AWS Cloud Practitioner Study Session Twelve

January 03, 2026

I am taking the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam in approximately one day and want to ensure I am prepared. This series will serve as non-exhaustive note taking for the information that I am internalizing as I go.

ChatGPT Summary:

AWS Cloud Migration & Adoption

Exam-Focused Summary with Tips & Memory Aids

Migration topics are critical for Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect exams, focusing on phases, tools, strategies, and best practices.

Migration Phases

AWS migration is typically divided into three phases:

Phase	Description	Key Tools / Services
Assess	Build business case, assess readiness	Migration Evaluator
Mobilize	Prepare organization, resources, plan	Application Discovery Service, Migration Hub
Migrate & Modernize	Execute migration & modernization	Application Migration Service, AWS DMS, DataSync, Transfer Family, Snow Family

🧠 Memory Tip: A-M-M → Assess, Mobilize, Migrate

AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)

Framework for guiding cloud migration & transformation:

Provides best practices, guidance, tools
Benefits: Reduce business risk, improve sustainability, lower OPEX, increase productivity, enhance customer experience
Use Cases: Migrate legacy infra, optimize business processes, enable new cloud-native business models

Six Perspectives of CAF

Business – Align cloud goals with business strategy
People – Skills, organizational change
Governance – Policies, risk management
Platform – Cloud architecture & technology
Security – Protect data & resources
Operations – Cloud operations & processes

Seven Migration Strategies (“7 R’s”)

Strategy	Description
Relocate	Change hosting location; VMs already available
Rehost	“Lift & Shift”; move without changes
Replatform	“Lift, Tinker & Shift”; minor modifications
Refactor	Re-architect applications
Repurchase	Move from traditional license to SaaS
Retain	Keep critical apps on-prem
Retire	Remove unused/unnecessary applications

🧠 Memory Tip:

R-R-R-R-R-R-R → Relocate, Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Repurchase, Retain, Retire

Assess Phase

Migration Evaluator

Builds business case, assesses multiple cost-effective migration scenarios
Benefits: Visibility into on-prem footprint, server dependencies, licensing reuse
Use Cases: Discovery, snapshot of current servers, planning migration strategy

Mobilize Phase

Application Discovery Service

Discovers servers, databases, and connections
Benefits: Comprehensive inventory snapshot; integrates with Migration Hub
Use Cases: Map dependencies, generate migration plan

Migration Hub

Central dashboard for migration planning, tracking, execution
Benefits: Prescriptive journey templates, team collaboration
Use Cases: Track progress, modernize apps, plan assessments

Migrate & Modernize Phase

Application Migration Service (MGN)

Streamlines on-prem → cloud migrations
Benefits: Supports multiple OS, modernizes apps during migration
Use Cases: Move physical or virtual servers, cross-region migrations, modernization

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Migrates databases with minimal downtime
Benefits: Supports heterogeneous & homogeneous migrations, low-cost, maintains HA
Use Cases: Move to managed databases, replicate ongoing changes, integrate with data lakes

AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)

Converts database schemas/code between engines
Benefits: Automates conversions, compatible with popular DBs & analytics services
Use Cases: Commercial → open-source DB migrations, large warehouse modernization

Data Transfer

Online (Over Network)

Service	Description	Benefits	Use Cases
AWS DataSync	Automated, accelerated secure data transfer	Bandwidth throttling, task scheduling, reporting	Migrate data, archive cold storage, hybrid workflows
AWS Transfer Family	Managed SFTP, FTP, FTPS to AWS	Simplifies secure transfers	Modernize file transfers, integrate transactional data
Direct Connect	Dedicated private network connection	Fast, reliable, secure	High-volume secure data transfers

Offline (Physical Devices)

Service	Description	Benefits	Use Cases
Snowball Edge (Storage Optimized)	Physical device for offline data migration	High storage & compute, multi-PB migration	Offline migration, edge computing, secure rugged device

💡 Exam Tip

Questions about migration phases → Assess, Mobilize, Migrate
Questions about migration tools → Match tool to phase and workload type
Questions about data transfer → Online (DataSync, Transfer Family, Direct Connect) vs Offline (Snowball)

Study materials:

Raw Input Notes:

Migration Phases

(1) Assess - You build the business case for the migration and assess your readiness.
(2) Mobilize - Prepare the organization and mobilize the resources needed for the migration. (Might use AWS Application Discovery Service and the AWS Migration Hub in this phase.)
(3) Migrate and Modernize - Use your strategy, plan, and the best practices to migrate and modernize. (Might use AWS App Migration Service and AWS DMS in this phase, or AWS Data Sync, AWS Transfer Family, and the AWS Snow Family.)

AWS Cloud Adoption Framework

Framework that provides tools and best practices to help accelerate the migration journey, organize resources, and align management during the transition.
Benefits: AWS CAF provides benefits for migrations to reduce business risk and improve sustainability and corporate transparency. Companies can grow revenue by creating new products and services in their cloud transformation. They can reduce opex costs, increase productivity, improve customer experience.
Use Cases: Can use AWS CAF to migrate technology like legacy infra and applications. Can also use it to migrate and optimize business processes, operations, and even create new business models with the move to the cloud.

