Moving your virtual machines to AWS helps you rethink how you run infrastructure in a few practical ways:

• Eliminate hardware refresh cycles: No more buying and installing new servers, managing rack space, or renewing data center leases. AWS turns large capital expenses into more predictable operating expenses.
• Reduce data center overhead: You avoid ongoing costs for power, cooling, and physical space, while AWS provides the underlying infrastructure.
• Scale on demand: Instead of planning capacity months in advance, you can add or remove compute capacity in minutes. This helps you handle seasonal peaks or new projects without overprovisioning.
• Improve availability and resilience: AWS offers 99.99% availability through multi-AZ (Availability Zone) architectures and a global infrastructure that’s difficult to replicate on-premises.
• Strengthen security and compliance: AWS includes 300 built-in security, compliance, and governance services, giving you a broad toolkit to meet security and regulatory requirements.
• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): Customers typically see a 30–50% TCO reduction within the first year after migration, driven by optimized infrastructure usage and reduced operational overhead.
• Refocus your IT team: With AWS handling the undifferentiated heavy lifting of infrastructure, your team can spend more time on applications, data, and business outcomes instead of hardware and maintenance.

The CloudFirst SMB Migration Pilot is designed as a fully funded program for smaller environments, so you can move to AWS with minimal upfront risk.

Who it’s for

• Businesses running approximately 1–40 virtual machines
• Organizations with AWS Annual Recurring Revenue between $1 and $99,999

What’s included at no cost

• Funded workload assessment
  A comprehensive TCO analysis and a detailed Migration Plan tailored to your workloads and business objectives, delivered without assessment fees.
• Funded lift-and-shift migration
  An expert-led migration of your VMs to AWS, including tooling, configuration, and account setup. The goal is to move your workloads with no disruption to day-to-day operations.
• 12-month concierge support
  24/7 partner-led cloud support for all migrated workloads for a full year after the migration, covering stability, performance, and ongoing optimization.
• Post-migration cloud credits
  15% post-migration cloud credits (applied to your AWS bill over 12 months) to help offset operational costs as you settle into the new environment.

All of these elements are bundled so you can test and adopt AWS without separate consulting or migration project fees.

The CloudFirst approach follows a three-phase migration journey designed to make the move to AWS structured and predictable:

1. Phase 1 – Assess
   You start with a comprehensive TCO analysis and a detailed Migration Plan. In this phase, your current virtual machines and workloads are evaluated, and you get a clear roadmap aligned with your business goals, timelines, and risk profile.
2. Phase 2 – Migrate
   Next is a fully funded lift-and-shift migration. Your VMs are moved to AWS using proven tooling and expert guidance. The focus is on minimizing disruption so your teams can keep working while the migration happens behind the scenes.
3. Phase 3 – Manage
   After migration, you receive 24/7 partner-led Concierge Support for 12 months. This covers day-to-day operations, performance tuning, cost optimization, and ongoing improvements to your AWS environment.

Across all three phases, the goal is to help you reimagine your infrastructure model—moving from hardware-centric operations to a more flexible, cloud-based approach—without taking on large upfront costs or unmanaged risk.