AWS Migration Hub - Track Your Migration So You Don't Lose Your Mind

AWS Migration Hub is basically a project management dashboard for your cloud migration. Instead of losing track of which servers you've moved, which ones are still causing you problems, and which team member forgot to migrate that random database that somehow runs your entire payment system.

Why You Actually Need This

Migration Dependencies Visualization: Complex networks of interconnected servers where one dependency can bring down entire systems during migration.

Migration tracking is a complete nightmare without centralized tools. I've seen teams lose track of dependencies and bring down prod during cutover because nobody remembered that the accounting system talks to a random server in the basement that hasn't been rebooted since 2018.

AWS Migration Hub gives you a single place to see:

• What shit you've already moved
• What shit is currently being moved
• What shit is broken
• What shit you forgot about

The AWS Cloud Adoption Framework recommends centralized migration tracking for a reason - distributed teams managing complex enterprise migrations without coordination is a recipe for disaster. Gartner research shows that failed migrations cost 3-5x the original budget in cleanup.

How It Actually Works

The platform connects to AWS Application Discovery Service to automatically find all your servers and their dependencies. You can install Discovery Agents on each server (which will max out CPU on old boxes - don't do this during business hours) or use agentless Discovery Collectors if you're running VMware.

The discovery process maps out your server dependencies, though it'll miss the weird ones that always crash everything during cutover. The Strategy Recommendations feature analyzes your apps and suggests migration approaches, but take these with a grain of salt - it doesn't know about your legacy authentication nightmare or the custom Oracle setup that requires sacrificing a goat to restart.

What You Get From It

Dependency Mapping: Shows which servers talk to each other. Finds 90% of dependencies, but it's that missing 10% that kills your weekend. At least you'll know about most of them ahead of time.

AWS Migration Hub Dashboard: Centralized view showing migration progress, server status, and dependency mapping across all your migration projects.

Migration Tracking: Integrates with AWS Application Migration Service and AWS Database Migration Service to show migration progress. The status updates are mostly accurate, except when things fail silently. Works with AWS Server Migration Service too if you're still using that.

Team Coordination: Role-based access so your junior dev can't accidentally trigger a production migration at 2 AM. Though they'll find a way anyway. Integrates with AWS Identity and Access Management for proper permissions management.

Journey Templates: Pre-built checklists for common migration patterns. These work fine for simple stuff, but anything with custom auth or weird networking requires manual work. The AWS Migration Hub Journeys feature tries to template complex migrations, but expect to customize everything.

Real Talk on Limitations

• Discovery agents can overwhelm old servers - check the system requirements before installing
• The "automated" migration still needs babysitting because AWS tools randomly timeout
• Migration estimates are like software estimates - double them and add 6 months. See the AWS Migration Acceleration Program for realistic timelines
• Migration Hub Refactor Spaces sounds cool until you realize it's just AWS trying to sell you more services
• Network visualization only works if you install agents everywhere, which you won't
• Home region limitations mean you can't change regions without losing data
• Migration Hub Orchestrator promises automation but requires custom scripts for anything complex
• CloudFormation integration is limited and doesn't support all Migration Hub features
• API rate limits kick in during large migrations without warning
• Cost tracking doesn't integrate well with migration progress tracking
• Security compliance audits require manual work to correlate migrated assets
• Third-party tool integration often breaks during AWS service updates

Migration Hub is free, which means you get what you pay for in terms of hand-holding. But it beats Excel spreadsheets for tracking migrations, which is a pretty low bar.

The 6 Rs of Migration (Or How to Categorize Your Pain)

AWS 6 Rs Migration Strategies: Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Retire, Retain, and Repurchase - each representing different levels of complexity and pain.

Migration Hub tracks progress for the 6 Rs of migration, which is AWS's way of categorizing different levels of suffering:

Rehost (Lift-and-Shift): Copy your servers to AWS and pray nothing breaks. AWS Application Migration Service handles the heavy lifting, but you'll still spend weekends figuring out why the app that worked fine on-premises now crashes every Tuesday at 3 PM.

Replatform: Move your database to RDS and pretend that solves your architecture problems. Usually saves money on database admin overhead, but now you get to learn AWS's special way of doing backups.

Refactor: Rebuild your monolith as microservices using fancy patterns like strangler-fig. Sounds great in theory until you realize you've turned one complex system into 47 simple systems that all hate each other.

Real Migration War Stories

Here's what actually happens when companies migrate:

Capital One: They went all-in on AWS and shut down 8 data centers. Took them 8 years, cost a fortune, but they actually pulled it off. Of course, they're a bank with unlimited money and 11,000 engineers, so your mileage may vary.

The Rest of Us: Most migrations go over budget, take longer than expected, and break in spectacular ways during cutover. Migration Hub helps track the carnage, but it can't fix the fact that your payment system somehow depends on a Windows 2003 server running in someone's closet.

Team Structure That Actually Works

Migration Team Organization: Multiple overlapping teams with conflicting priorities, incomplete documentation, and at least one person who knows where all the bodies are buried.

Migration Office: 2-3 people who understand both your legacy mess and AWS. They spend most of their time in meetings explaining why the 2-week migration estimate is actually 6 months.

Application Teams: The people who actually know how the applications work. They'll discover dependencies that weren't documented anywhere and explain why the database can't be moved because it requires a specific patch level of Oracle that only works with a custom kernel module.

Platform Team: AWS experts who build landing zones and security frameworks. They'll set up beautiful, secure environments that your legacy applications can't run in without major modifications.

The Guy Who Actually Knows Everything: Every organization has one person who's been there for 15 years and knows all the undocumented integrations. Find this person. Buy them coffee. Lots of coffee.

Migration Costs: The Truth Hurts

Migration Hub is free for tracking, but the actual migration will drain your budget faster than you can say "data transfer charges":

• That "lift-and-shift" estimate doesn't include the 6 months of troubleshooting weird performance issues
• Plan for 30% more AWS costs in the first year while you figure out right-sizing
• The "automated" migration still requires someone to babysit it because AWS tools randomly timeout
• Industry research shows failed migrations cost 3-5x the original budget in cleanup

Partner Tools That Actually Help

Migration Hub integrates with 40+ partner tools, most of which are trying to solve the problems AWS created:

• CloudEndure: Professional-grade replication for when you need zero downtime and have money
• Turbonomic: Tells you your AWS sizing is wrong (spoiler: it always is)
• Carbonite: Backup for when the migration goes sideways
• Zerto: Enterprise disaster recovery that actually works
• Azure Migrate: For multi-cloud strategies (Azure stockholm syndrome)
• VMware Cloud on AWS: When you want AWS but with VMware complexity
• Azure Resource Mover: Discovery and assessment that finds what AWS agents miss
• Device42: CMDB integration for tracking what you actually have
• RiverMeadow: Automated migration platform for complex workloads
• OpenText PlateSpin Migrate: Legacy migration tool that still works
• Veeam Backup & Replication: Real-time replication for zero-downtime migrations
• AWS Partner Solutions: Cloud migration automation for heterogeneous environments

The integration ecosystem exists because migrations are complex and AWS's built-in tools only cover the happy path. When things go wrong (and they will), you'll need specialized tools that cost extra but actually work. Check the AWS Migration Partner Solutions directory for current pricing and capabilities.