# AWS Application Migration Service Cloud service · AWS. Updated 2026-11-12. Page: https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-application-migration-service > AWS Transform MGN is a service that simplifies the process of migrating applications to AWS, enabling organizations to move applications without making changes to them, at scale and with minimal downtime. Practice exams covering AWS Application Migration Service: [CLF-C02 AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner](https://blowstack.com/practice-exams/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner), [SAP-C02 AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional](https://blowstack.com/practice-exams/aws-certified-solutions-architect-professional). ## 7 key features of AWS Application Migration Service AWS Application Migration Service provides easy and minimal downtime migration with broad compatibility, incremental replication, post-migration testing, and is designed to be cost-effective. 1. **Easy Migration**: AWS Transform MGN simplifies the process of migrating applications to AWS, offering a streamlined workflow for efficiently moving applications from on-premises or other cloud platforms. 2. **Minimal Downtime**: Designed to minimize downtime, it supports non-disruptive testing before migration and a short cutover window, typically measured in minutes. 3. **Wide Compatibility**: Supports a broad range of source environments, including major cloud platforms and on-premises data centers, providing flexibility in migration strategies. 4. **Incremental Replication**: Facilitates incremental replication of data, meaning applications are continually synchronized until the switch over, reducing the risk of data loss. 5. **Post-Migration Testing**: Offers tools and capabilities for thorough testing post-migration, ensuring that applications run as expected on AWS before fully cutting over. 6. **Cost-Effective**: AWS Transform MGN is designed to be cost-effective, potentially reducing the need for expensive proprietary migration tools and services. 7. **Automated Modernization Actions**: Apply custom modernization actions or select built-in actions such as CentOS conversion and SUSE Linux subscription conversion. ## Where AWS Application Migration Service is used AWS Application Migration Service is employed for various purposes including lifting and shifting existing applications to AWS without modification, modernizing applications by moving and then refactoring them to use AWS services, ensuring business continuity through disaster recovery strategies, and consolidating data centers to streamline operations and reduce costs. 1. **Lift and Shift Migrations**: AWS Transform MGN simplifies the migration of applications from on-premises data centers to AWS, enabling businesses to quickly leverage the benefits of the cloud without the need to modify their applications. This serves companies aiming to reduce infrastructure costs and enhance scalability without altering their existing application landscape. 2. **Application Modernization**: By facilitating a step-by-step migration approach, AWS Transform MGN aids businesses in modernizing their applications. Initially, the service allows for a simple lift and shift of applications to the cloud. Subsequently, businesses can progressively refactor their applications to utilize cloud-native services, improving performance, resilience, and scalability. 3. **Disaster Recovery**: AWS Transform MGN can apply a built-in cross-Region disaster recovery action as part of application modernization during migration. 4. **Data Center Consolidation**: Organizations looking to consolidate their data centers to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency can employ AWS Transform MGN. The service supports the seamless migration of applications, databases, and other workloads to AWS, facilitating a smoother transition and consolidation process. ## How AWS Application Migration Service is priced AWS Application Migration Service pricing involves paying for on-demand migration instances based on compute and storage usage, with potential additional costs for data transfer out of AWS. - **AWS Infrastructure Charges**: AWS infrastructure provisioned to support active replication is charged separately, including during the service's free period. Resources provisioned for test or cutover instances, such as Amazon EC2 compute and Amazon EBS storage, are also charged according to your AWS pricing plan. - **Data Transfer Fees**: While AWS Transform MGN does not charge for inbound data transfer (into AWS), you might incur charges for data transfer out from AWS to the internet or other regions depending on the amount of data and the destination. Data transfer fees are calculated based on the standard AWS data transfer pricing. - **Server Replication Usage**: The first 90 days (2,160 hours) of replication are free for each source server. Continued replication after this allowance costs $0.042 per server per hour, approximately $30 per server per month. ## Services AWS Application Migration Service works with - **[Amazon EC2](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-ec2)**: AWS Transform MGN uses Amazon EC2 for creating and managing the target instances in the cloud after migration. - **[Amazon VPC](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-vpc)**: AWS Transform MGN integrates with Amazon VPC to configure networking settings and enable