Migrating Your On-Premises Workloads to AWS Outposts Rack (Update)

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This article is authored by Sarah Thompson, Senior Solutions Architect, Hybrid; Mark Lee, Senior Solutions Architect, Hybrid; and Jennifer Tran, Principal Solutions Architect, Hybrid.

Transitioning your workloads to AWS Outposts Rack allows organizations to harness the advantages of cloud computing while keeping their data and applications on-site. For companies with strict data residency regulations, deploying AWS infrastructure on-premises helps maintain sensitive data and critical applications within their facilities, ensuring compliance with data sovereignty laws and other regulatory requirements.

Conversely, if your organization does not face stringent data residency constraints, you might consider a hybrid strategy that leverages both Outposts Rack and AWS Regions. This approach provides the flexibility to process and store data in the optimal location, taking into account factors such as latency, cost-efficiency, and application needs.

In this article, we will outline various options for migrating your workloads to an Outposts Rack, considering your specific data residency requirements. We will discuss strategies, tools, and best practices that facilitate a successful migration customized to your organization’s objectives. For further insights, check out this blog post that complements the discussion.

Overview

AWS offers a range of services designed to assist you in migrating and rehosting workloads, including AWS Migration Hub, AWS Application Migration Service, and AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery. Alternatively, you can explore backup and recovery solutions provided by AWS partners, and they are an authority on this topic.

At AWS, we utilize the 7 Rs framework to guide organizations in determining the most suitable migration strategy for transferring applications and workloads to the AWS Cloud. The 7 Rs encompass:

• Rehosting (lift and shift)
• Replatforming (lift, tinker, and shift)
• Repurchasing (republish or re-vendor)
• Refactoring (re-architecting)
• Retiring
• Retaining (revisit)
• Relocating (remigrate)

This discussion will focus primarily on rehosting and the services available for transitioning on-premises applications to Outposts Rack.

Before initiating any migration, AWS recommends a structured three-phase approach: assess, mobilize, and migrate and modernize.