AWS Migration Guide 2026 | Cloud Migration Services & Strategy

Moving workloads to AWS is only one part of a successful migration.

For an enterprise, the bigger decision is choosing a partner that can assess what should move, build a realistic migration roadmap, minimise operational risk, modernise the right workloads, control costs and continue supporting the environment after migration.

That makes selecting an AWS migration service provider less about finding a vendor that can execute a technical move and more about finding a partner capable of supporting the complete cloud journey.

For Indian enterprises, the decision may also involve regional architecture, data requirements, industry-specific governance, local support capabilities and the ability to work within an organisation’s long-term cloud operating model.

This evaluation framework explains what enterprises should examine before selecting an AWS migration partner in India.

Ready to lead the future? Start your AI/ML journey today!

In- depth knowledge and skill training
Hands on labs
Industry use cases

Enroll Now

Quick Answer: What Should You Look for in an AWS Migration Service Provider?

Before shortlisting a provider, evaluate whether it can demonstrate:

Validated AWS migration and modernisation expertise
A structured discovery and assessment methodology
Relevant experience with your applications and workloads
Workload-specific migration planning rather than a one-size-fits-all approach
Security and governance built into the migration
A clear testing, cutover and rollback methodology
Cost, licensing and FinOps capabilities
Application and database modernisation expertise
Post-migration AWS managed services
Relevant customer case studies with measurable outcomes
Clear documentation, governance and knowledge transfer

The right provider should be able to explain not only how your workloads will move, but also why each migration decision is appropriate for your business.

Why Choosing the Right AWS Migration Partner Matters in 2026

Enterprise migration has evolved considerably beyond lift-and-shift projects.

Organisations today may be migrating because they need to:

Exit or consolidate data centres
Improve scalability and resilience
Modernise legacy applications
Reduce infrastructure management overhead
Strengthen disaster recovery
Improve security and governance
Support analytics or AI initiatives
Optimise cloud expenditure
Move workloads from another cloud to AWS
Create a more flexible technology foundation

Modernisation may happen during the migration or after workloads have stabilised.

AWS itself now distinguishes migration and modernisation capabilities within its Migration and Modernization Competency. Migration expertise includes patterns such as rehost, relocate and like-to-like replatforming, while modernisation can involve deeper replatforming or refactoring to make better use of cloud-native services.

A migration provider should therefore be able to determine which workloads need to move, which should change and which may not need to move at all.

Understand the Different Types of AWS Migration Providers

Not every AWS partner operates in the same way.

“html






Provider Type
Typically Suitable For
What Enterprises Should Evaluate




Global Systems Integrator
Very large, multinational transformation programmes
Cost, agility, senior-team involvement and delivery model


AWS-specialised consulting partner
AWS-focused migration and modernisation
Competencies, workload expertise and AWS delivery experience


AWS Managed Service Provider
Migration followed by ongoing operations
SLAs, monitoring, FinOps, security and optimisation capabilities


Specialist cloud consultancy
Focused migrations or specialised workload requirements
Technical depth, scale and support capabilities


Internal team supported by a specialist
Organisations with mature cloud teams
Skills gaps, ownership and knowledge-transfer requirements

Provider Type	Typically Suitable For	What Enterprises Should Evaluate
Global Systems Integrator	Very large, multinational transformation programmes	Cost, agility, senior-team involvement and delivery model
AWS-specialised consulting partner	AWS-focused migration and modernisation	Competencies, workload expertise and AWS delivery experience
AWS Managed Service Provider	Migration followed by ongoing operations	SLAs, monitoring, FinOps, security and optimisation capabilities
Specialist cloud consultancy	Focused migrations or specialised workload requirements	Technical depth, scale and support capabilities
Internal team supported by a specialist	Organisations with mature cloud teams	Skills gaps, ownership and knowledge-transfer requirements

“

The best model depends on the organisation’s internal capabilities.

An enterprise with a mature AWS operations team may only require migration expertise. Another organisation may need the same partner to continue managing its AWS environment after go-live.

What Should an AWS Migration Provider Assess Before Giving You a Plan?

One of the first signs of a credible migration provider is its willingness to understand the environment before recommending a solution.

