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The cloud giant is aiming to make it easier for customers to move their applications to its service

Amazon Web Services this week launched its AWS Application Migration Service for easier and faster application migrations to its cloud platform.

The service helps companies to move their apps to the AWS cloud without first needing to make any changes to their architecture, the migrated servers or the application itself.

AWS MGN is the name of the new service. It works by automatically replicating the servers that applications run on as native AWS servers. That helps eliminate what is a time-intensive and error-prone process when done manually. Moreover, AWS MGN can use the same automated process to help shift a wide range of applications, the company said.

Until now, AWS cloud customers could use CloudEndure Migration to move their applications. CloudEndure, which AWS acquired in 2019, also provided CloudEndure Disaster Recovery to the AWS portfolio. It complements AWS Server Migration Service (AWS SMS), which is an agentless service for migrating on-premises workloads to AWS.

The new AWS MGN will offer a homegrown AWS alternative to the CloudEndure solution.

Customers invited to switch to the new service – and pay to do so

AWS Principal Developer Advocate Channy Yun detailed the new service in a blog post. “We encourage customers who are currently using CloudEndure Migration or AWS SMS to switch to AWS MGN for future migrations,” he writes.

“AWS MGN enables organizations to move applications to AWS without having to make any changes to the applications, their architecture, or the migrated servers.”

One of the key advantages of AWS MGN is that it enables customers to launch nondisruptive tests before they execute the actual migration. This allows them to can check that critical applications such as SAP, Oracle and SQL Server will run as intended on Amazon’s cloud.

“AWS MGN reduces overall migration costs because there is no need to invest in multiple migration solutions, specialized cloud development, or application-specific skills,” Yun said. “This is because AWS MGN can be used to migrate any application from any source infrastructure that runs supported operating systems.”

Whereas the previous CloudEndure migration solution was free to AWS customers, the use of AWS MGN is free for only 90 days. Thereafter, customers must pay for any AWS infrastructure they provision during migration and after cutover.