The 7 Rs are seven workload-level choices: retire, retain, rehost, relocate, repurchase, replatform, and refactor or re-architect. They help teams describe how an application should be treated in a cloud program; they do not predict cost, speed, or success. Choose an approach only after understanding the workload’s business value, dependencies, constraints, and intended outcome.
What are the 7 Rs of cloud migration?
A migration strategy is the approach used to move a workload into a cloud environment. AWS uses the 7 Rs below as a migration framework. Other cloud providers or programs may use different taxonomies, so treat these names as useful categories rather than universal rules.
| Strategy | What it means | Typical consideration |
|---|---|---|
| Retire | Decommission or archive an application that no longer has sufficient business value. | Confirm ownership and dependencies before shutting it down. Retirement may reduce maintenance and hosting costs and remove exposure to unsupported components. AWS application retirement guidance. |
| Retain | Keep an application in its current environment for now. | Use this when a move is not justified or practical; plan any necessary interaction with cloud-based systems. |
| Rehost | Move an application with no or minimal application changes, often called “lift and shift.” | This can separate the initial move from later optimization, but does not itself modernize the application. |
| Relocate | Move infrastructure to a comparable cloud environment while preserving its virtualization structure and making little or no application change. | Consider whether the existing infrastructure model and its requirements are supported in the destination. |
| Repurchase | Replace the current product or licensing model with another product, often a SaaS service. | Compare functional fit, licensing, compliance, security, and operating implications before switching. |
| Replatform | Move with limited changes or optimization to use cloud capabilities while retaining the application’s core architecture. | Examples include moving a virtual machine into containers or moving SQL Server to Amazon RDS for SQL Server. |
| Refactor or re-architect | Change the architecture substantially to take advantage of cloud-native capabilities. | This can offer a path to a different operating model, but AWS describes it as the most complex strategy for large migrations. |
These definitions and examples follow AWS’s migration strategy guidance and cloud migration overview. The examples illustrate categories, not recommendations for a particular workload.
How do I choose a cloud migration strategy?
Assess each application individually rather than assigning one strategy to an entire portfolio. AWS guidance says the choice depends on the resource’s requirements, the IT environment, and the business value sought. Database planning also considers business drivers, time, financial and business constraints, and resource requirements. AWS database migration strategy guidance.
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- Establish what exists. Build an application and infrastructure inventory, and gather available configuration and performance information. Record owners and known dependencies.
- Confirm business need. Determine whether the workload still provides value and whether the organization expects to keep using it. This distinguishes a candidate to retire from one to migrate or retain.
- Identify constraints and dependencies. Check technical fit and links to other systems, along with compliance, security, support, latency, and operational requirements that could affect a move.
- Set the desired outcome. Decide whether the priority is to sustain current behavior, optimize operations, replace a product, or change the architecture.
- Compare effort and timing. Consider whether a timely move matters more than modernization during migration, and whether people and resources are available for deeper changes.
- Record the decision and revisit it. Note the reasons for each workload’s treatment, then update the plan as discovery or migration waves reveal new information.
This comparison is a practical way to organize the assessment, not a validated scoring formula or universal ranking. None of the seven Rs guarantees lower cost or less risk; those outcomes depend on the workload and execution.
How should a migration plan handle waves and modernization?
Use the initial portfolio assessment as a working plan, not a permanent classification. AWS advises optimizing later migration waves as teams learn and new information becomes available. That matters especially when documentation is sparse or subject-matter experts have left: apparent inactivity alone is not proof that an application can be retired. AWS guidance on assessing applications for retirement.
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For a large program, decide deliberately whether modernization belongs in the migration wave or after it. AWS cautions that refactoring many applications during migration can make the program substantially more complex. Rehosting, relocating, or replatforming first and modernizing afterward may be more manageable when the program’s needs support that sequence. This is AWS guidance for large migrations, not a rule that every organization should defer modernization. See the AWS Well-Architected Migration Lens.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where AWS tools fit into planning
AWS’s migration planning guidance describes inventory and dependency discovery, landing-zone guardrails, and migration waves. It also gives examples of AWS services and tools, including Migration Evaluator, Migration Hub, Application Migration Service, and Database Migration Service. These are AWS-specific examples, not requirements for a cloud migration in general. AWS migration planning guidance.
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