AWS Migration Evaluator: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
AWS Migration Evaluator (formerly TSO Logic) is a complimentary AWS service designed to demystify the process of migrating to the cloud by providing a data-driven business case. It helps organizations understand what it would cost to run their existing on-premises workloads in the AWS Cloud, providing a clear path for migration planning and cost optimization.
What is Migration Evaluator?
Migration Evaluator provides a comprehensive assessment of your on-premises server inventory to model the projected costs of running those workloads on AWS. It moves beyond simple "like-for-like" comparisons by analyzing actual resource utilization to recommend right-sized and cost-optimized AWS configurations.
The primary goal is to create a reliable business case for migration, answering the critical question: "What will our AWS bill look like, and how can we optimize it from day one?"
How It Works: The Assessment Process
The process is designed to be minimally invasive and is broken down into three main steps:
- Deploy the Collector: You deploy a free, agentless data collection tool—the Migration Evaluator Collector—within your on-premises data center (e.g., as a VM in your vCenter environment).
- Collect Data: The agentless collector runs for a recommended period (typically 2-4 weeks) to observe your servers' actual utilization patterns. It gathers data on CPU, memory, storage usage, and OS information. This data is securely encrypted and uploaded to a private S3 bucket in your AWS account.
- Analyze the Assessment: Once the data is processed, Migration Evaluator generates a detailed assessment. This includes a projected cost summary, what-if scenarios for different purchasing models (On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved Instances), and right-sizing recommendations.
Core Features
Agentless Data Collection
The collector operates without needing to install any software (agents) on your individual servers. This significantly reduces the complexity and security overhead of data gathering.
Key data points collected include:
- Server specifications (CPU cores, RAM)
- Actual resource utilization (CPU and RAM usage over time)
- Storage consumption and I/O
- Operating System and version
- Hypervisor details (for virtualized environments)
Comprehensive Cost Assessment & TCO
Migration Evaluator delivers more than just a raw cost estimate.
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): It provides a directional business case comparing your on-premises TCO with the projected AWS TCO.
- Right-Sizing Recommendations: Instead of a 1:1 hardware match, it analyzes usage to suggest the most appropriate and cost-effective EC2 instance types.
- What-If Modeling: It allows you to see cost projections based on different pricing models (e.g., On-Demand vs. 3-year Savings Plans) and migration strategies.
Quick Insights for Rapid Assessment
For organizations needing a faster, initial estimate, the "Quick Insights" feature provides a directional cost assessment within hours of data collection, based on server inventory and specifications alone, without waiting for deep utilization analysis.
Secure by Design
Security is a core component of the service:
- Data is encrypted in transit when uploaded from the collector.
- Data is encrypted at rest in a secure, service-owned S3 bucket.
- Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is not collected.
Broad Environment Support
The Migration Evaluator Collector can gather data from a wide range of on-premises environments, including:
- VMware vSphere
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Physical servers (Windows & Linux)
- Other public clouds (e.g., Azure, GCP) via CSV import.
Migration Evaluator vs. AWS Application Discovery Service
It's crucial to understand the difference between Migration Evaluator and AWS Application Discovery Service (ADS), as they serve different primary purposes in the migration journey.
| Feature | AWS Migration Evaluator | AWS Application Discovery Service (ADS) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Business Case & Cost Planning: To create a data-driven cost projection for migrating to AWS. | Technical Discovery & Dependency Mapping: To understand server configurations, performance, and network dependencies. |
| Data Collection | Agentless only. Focuses on resource utilization for TCO. | Agentless and Agent-based. The agent provides deep insights like network connections and running processes. |
| Key Output | A detailed cost assessment report, TCO analysis, and right-sizing recommendations. | A repository of discovered servers, performance data, and network dependency graphs. |
| Typical Use Case | Used in the Assess phase of migration to get financial approval and set budgets. | Used in the Assess and Mobilize phases to plan the technical aspects of a migration (e.g., creating move groups). |
In short: Use Migration Evaluator for the financial conversation ("Should we move and what will it cost?"). Use Application Discovery Service for the technical conversation ("How do we move these interconnected applications?").
Pricing Model
- Migration Evaluator Service: The service itself is offered at no charge.
- Collector & Storage: You are responsible for the minimal costs associated with running the collector appliance in your on-premises environment and the cost of storing the collected data in your Amazon S3 bucket.
Key Scenarios & Use Cases
- Building the Business Case: Generate data-driven reports to justify a cloud migration to stakeholders by showing clear cost savings and optimization opportunities.
- Optimizing "Lift-and-Shift" Migrations: Avoid overprovisioning by getting right-sizing recommendations based on actual usage, not just on-premises specs.
- Evaluating Different Pricing Strategies: Model the financial impact of using Savings Plans or Reserved Instances versus paying On-Demand prices.
- First-Step Assessment: Quickly and securely get an initial inventory and cost estimate for your server fleet without a complex, agent-based deployment.