Migrating VMware Workloads to the Cloud - Bring Your Existing Environment to AWS with Amazon EVS
Learn how to migrate VMware workloads to AWS using Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS). This article covers VPC integration, HCX migration procedures, and on-premises connectivity design.
Why Cloud Migration of VMware Environments Is in Demand
Many enterprises have built their virtualization infrastructure on VMware vSphere for over a decade. However, following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, changes to the licensing model (shifting from perpetual licenses to subscriptions and restructuring bundles) have led to significant increases in on-premises VMware operating costs for many organizations. Combined with aging data centers, the burden of hardware refresh cycles, and DR site maintenance costs, more enterprises are considering migrating their VMware workloads to the cloud. Amazon EVS is a service that runs VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) natively on AWS, allowing you to continue using your existing vCenter, vSAN, and NSX while leveraging AWS scalability and services.
Amazon EVS Architecture and VPC Integration
The defining feature of Amazon EVS is that the VMware environment is deployed directly within an Amazon VPC. While the previous VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) provided a dedicated SDDC environment, EVS runs within the customer's VPC, simplifying network integration with AWS services. ESXi hosts run on i4i.metal instances and can scale from a minimum of 4 hosts to a maximum of 64 hosts. Because they connect directly to subnets within the VPC, they can communicate with AWS services such as RDS, S3, Lambda, and EKS over private IPs without needing NAT or proxies. NSX network virtualization remains fully available, and microsegmentation and load balancing configurations can be carried over from the source environment.
Migration Steps with HCX and Minimizing Downtime
VMware HCX (Hybrid Cloud Extension) is a tool that facilitates workload migration from on-premises to EVS. HCX vMotion enables live migration of virtual machines while they are running, keeping downtime to near zero. For bulk migration of large numbers of VMs, HCX Bulk Migration efficiently handles the process within a maintenance window. The migration workflow is: (1) deploy the EVS cluster, (2) establish HCX pairing between on-premises and EVS, (3) configure network extension (L2 stretch), (4) select target VMs and execute migration, and (5) switch DNS and converge the network. L2 extension eliminates the need to change IP addresses during migration, ensuring uninterrupted communication between applications. After migration is complete, the L2 extension is removed and the network converges to the EVS side. For understanding cloud migration best practices, related books (Amazon) can be a helpful reference.
EVS Pricing
Amazon EVS pricing is primarily based on hourly charges for dedicated hosts (i4i.metal). The minimum configuration is 3 hosts, with i4i.metal costing approximately $10.90 per hour (about $7,848 per month), totaling roughly $23,544 per month for 3 hosts. VMware licenses are BYOL (Bring Your Own License); you can bring existing licenses or purchase them through AWS Marketplace. Compared to on-premises VMware environments (hardware + licenses + data center costs), a 30-50% TCO reduction over 3-5 years is common.
Summary - Guidelines for VMware Migration with EVS
Amazon EVS provides a migration path that brings your VMware environment directly to AWS. Its key strengths are seamless integration with AWS services through VPC integration, near-zero downtime migration via HCX, and the ability to continue using existing operational procedures. It is well suited for enterprises addressing Broadcom licensing changes, data center consolidation, or cloud-based DR sites. For migration planning, we recommend first mapping workload dependencies, defining migration waves (groups), and then proceeding with a phased migration.