrastructure.

While performance issues are handled by:

• Minimal Source Impact: The replication agent is lightweight and operates in the background with throttled resource consumption.
• Choosing the right instance size: In the MGN console, you can define Launch Settings for each source server. This allows you to choose the appropriate EC2 instance type
• Optimized data transfer: While the data transfer happens over your network, the continuous replication model avoids the need for a massive, single data transfer that could saturate your connection during business hours.

You can choose AWS MGN when you are looking for rehosting migration and need to quickly move existing application.

you can find more technical details about how it works on the below links https://docs.aws.amazon.com/mgn/latest/ug/General-Questions-FAQ.html

AWS DMS: it's a common service that support a lot of sources DB and many destinations used to migrate databases either an AWS DB or external DB

there are a lot of features for the DMS such as the below features

• Support of homogeneous & heterogeneous migrations: DMS supports migrating between the same database engines and between different database engines.
• CDC: DMS can capture changes from the source database and apply them to the target in near real-time, minimizing downtime during the migration.
• Schema Conversion: DMS works in conjunction with the AWS Schema Conversion Tool to convert the source database schema and code to a format compatible with the target database.
• Serverless Option: A serverless feature automatically provisions and scales the migration resources, simplifying the process further.

the major use case for this service is migration of databases either from/to External/AWS

for more technical information about how it works and supported sources, destinations you can visit this link AWS DMS FAQs

AWS DataSync: It's a service that used to transfer & accelerate movements of large data between on-premises storage systems and AWS storage services.

So as defined above the main focus only of this service is moving data between storage systems and it has many features such as:

• Accelerated data transfer: by using purpose-built protocol to transfer data up to 10 times faster than open-source tools.
• Automated and Managed: It handles many of the tasks involved in data transfer, including scripting copy jobs, scheduling and monitoring transfers, validating data integrity, and optimizing network utilization.
• Secure Transfers: Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and the service integrates with AWS security features like IAM roles and VPC endpoints.
• Broad Storage Support: It supports a wide range of storage systems, including Network File System (NFS), Server Message Block (SMB), and Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, and Amazon FSx.

You can use this service for migrating large datasets to AWS or archiving cold data from on-permises to cost effective AWS storage like AWS S3 Glacier, it can be used also in data replication to achieve business continuity.

AWS Migration Hub: it's a like center location that you can manage & track the progress of applications migrations across multiple AWS accounts and partner solutions

It has many features like:

• Centralized Tracking: Monitor the status of migrations from various tools like AWS Application Migration Service, AWS Database Migration Service, and partner migration tools.
• Application Discovery: Integrates with AWS Application Discovery Service to automatically gather information about your on-premises servers, including specifications, performance data, and network dependencies.
• Strategy Recommendations: Provides recommendations on the best migration and modernization strategy for your applications.

So picking the right service based on your needs is mandatory, we can summarize the use case for each service as below:

• looking for lift and shift solution then you can go for AWS MGN
• Database migration and schema conversion then use AWS DMS
• Replicating & moving data from on premises to AWS then the DataSync option is the one
• Centrally manage and track the progress of migration you can use migration hub

Based on you migration strategy you can pick the right choice for you.

we will discuss more the remaining services in another article but for now I will drop references below for each service if you want to dig deep in each service

AWS DataSync
AWS MGN
AWS DMS
AWS Migration Hub