New Capabilities in AWS Transform for VMware

Introduction

We are excited to announce the general availability of AWS Transform for VMware, the first agentic AI experience purpose-built to accelerate VMware workload modernization. It automates application discovery, dependency mapping, migration planning, network conversion, and HAQM Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance optimization – reducing manual effort and accelerating cloud adoption. It addresses two of the most complex VMware modernization challenges: translating VMware network configurations into AWS-native constructs, and orchestrating dependency-aware migration waves for seamless cutovers. This post explores AWS Transform features available today.

Prerequisites

A working setup of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Identity Center to federate into the service.
A working setup of AWS Organizations.
An AWS account that will serve as the VMware discovery AWS account. This account will contain all the discovery data. This account must be part of the AWS organization.
An AWS account that will serve as the VMware infrastructure provisioning account. This account is where your transformed resources will be deployed. It does not have to be a different account from the discovery account, but it is suggested for a Production migration. This account must be part of the AWS organization.

Getting Started – Enable AWS Transform

1. Search for AWS Transform in the AWS console. Then choose Get Started.
  
  Figure 1. AWS Transform main page.
2. Specify an encryption key, then choose Enable AWS Transform. Note that you can choose default encryption or your own custom encryption.
  
  Figure 2. AWS Transform encryption.
3. Choose Manage Users.
  
  Figure 3. Choose Manage Users.
4. Any users or groups that are in IAM Identity Center can be added to AWS Transform.
  
  Figure 4. Add users to AWS Transform.
5. Users can go directly to AWS Transform using the Web application URL.
  
  Figure 5. AWS Transform URLs.

End-to-End Migration Workflow

AWS Transform for VMware introduces a flexible experience where customers can select their desired transformation approach. The service presents four distinct workflow types, each designed to address specific migration scenarios. This modular design enables customers to focus on particular aspects of their VMware-to-AWS journey, whether it’s network transformation, server migration, or a comprehensive end-to-end migration.

You can choose from the following workflow options:

End-to-End Migration – A comprehensive workflow that guides customers through discovery, wave planning, VPC configuration, network deployment, and server migration.
Network Migration Only – Focused on network transformation, handling VPC configuration and deployment.
Network and Server Migration – Combines network configuration and deployment with server migration capabilities.
Discovery and Server Migration – Enables customers to perform discovery, generate wave plans, and execute server migrations.

Figure 6. AWS Transform chat interface.

Choose the VMware migration job type that best suit your needs:

Figure 7. AWS Transform job options for VMware migrations.

AWS Transform for VMware integrates with AWS Application Migration Service (MGN), enabling management of the entire MGN migration lifecycle directly from the AWS Transform console. This integration streamlines the migration process by providing a centralized interface for all MGN-related tasks. Within AWS Transform, you can:

Add source servers by installing MGN agents.
Launch test instances to verify application functionality before cutover.
Track migration status.
Perform a cutover.

Figure 8. AWS Transform workflow.

AWS Transform for VMware integrates the MGN Connector for automated agent deployment across source servers. The MGN Connector operates as an automation service within the source environment, requiring specific components to function effectively. It requires administrative credentials stored in AWS Secrets Manager, supported operating systems on source servers, and network connectivity from the MGN Connector to source servers via TCP ports 1500 and 443.

MGN Connector deployment can be automated using an AWS CloudFormation template that establishes the necessary IAM roles, policies, and networking components, configuring permissions for AWS Systems Manager, AWS Secrets Manager, and MGN service access.

Within the AWS Transform console, users can configure the MGN Connector by selecting an existing connector or creating a new one, associating it with the appropriate AWS Secrets Manager secret containing administrative credentials. AWS Transform also provides the option to deploy replication agents manually on source servers.

Once agents are deployed, either through the MGN Connector or manual installation, the service manages configuration tasks and provides deployment status updates through the AWS Transform interface. For the most up-to-date and detailed information on requirements and MGN capabilities, please refer to the official AWS Application Migration Service documentation.

Figure 9. Methods of installing the AWS Replication Agent.

You can launch test instances directly from the AWS Transform interface. The service provides an exportable inventory file that can be downloaded, reviewed, and modified according to your requirements before being uploaded back to AWS Transform. The interface provides visibility into replication status, categorizing applications as Healthy, Lagging, or Stalled, while allowing detailed monitoring of source servers and their migration progress.

Figure 10. Launching test instances.

AWS Transform dashboard enables tracking of migration progress through four key categories: waves, applications, servers, and networks. The interface consolidates migration metrics into a single view, allowing teams to monitor multiple concurrent migrations. The dashboard reduces the need to navigate multiple AWS consoles by centralizing migration status data in a single interface.

Figure 11. AWS Transform job dashboard.

