AWS Application Discovery Service

aws/migration aws/service

💡 Definition

AWS Application Discovery Service (ADS) helps enterprise customers plan their migration to AWS by collecting detailed information about their on-premises data centers. It automatically identifies applications, their dependencies, and their performance characteristics.

🔑 Key Concepts

On-Premises Discovery: Deploys an agent or uses an agentless connector in your on-premises environment to gather data.
Application Inventory: Collects details about servers, applications, databases, and their interdependencies.
Performance Data: Gathers CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network utilization data to inform rightsizing decisions.
Migration Planning: The collected data is used by AWS Migration Hub (MISSING) to plan and track application migrations.

⚙️ How it Works

You deploy either an agentless connector (on VMware) or a lightweight agent on individual servers in your on-premises data center. These collect data and securely send it to the Application Discovery Service. The service then organizes this data and makes it available through the AWS console or API, providing insights into your current environment.

🎯 Use Cases

Migration Assessment: Understanding the scope and complexity of a migration project.
Rightsizing: Using performance data to recommend optimal EC2 instance types and storage configurations in AWS.
Dependency Mapping: Identifying application dependencies to ensure a smooth migration order and avoid surprises.
Cost Estimation: Providing data for more accurate cost estimates for running workloads on AWS.

💰 Pricing Model

Free: AWS Application Discovery Service is free to use.

📝 Exam Tips (CLF-C02)

Keywords: "On-premises discovery", "Migration planning", "Application inventory", "Dependency mapping".
It's a foundational service for the planning phase of migration to understand the existing on-premises environment.
Often used in conjunction with AWS Migration Hub (MISSING) for a centralized migration dashboard.

See Also: * AWS Migration Hub (MISSING) * AWS Application Migration Service (MISSING) * DMS * Schema Conversion Tool