Migrating Windows workloads to AWS

3 minute read
Content level: Intermediate
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Do you want to migrate your Microsoft Windows workloads to AWS? AWS supports everything you need to build and run Windows applications including Active Directory, .NET, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows desktop-as-a-service, and all supported versions of Windows Server.

Why should you migrate your Windows workloads to AWS?

  • Higher reliability and performance: By moving your Windows workloads to AWS, you can realize a 98% reduction in unplanned downtime, 71% faster deployment, and 26% higher developer productivity, per IDC.
  • Better security: With AWS Identity Services, you can manage identities and permissions at scale, while providing flexible options for where and how you manage your employee, partner, and customer information.
  • Cost-effective: You can reduce 5-year cost of operations by 56% and gain 37% lower infrastructure costs, delivering up to 442% ROI over 3 years, per IDC.
  • Scalability: Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides fully managed, highly reliable, and scalable file storage that is accessible over the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.
  • Flexible licensing options: You get the most options in the cloud for using new and existing Microsoft software licenses on AWS.

To learn more, see Why you should migrate your Windows workloads with AWS (and how we can help).

Contact us to start your migration journey today!


How does AWS help you migrate?

Enter image description here To lift-and-shift, refactor, or even modernize your Windows workloads, see Windows on AWS.


What's the migration process for Microsoft workloads, including migrating Microsoft Active Directory, SQL, and .NET?

Review the different options you can use to migrate your Windows workloads to AWS in this video:

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Watch the AWS re:Invent 2020 Breakout session on common migration patterns for Microsoft workloads:

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For more information, see Options, tools, and best practices for migrating your Windows Workloads to AWS in the AWS Prescriptive Guidance Library.

What migration service do we recommend?

For lift-and-shift (rehost) migrations, it's a best practice to use AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN) as the primary migration service.

  • AWS MGN is a highly automated cost-effective lift-and-shift solution that simplifies and expedites migrating applications to AWS.
  • AWS MGN allows you to lift-and-shift a large number of physical, virtual, or cloud servers without compatibility issues, performance disruption, or long cutover windows.

For information on first time AWS MGN setup, see the Quick start guide.

If you prefer to use a walkthrough, see How to migrate on-premises workloads with AWS Application Migration Service.

You can also use VM Import/Export to migrate your applications and workloads to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), copy your VM image catalog to Amazon EC2, or create a repository of VM images for backup and disaster recovery.

For information on processes for eligible resources that you can use to import into and export out of the AWS Cloud, see VM Import/Export processes.