Network Creation

AWS Transform for VMware Migrations allows you to use RVTools exports (both .csv and .xlsx) and VMware NSX exports to model and deploy network topologies in AWS. Using only RVTools allows you to build VPCs that match your existing VMware network. If you use NSX, you can seamlessly convert and migrate your existing NSX networks into AWS. VMware NSX configuration data can be efficiently exported from your VMware environment utilizing the open source Import/Export for AWS utility. Importing NSX data also allows AWS Transform to build security groups. AWS Transform generates native AWS networking configurations in both CloudFormation and AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). You can choose to have AWS Transform deploy the networking configuration automatically. This is accomplished by executing the generated CloudFormation code in your target account. You also have the option to deploy manually by downloading the generated CloudFormation or CDK code and integrating it into your existing build process.

Network Design Models

Hub-and-spoke – In a hub-and-spoke model, AWS Transform for VMware will deploy VPCs, AWS Transit Gateways, and AWS Transit Gateway attachments, enabling communication across all VPCs.
Isolated VPC – Isolated VPC mode creates VPCs without deploying a Transit Gateway or attachments, meaning the VPCs remain isolated from each other. Isolated VPCs are most frequently used when a customer already has existing AWS infrastructure. AWS Transform creates the VPCs, and you attach them to your existing network. Isolated VPCs also allow you to move overlapping IP ranges into separate, non-interconnected environments, which can later be linked once the migration is complete. They are also effective when using AWS Transform to configure AWS as a disaster recovery site, providing clean separation and flexibility for staged integration.

Cross-Region Migration Support

AWS Transform supports cross-region migrations, allowing the control plane to reside in either Northern Virginia (us-east-1) or Frankfurt (eu-central-1), while targeting any of the listed regions below for migration.

United States

Northern Virginia (us-east-1)
Oregon (us-west-2)

Asia Pacific

Mumbai (ap-south-1)
Seoul (ap-northeast-2)
Tokyo (ap-northeast-1)
Singapore (ap-southeast-1)
Sydney (ap-southeast-2)

Canada

Central (ca-central-1)

Europe

Frankfurt (eu-central-1)
London (eu-west-2)
Paris (eu-west-3)

South America

São Paulo (sa-east-1)

MAP 2.0 Tagging Support

The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) is a comprehensive and proven cloud migration program based upon AWS’s experience migrating thousands of enterprise customers to the cloud. MAP provides tools that reduce costs and automate and accelerate execution, tailored training approaches and content, expertise from Partners in the AWS Partner Network, a global partner community, and AWS investment.

A tag is a key-value pair that you apply to an AWS resource to hold metadata about the resource. A tag could be a name, environment, business owner, or anything else that you need to track. One of the benefits of MAP is AWS investments to help offset one-time migration costs, given to customers in the form of service credits. Eligibility for credits is tracked by MAP 2.0 tagging, leveraging a specific tag on your migrated resources. Without AWS Transform, this is a manual step that you need to remember after migration. With AWS Transform, you simply enter your MPE ID and all of your migrated resources will be automatically tagged.

Figure 12. MAP 2.0 tagging support.

Pricing

Currently, we offer our core features—including assessment and transformation—at no cost to AWS customers. This allows you to speed up your migration and modernization journey without upfront expenses.

Conclusion

AWS Transform for VMware is now generally available – a groundbreaking agentic AI-powered service designed to simplify and accelerate the modernization of VMware workloads on AWS. This tool automates the complex processes of application discovery, dependency mapping, network transformation, and EC2 instance optimization, significantly reducing manual effort and migration risks. Our partners have been testing the service for months. Here are the impacts that two of them are seeing for their customers.

“AWS Transform for VMware can significantly accelerate the cloud migration journey of our clients by reducing rework, minimizing consulting needs, and bridging gaps in legacy knowledge. Based on our internal testing, we’ve seen that AWS Transform for VMware can reduce VM migration time to AWS by at least 50%. We’re now integrating AWS Transform into our tooling to enable even faster migrations and unlock more value-driven outcomes for our business.”.
– Neil Redmond, Managing Director | Accenture

“AWS Transform for VMware dramatically accelerated migration planning by automating VM discovery and workload assessment. The agentic AI service achieved 100% discovery accuracy and provided critical insights into resource utilization, dependency mapping, and the right-sizing of infrastructure. Its integration with AWS Application Discovery Service and Migration Hub proved especially valuable for our complex migration needs, helping us better understand application dependencies within our customer’s estate. We achieved a 50% reduction in our discovery timeline, translating to a 2x – 3x acceleration in the assessment phase alone. We look forward to leveraging AWS Transform as a cornerstone of our infrastructure modernization offerings as we continue to accelerate our customers’ cloud journey”.
– Stefan Buchman, Head of Solutions | Slalom

Migration & Modernization