A proper migration assessment should examine:

Applications and infrastructure
Servers and databases
Application dependencies
Resource utilisation
Data volumes
Software and operating-system requirements
Existing licences
Security requirements
Compliance requirements
Business criticality
Recovery objectives
Existing cloud maturity
Current operating costs

The output should go beyond an asset inventory.

It should help answer:

What should migrate?
How should it migrate?
In what sequence?
What will it cost?
What are the major risks?
What should be modernised?

Enterprises should be cautious when a provider recommends an architecture or submits a final migration quotation before completing meaningful discovery.

How Should a Provider Apply AWS Migration Strategies?

AWS migration strategies are commonly used to determine the right path for each workload.

Rather than explaining the complete migration framework again here, enterprises should assess whether the provider can appropriately apply strategies such as rehost, relocate, replatform, repurchase, retain, retire and refactor based on individual workload requirements.

A provider recommending lift-and-shift for every application may be optimising for migration speed rather than long-term value.

For a detailed understanding of the migration lifecycle and strategies, this article should link internally to CloudThat’s AWS Migration: A Complete Guide for Businesses in 2026.

The key question during provider evaluation is:

Can the provider explain why a particular migration strategy has been selected for each critical workload?

What Indian Enterprises Should Consider When Choosing an AWS Migration Provider

An AWS migration strategy for an Indian organisation may involve considerations that go beyond technical migration capability.

AWS regional architecture

AWS operates two regions in India: Asia Pacific Mumbai and Asia Pacific Hyderabad. The Hyderabad region is AWS’s second region in India and, like Mumbai, provides three Availability Zones.

A provider should be able to help the organisation determine appropriate architecture based on factors such as:

Availability
Resilience
Latency
Disaster recovery
Business continuity
Data requirements

Simply locating workloads in India does not automatically constitute a complete resilience or compliance strategy.

Industry experience

Cloud environments supporting healthcare, financial services or government workloads can have very different governance requirements from those supporting a media platform or an e-commerce application.

Enterprises should therefore ask for experience relevant to their own sector.

CloudThat has confirmed AWS migration experience across:

Manufacturing, Media and Entertainment, Software and Internet, Education, Financial Services, Government, Transportation and Logistics, Retail, Healthcare, Automotive and Agriculture.

Local delivery and operational support

Evaluate whether the provider can offer:

India-based technical teams
Clearly defined escalation processes
Support coverage matching business requirements
AWS architecture expertise
Operational handover
Managed services after migration
Customer references relevant to the region

This becomes especially important for organisations that require ongoing cloud operations rather than only a migration project.

10 Criteria for Evaluating AWS Migration Service Providers

1. Verified AWS Migration and Modernisation Expertise

Start with evidence.

Check:

Relevant AWS competencies
AWS partner status
Migration and modernisation capability
AWS-certified expertise
Relevant migration experience
Customer evidence

AWS states that its Competency programme is intended to identify partners with demonstrated technical expertise and customer success in specialised areas.

CloudThat has confirmed that it holds the AWS Migration and Modernization Competency and has completed 80+ AWS migration and modernisation engagements, including projects involving applications, workloads, databases, data and infrastructure.

That experience becomes more meaningful when accompanied by case studies relevant to the workload an enterprise plans to migrate.

Conclusion: AWS Migration is a Business Decision, Not Just a Technical One

AWS migration is not just about moving systems. It is about transforming how your business operates, scales, and innovates.

With the right strategy, the right tools, and the right cloud migration services partner, organizations can:

Reduce costs
Improve performance
Enable AI-driven growth
Build future-ready infrastructure

Upskill Your Teams with Enterprise-Ready Tech Training Programs

Team-wide Customizable Programs
Measurable Business Outcomes

Learn More

About CloudThat

CloudThat is an award-winning company and the first in India to offer cloud training and consulting services worldwide. As an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, AWS Advanced Training Partner, Microsoft Solutions Partner, and Google Cloud Platform Partner, CloudThat has empowered over 1.1 million professionals through 1000+ cloud certifications, winning global recognition for its training excellence, including 20 MCT Trainers in Microsoft’s Global Top 100 and an impressive 14 awards in the last 9 years. CloudThat specializes in Cloud Migration, Data Platforms, DevOps, Security, IoT, and advanced technologies like Gen AI & AI/ML. It has delivered over 750 consulting projects for 850+ organizations in 30+ countries as it continues to empower professionals and enterprises to thrive in the digital-first world.