communication between resources. - **[AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-identity-and-access-management-(iam))**: AWS Transform MGN utilizes IAM for setting permissions and roles to securely manage access to migration resources. - **[Amazon CloudWatch](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-cloudwatch)**: AWS Transform MGN integrates with Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring and logging migration activities and metrics. - **[AWS CloudTrail](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-cloudtrail)**: AWS Transform MGN leverages AWS CloudTrail to record API calls and user activities for audit and compliance purposes. - **[Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-elastic-block-store-(amazon-ebs))**: AWS Application Migration Service continuously replicates source-server disks to EBS volumes in a staging area. It uses the replicated data to create the disks for test and cutover EC2 instances. - **[Amazon EventBridge](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-eventbridge)**: AWS Application Migration Service sends migration events to EventBridge, including source-server lifecycle changes and migration job state changes. EventBridge rules can use these events to trigger notifications or migration automation. - **[Amazon S3](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-s3)**: AWS Application Migration Service imports migration inventory and configuration from CSV files in S3 and exports migration data to S3. Its installation and replication components also retrieve required software from service-managed S3 buckets. - **[AWS CloudFormation](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-cloudformation)**: AWS Application Migration Service supports CloudFormation resources for launch configuration templates and replication configuration templates. These let you define repeatable migration defaults, such as replication-server settings and post-launch behavior, as infrastructure as code. - **[AWS Direct Connect](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-direct-connect)**: AWS Application Migration Service can replicate source-server data over Direct Connect when private connectivity is configured to the staging-area subnet. Its private-IP replication setting keeps replication traffic on the private network path. - **[AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-elastic-disaster-recovery)**: AWS Application Migration Service provides a post-launch action that configures Elastic Disaster Recovery on migrated servers. This lets you establish disaster recovery protection as part of the migration workflow. - **[AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-key-management-service-(aws-kms))**: AWS Application Migration Service uses KMS keys to encrypt replicated data on EBS volumes. Replication settings let you select a customer-managed key to control encryption of staging-area storage. - **[AWS License Manager](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-license-manager)**: AWS Application Migration Service provides post-launch license conversion actions that use License Manager to change eligible Windows Server and SQL Server instances to AWS license-included licensing. These actions automate licensing changes during migration. - **[AWS Managed Services (AMS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-managed-services-(ams))**: AWS Application Migration Service can operate in an AMS multi-account landing zone Tools account through the dedicated AWSManagedServicesMigrationRole. AMS initializes the service in that account so migration teams can configure replication and migrate supported Windows and Linux servers. - **[AWS Migration Hub](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-migration-hub)**: AWS Application Migration Service reports migration progress to Migration Hub. This allows teams to track server migration status alongside the applications and other migrations managed in Migration Hub. - **[AWS Organizations](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-organizations)**: AWS Application Migration Service uses Organizations for its global view across organization accounts. A delegated administrator can view migration inventory and progress across participating accounts and Regions. - **[AWS PrivateLink](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-privatelink)**: AWS Application Migration Service supports interface VPC endpoints through PrivateLink for private access to its service API. Source environments with private connectivity to the VPC can reach these endpoints without sending API traffic over the public internet. - **[AWS Site-to-Site VPN](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-site-to-site-vpn)**: AWS Application Migration Service can send replication traffic over a Site-to-Site VPN connection to the staging-area VPC. Enabling private-IP replication lets source servers reach replication servers through the VPN rather than through public IP addresses. - **[AWS Systems Manager](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-systems-manager)**: AWS Application Migration Service runs post-launch actions through Systems Manager Automation documents to configure and validate migrated instances. Built-in and custom actions can install agents, change operating-system settings, or perform application-specific checks after a test or cutover launch. ## What is AWS Application Migration Service