Six Perspectives of AWS CAF

Business
People
Governance
Platform
Security
Operations

Seven Migration Strategies

Relocate - Changing hosting location to cloud. Perhaps VMs are already available.
Rehost - “Lift and Shift”, moving loactions without changes.
Replatform - “Lift, Tinker, and Shift”. Self explanatory.
Refactor - “Re-architecting”
Repurchase - Moving traditional license to SaaS model.
Retain - Keeping applications that are critical for the business in the source environment.
Retire - Process of removing applications that are no longer needed.

Assess Phase

Migration Evaluator is a migration assessment service, helps create a business case for AWS cloud planning and migration.
Benefits: Removing guesswork when migrating, provides visibility into multiple cost-effective cloud migration scenarios. Gives insights on reusing existing software licensing.
Use Cases: Conduct broad-based doscovery, take snapshot of current on-prem footprint, view server dependencies, gain visibility into multiple migration scenarios

Mobilize Phase

Application Discovery Service: Discovers on prem server inventory and connections. Gathers config, performance, connection details for servers and databases to create a migration plan.
Benefits: Comprehensive snapshot of on-prem inventory, can integrate discovery data with other services like Migration Hub and protect the data Application Discovery Service collects.
Use Cases: Can use AWS Application Discovery Service to conduct discovery and inventory, map the connections and dependencies, generate a migration plan.

Migration Hub

Centralized hub to take you from discovery, assessment, planning, and execution of migration. Provides tools, guidance, automated recommendations to collaborate with team and track migration.
Benefits: Central place to go for migration, prescriptive journey templates.
Use Cases: Migration assessment and planning and migration completion and collaboration with teams. Can also use it for modernization efforts like fast-tracking app refactoring.

Migrate and Modernize Phase

Applciation Migration Service: Tool to move / improve on-prem and cloud based applications. Helps customers streamline, expedite, reduce cost of migrating and modernizing applications.
Benefits: Support to migrate from any source infra that runs a supported OS. Makes it possible to modernize applications during migrations.
Use Cases: Can use for on-prem applications running on physical servers or infra, cloud-based applications, or moving between AWS Regions. Can also use to modernize applications.

AWS DMS: Provides a way to plan, assess, convert, and migrate databases even with data warehouses in one central tool.

Benefits: AWS DNS provides benefitss for migrating databases including maintaining high availability and low downtime during the migration process. Supports homogenous and heterogeneous migrations. Makes it possible to migrate terabyte sized databases at a low cost.
Use Cases: Move to managed databases, remove licensing cost, replicate ongoing changes in your databases, improve integration with data lakes.

AWS SCT: Makes it possible to convert database schemas and code projects from one database engine to another.

Benefits: Automates schema analysis, recommendations, conversions at scale. Compatible with popular databases and analytics services as source and target engines. Can save weeks or months of manual time and resources, typically required in conversion.
Use Cases: Can use AWS SCT to move from commercial databases to open source databases. Can also use it for migrating large data warehouse workloads and modernizing or updating database schemas in place.

Transferring Data Online

Need to ensure security (will it get there safely), data validation (will it get there in one piece), scheduling (when is the best time), and confirm bandwidth requirements.

AWS DataSync
Specifically designed for automating and accelerating data transfer. Also provides insight into progress and task reporting.
Benefits: Streamlining and accelerating secure data migrations. DataSync manages data movement workloads with bandwidth throttling, migration scheduling, task filtering, task reporting. Also provides rapid data replication.
Use Cases: Can use DataSync to migrte your data, archive your cold data, manage hybrid data workflows.
AWS Transfer Family
Managed support for secure file transfers over FTP, Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), File Transfer Protocol Secure (FTPS), other protocols. Helps you transfer files directly into and out of AWS storage services like Amazon S3 and Amazon EFS.
Benefits: Simplifying the process of setting up / managing file transfers and reducing the need for complex infra management. Provides secure data transfer with encryption and authentication.
Use Cases: Transfer Family to modernize and manage file transfers, simply data sharing with workforce and partners, integrate transactional business data into unified data lake.
Direct Connect
Makes it possible to establish a dedicated private connection between network and Virtual Private Cloud in the AWS Cloud. Dedicated, so fast, reliable, and secure way to transfer your data or files.

Transferring Data Offline

Snowball Edge Storage Optimized Devices: Solution for offline data migration where connecting to the internet might not be an option. Deliver high performance NVMe storage, making it possible to simplify multi-petabyte data migrations from on-prem locations to AWS.
Benefits: Deliveing better compute performance and larger storage capacity with gigabytes of data per second for data migration workloads with offline requirements.
Use Cases: Can use Snowball Edge deviceses for data migration when offline migration is required, or used for edge computing when a secure, rugged device is needed.