Amazon Web Services Inc. is asking customers to switch to its newly launched AWS Application Migration Service for “lift-and-shift” application migrations to its cloud platform.

The service, which went live today, makes it possible for companies to move their apps to the AWS cloud without first needing to make any changes to them, their architecture or the migrated servers.

AWS MGN, as it’s called, 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.

One of the key advantages is that it enables customers to launch nondisruptive tests before they flip the switch, so to speak, so they can check that critical applications such as SAP, Oracle and SQL Server will run as intended on Amazon’s cloud.

AWS has previously enabled application migrations to its cloud through the CloudEndure Migration service that moves workloads from physical, virtual or cloud infrastructure to its own platform at no cost. CloudEndure Migration complements the AWS Server Migration Service for moving on-premises apps and workloads to Amazon.

In a blog post, AWS Principal Developer Advocate Channy Yun said the company is now encouraging customers that use either of those services to switch to AWS MGN for any future workload migrations.

“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.”

Users can monitor the entire application migration process through Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon EventBridge or AWS CloudTrail. Those services help to collect raw data on the process and transform it into readable metrics in near real-time, Yun said.

By making it easy to move workloads to their platforms, cloud infrastructure providers can obtain lots of new workloads from both new and existing customers. Last October, Amazon announced that its customers had move more than 300,000 databases to its cloud using the AWS Database Migration Service that was launched in 2016.

But Amazon isn’t the only cloud company playing the migration game. Google LLC launched a serverless Database Migration Service in March that enables customers to move workloads to the Google Cloud with relative ease. That same month, Oracle Corp. unveiled Oracle Cloud Lift Services for moving workloads to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform.

“Cloud vendors need to attract load to scale their clouds, and that means they’re motivated to make it easier to migrate their workloads to their clouds,” said Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller. “It’ll be interesting to see what the uptake is in a few months.”

AWS MGN is available now in Amazon’s US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), US East (Ohio), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Europe (Ireland), Europe (Frankfurt) and Europe (Stockholm) regions.

The company didn’t mention anything about future availability in other regions. It said customers whose region is not supported should use the CloudEndure Migration or AWS Server Migration Service instead.

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