AWS Transform MGN, formerly AWS Application Migration Service, is a highly efficient platform designed to streamline the process of migrating applications from physical, virtual, or cloud infrastructures to AWS. This service is particularly valuable for enterprises and developers looking to leverage the vast array of cloud-based resources and services offered by AWS without the typically complex and time-consuming processes associated with large-scale migrations. The core objective of AWS Transform MGN is to simplify the migration of applications in a way that minimizes downtime and ensures reliability and performance are not compromised during the transition. The service achieves this through a suite of tools and methodologies that automate many of the tasks involved in migrations, such as server replication, compatibility testing, and network setup. AWS Transform MGN offers two rehosting paths: agentic rehost with AWS Transform, which automates setup and per-wave preparation, and self-directed rehost through the MGN console, where you manage each configuration step directly. Both paths use the same replication and cutover engine, and you can switch between them without losing migration progress. One of the standout features of AWS Transform MGN is its ability to replicate entire server volumes to AWS in real-time. This replication process does not interfere with the ongoing operations of the source servers, allowing businesses to maintain continuity until they are ready to cut over to AWS. Once the migration is initiated, AWS Transform MGN ensures that data is synchronized, and applications are kept up-to-date until the switch is officially made, at which point the replication stops, and the AWS-based resources become the primary systems. The default quota for concurrently replicating source servers is 150. Requesting an increase through AWS Support requires a detailed justification and migration plan. The technology behind AWS Transform MGN is rooted in minimizing the challenges often associated with moving to the cloud, such as compatibility issues, performance degradation, and security concerns. The service includes built-in testing capabilities, enabling businesses to validate their AWS deployment without affecting live environments. The source-server quota is 200 per job and 200 across all jobs in each supported AWS Region; neither quota is adjustable. Each supported AWS Region permits 20 concurrent jobs in progress, and this quota is not adjustable. Moreover, it offers a high level of security and compliance controls, ensuring that the migrated applications and data adhere to AWS’s stringent security standards. AWS Transform MGN is not only focused on the technical migration aspects but also on cost management. It helps organizations estimate the cost of running their applications in AWS, providing insights that allow for better planning and budgeting. Additionally, by leveraging AWS’s scalable infrastructure, businesses can optimize their resource utilization and potentially realize significant cost savings over maintaining on-premises data centers. The comprehensive nature of AWS Transform MGN, combined with AWS's extensive cloud ecosystem, makes it a compelling choice for businesses looking to modernize their applications and infrastructure. By reducing the complexity, time, and cost associated with migrations, AWS is accelerating the path for organizations to become more agile, innovative, and cost-efficient in their operations. ## Concepts related to AWS Application Migration Service - [7 Rs of Migration](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/7-rs-of-migration): The 7 Rs of Migration are seven strategies for deciding whether and how to move applications and workloads to the cloud. - [AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/aws-cloud-adoption-framework-(aws-caf)): AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) is guidance for building the organizational and technical capabilities needed to adopt cloud technology and achieve business outcomes. - [AWS Partner Network](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/aws-partner-network): The AWS Partner Network is a global community of organizations that build software and deliver services to help customers adopt, operate, and optimize workloads on AWS. - [AWS Prescriptive Guidance](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/aws-prescriptive-guidance): AWS Prescriptive Guidance is an official AWS library of strategies, guides, and implementation patterns for planning and carrying out cloud migrations, modernization, and other technical initiatives. - [AWS Professional Services](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/aws-professional-services): AWS Professional Services is AWS’s expert consulting organization that helps customers plan and execute cloud adoption, migration, and modernization initiatives. - [Migration and data transfer](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/migration-and-data-transfer): Migration and data transfer is the planned movement of applications and data between environments, including the methods, costs, and operational controls needed to complete that movement safely. - [Migration Phases](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-concepts-hub/migration-phases): Migration phases are the stages used to assess readiness, prepare a cloud foundation, and move workloads into a validated operating environment.