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What is lift and shift in AWS?

Last updated on September 25, 2022 @ 6:10 pm

Lift and shift is a term used in the AWS cloud platform to describe the ability of an application to move between different AWS resource types, such as EC2 instances, S3 buckets, RDS servers, and Elastic Load Balancers, without having to rewrite or recompile the application.

Lift and shift can be used to migrate applications from on-premises infrastructure to the AWS cloud, or vice versa. The process of lift and shift starts by creating a blueprint that describes the desired architecture and the resources required.

From there, AWS will create corresponding resources in the AWS cloud and run the application using those resources. If the application needs to change or update its configuration, the blueprint can be updated to reflect the changes.

The benefits of lift and shift include:

1. Reduced development time: Lift and shift allows applications to be ported from on-premises infrastructure to the AWS cloud with little or no modification.

2. Reduced infrastructure costs: By using AWS resources instead of custom-built infrastructure, lift and shift can reduce the costs associated with setting up and running an application in the AWS cloud.

3. Greater flexibility and agility: By moving an application to the AWS cloud, you can more easily scale the application up or down in response to changes in demand.

4. Increased reliability: Because AWS resources are configured and managed using industry-leading best practices, applications running in the AWS cloud are more reliable than applications running on on-premises infrastructure.

PRO TIP: When considering a lift and shift migration to AWS, it is important to carefully assess your workloads to ensure that they are compatible with the AWS platform. Additionally, you should consider the cost of running your workloads on AWS, as well as the operational overhead of managing a cloud environment.
Morgan Bash

Morgan Bash

Technology enthusiast and Co-Founder of Women Coders SF.