AWS migration services: what AWS migration consulting includes, and how to pick a partner.

ITools vs delivery: what "AWS migration services" means

One is a toolbox AWS hands you. The other is the people who use it to land your workloads safely. Mixing them up is why many DIY migrations slip.

AWS's native tools are good and cheap: you mostly pay for the AWS resources they create. But a tool does not decide your strategy, design your accounts, sequence your waves or own the rollback at 2 a.m. That work is the service, done by your team or a partner.

AWS itself presents both routes. Its Migration Acceleration Program combines tools and training with expertise from AWS Migration Competency Partners and financial investments. Its startup planner, AWS Startup Advisor, lets you run a migration with AI guidance, with an AWS expert, or with a certified AWS Partner who handles execution end to end.

IIWhat AWS migration consulting includes

Five phases wrap the toolbox. They map onto AWS's MAP phases (Assess, Mobilize, Migrate and Modernize), which matters for funding.

• Assessment: Inventory and dependency map, a 7 Rs decision per application (Retire, Retain, Rehost, Relocate, Repurchase, Replatform, Refactor), a cost model and a wave plan. This turns "we should move to AWS" into a costed, scheduled program.
• Landing zone: A secure multi-account foundation: separate prod, non-prod, security and logging accounts, networking and a link back to the source, central identity, logging, guardrails and cost controls, usually AWS Control Tower plus infrastructure as code. Plus a pilot that proves the runbook.
• Cutover waves: Replicate, test-launch, validate, cut over in a planned window, keep rollback ready. The partner owns the runbook, the data checks and the go or no-go call with you.
• Selective modernisation: Containers on ECS or EKS, self-managed databases to RDS or Aurora, cron boxes to Lambda and EventBridge, where it clearly cuts cost or toil.
• Post-migration tuning: Right-sizing, Savings Plans once usage is stable, cost allocation and alerts, monitoring and runbooks. Skip it and the new bill can quietly exceed the old one.

IIIHow to choose an AWS migration partner

Most partners say they do migrations. These questions separate the ones who have done yours.

• Have you moved my exact source before? Ask for references on your platform (Heroku, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, VMware, on-premises, Oracle or SQL Server) and your scale. A VMware exit and a Heroku exit are different jobs.
• Who does the work? Named engineers in-house, or subcontracted? Who is on the cutover call?
• What is in scope, and how is it priced? Fixed scope per wave or time and materials? Is post-migration tuning included? What happens if the database conversion takes longer than planned?
• Will you check MAP for us? MAP is filed by a partner. Ask whether they file it, what they need from you, and whether your migration is likely to qualify before you sign.
• What is the rollback plan? Every wave needs a written rollback with a defined point of no return. If the answer is vague, keep looking.
• Any conflicts? Ask whether the partner resells anything it will recommend, and how it is paid.

You can find partners yourself in the AWS Partner Solutions Finder, filtering for migration expertise, or use AWS Startup Advisor's partner option. CloudRoute does the matching for you: one vetted AWS consulting partner chosen for your source, stack and Region.

IVWho files the funding, and how much

Some AWS funding can only be requested by a partner. Some can only be requested by you.

Partner-filed funding: AWS says MAP helps offset initial migration costs. Your matched partner files it when the migration qualifies and AWS approves. For startups this is typically $50K to $150K. Depends on the workload; AWS approves. MAP is built for migrations with meaningful ongoing AWS spend, so a small single-app move may not qualify. A partner should tell you which case you are in before you commit.

AWS Activate: you apply yourself. Activate Founders gives self-funded startups $1,000 to start, up to $5,000. Activate Portfolio gives up to $200,000 with the Org ID from your VC, accelerator or angel group, if it is an Activate Provider. A consulting partner cannot file Activate for you.

CloudRoute is free for startups. Partners pay CloudRoute a monthly membership plus 10% of AWS-approved funding.

How MAP works for a startup, phase by phase: the AWS MAP program.

VThe AWS migration tools a partner uses

Good to know as a buyer, even if you never run them yourself. Several changed in the last year.

• Application Migration Service (MGN): Now listed as AWS Transform MGN. Agent-based, continuous replication of whole servers into EC2; cutover is launching the already-replicated instance. Free period per source server; you pay for the replication and launched resources.
• Database Migration Service (DMS): Full load plus change data capture where the source allows it, so the source stays online and the cutover window stays small.
• Schema Conversion Tool and DMS Schema Conversion: Only for engine changes (Oracle or SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL). Its report shows how much converts automatically and how much needs hand work, the best input to a realistic estimate.
• AWS Transform: AWS's agentic service for migration and modernisation (VMware, Windows and .NET, mainframe). AWS Migration Hub and Application Discovery Service closed to new customers on November 7, 2025, and AWS points new users here.
• Migration Evaluator: Builds a business case comparing current costs with AWS, at no cost.
• DataSync and Transfer Family: DataSync moves large file and object datasets into S3, EFS or FSx. Transfer Family keeps an SFTP interface for partners while storage moves to S3. For physical transfers, AWS points new customers to AWS Data Transfer Terminal; Snowball Edge is no longer open to new customers.

VIHow it fits together in one migration

The tools chain together. The value of a partner is orchestrating this cleanly across many applications at once.

• 1. Discover: Inventory and dependency data; group servers into applications; assign a 7 Rs decision to each.
• 2. Build the landing zone: Networking, identity, logging and guardrails, so the first wave lands somewhere safe.
• 3. Replicate: MGN for servers, DMS for databases (after schema conversion if the engine changes), DataSync for bulk data, all while production keeps serving.
• 4. Test and validate: Test launches in an isolated subnet and data checks prove the stack works without touching production.
• 5. Cut over wave by wave: Apply the final changes, launch, repoint DNS and connection strings, validate. Each wave is small and reversible.
• 6. Decommission and tune: Keep rollback ready for a defined window, then shut the source down and start right-sizing.

VIIDo it yourself, or hire a partner?

The tools are free, so why pay for a service? Because the risk is in the decisions and the cutover, not the tools.

DIY works for a small, same-engine, well-understood estate with spare senior time. AWS Startup Advisor can generate a plan for GCP and Heroku moves, and the tools above do the moving.

A partner earns its keep when you are changing database engines, have compliance requirements, face a hard deadline (a lease or licence renewal), or have no one who has run a cutover before. The common DIY failures: an under-built landing zone retrofitted later, a server rehosted that should have been retired, an underestimated schema conversion, data drift in a long cutover, and the tuning phase that never happens.

Guides by route: AWS migration, step by step, how to migrate to AWS and Heroku to AWS.