AWS Innovate: Migrate and Modernize

Since 2008, businesses have trusted AWS to run their Microsoft workloads, making AWS the most experienced and proven cloud provider for Windows Server, SQL Server, and .NET applications. Organizations choose AWS for higher performance and reliability, enhanced security and identity services, broad migration support, flexible licensing options, and the lowest total cost of ownership.
In this session, we’ll explore why hundreds of thousands of customers run Microsoft applications on AWS and how you can migrate with confidence and modernize for the future. We’ll also highlight how AWS supports everything you need to run, scale, and modernize Windows-based applications, helping you reduce costs, increase agility, and drive innovation.

SQL Server workloads need scalability and high availability—but running them on-premises can hinder performance and limit business innovation. AWS provides a flexible, cost-effective, and high-performing platform to migrate and modernize SQL Server while improving resilience and reducing operational overhead.
In this session, we’ll explore three proven pathways for SQL Server on AWS. Some organizations choose to lift and shift their workloads to SQL Server on Amazon EC2, gaining full control while benefiting from AWS infrastructure. Others move to managed services like Amazon RDS or Amazon RDS Custom, offloading database administration to improve efficiency and scalability. Businesses looking to fully modernize can transition to Amazon Aurora or AWS purpose-built databases, unlocking even greater performance and cost savings.
Join us to learn best practices, licensing considerations, and migration strategies to unlock the full potential of your SQL Server workloads on AWS.

Generative AI is transforming how organizations modernize .NET applications, making the process faster and more cost-effective. With AWS Transform, businesses can port Windows-based .NET Framework applications to cross-platform .NET up to four times faster while achieving up to 40% savings in licensing costs. By automating tedious manual porting tasks, AWS Transform helps businesses accelerate modernization, reduce technical debt, and free up developer resources to focus on innovation. Its agentic AI-powered capabilities simplify the transformation process, enabling organizations to migrate at scale with greater efficiency and confidence while maintaining compliance.

Windows Server is critical for many enterprises, but managing it on-premises comes with rising costs, operational complexity, and looming End of Support (EOS) challenges. Running outdated versions can increase security risks and compliance concerns. In this session, we’ll explore how AWS provides a secure, scalable, and cost-efficient platform for Windows Server, helping you extend support, reduce technical debt, and modernize with ease.
Learn how to optimize licensing, enhance security, and take advantage of modernization pathways like Windows containers and serverless compute. Whether you're migrating as-is or looking to modernize, we’ll provide best practices to future-proof your Windows workloads.

Ready to migrate or modernize Microsoft workloads on AWS? This session will equip you with the tools, programs, and best practices to successfully migrate and modernize Microsoft workloads on AWS. We’ll discuss AWS migration acceleration programs, funding opportunities, and hands-on resources to help you build a strong business case. Hear from experts and customers who’ve made the journey, and leave with a clear roadmap to get started.

Discover how AWS provides VMware customers with the most choice and flexibility for cloud migration and modernization. Explore comprehensive AWS pathways and learn about the latest service innovations, and migration tools. We’ll guide you in navigating the different cloud approaches tailored to your unique workload requirements. This session serves as your strategic point for building a robust cloud architecture to meet your goals across time, talent, and costs.

Legacy systems, complex architectures, and existing investments create a complex migration landscape for many IT teams. Amazon EVS provides a seamless and accelerated pathway to migrate and operate VMware workloads on AWS. Discover how you can meet your cloud migration goals and build your virtualization stack in the cloud to your exact specifications, without extensive replatforming or refactoring. Learn how you can unlock choice with the ability to self-manage or work with AWS partners to build, manage, and operate your EVS environment.
Join us for a live demonstration showcasing how to rapidly set up a ready-to-use VCF environment and integrate including external storage solutions with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

AI-driven migrations are here! Learn how AWS Transform accelerates VMware workload migrations while enabling architectural modernization. We'll cover best practices, automation capabilities, and provide practical guidance in moving workloads seamlessly to Amazon EC2 with help from agentic AI. Whether you're a beginner or experienced in migrations, this session will provide valuable guidance to accelerate your transition from VMware to AWS. We will also showcase a live demo of the solution. 

Join us to understand the path from traditional VMware infrastructure to modern containerized applications on AWS. This session will showcase proven strategies and real-world patterns for transforming your virtualized workloads into scalable, cost-effective container deployments using AWS's comprehensive container services including Amazon ECS and EKS.

Maximize your cloud transformation as you minimize your costs. Explore how AWS migration programs can simplify and accelerate your VMware to AWS transition. Learn about our assessments, incentive programs, dedicated training, and partner tooling to help you accelerate VMware migrations while reducing costs and risks. Discover what programs to leverage at every stage of your cloud journey from evaluation, planning and execution, to modernization.

Discover how Amazon’s innovation principles, like working backwards and two-way door thinking, can enhance your transformation with SAP solutions. Learn how to leverage Amazon's resources—including its customer base and fulfillment network—to revolutionize your SAP software processes with programs like Buy with Prime and Multi-Channel Fulfillment.

Join us as we explore proven approaches to accelerate your move to cloud ERP. In this session, we will share often-overlooked architectural practices that can help you maximize the performance, reliability, and extensibility of your SAP environment, including RISE with SAP. Learn best practices for networking, high availability, disaster recovery, immutable backups, and connecting to adjacent SAP systems. 

Leading enterprises are leveraging SAP and non-SAP data to unlock business insights, improve real-time visibility, and drive better business decisions. Learn how to use AWS capabilities along with SAP Business Data cloud to create a unified data strategy for informed decision-making. We’ll also share how to use generative AI-based queries in Amazon Q in QuickSight to develop dashboards and provide on-demand visibility into key performance measures.

Looking to reimagine your SAP business processes with generative AI, but don't know where to begin? Join us as we share some of the most promising areas to apply generative AI in your SAP landscape to create new experiences, boost productivity, extract insights, and/or transform code. We’ll talk about how you can leverage Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q, share proven architectures for integrating generative AI into SAP workflows, and explore new options for accessing Amazon Bedrock models within SAP's generative AI hub.

Leading organizations are using RISE with SAP, purpose-built AWS services, and Amazon’s extensive service portfolio to transform their operations. In this session, discover how you can leverage Pan-amazon services like Amazon Business, BusinessPrime, Amazon multichannel fulfillment etc—to extend your SAP environment and help optimize procurement, supply chain, storage, and fulfillment. Also learn how you can 200+ AWS services—including generative AI, IoT, and analytics to optimize productivity and quality.

In this session, we will touch upon strategies for migrating and modernizing Oracle databases on AWS. We'll provide a high-level overview of key deployment options, including self-managing Oracle Database on Amazon EC2, migrating Oracle Exadata and RAC workloads with Oracle Database@AWS, leveraging Amazon RDS for Oracle for a fully managed experience, and migrating to PostgreSQL-based managed services for long-term modernization. Each option will be covered in greater detail in dedicated sessions within this track, focusing on selection criteria, best practices, cost-saving opportunities, licensing optimization, and the pros and cons of each approach.

Oracle Database@AWS enables seamless migration of Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC workloads to the cloud, providing full compatibility with existing Oracle features while maintaining high performance and availability. With low-latency integration between Oracle databases and AWS services, you can migrate without significant database or application changes. This session explores backup, high availability (HA), and disaster recovery (DR) considerations, along with key benefits such as zero-ETL for analytics, generative AI integration, and a unified management experience. Learn when to choose Oracle Database@AWS, and how to optimize licensing and scaling. Whether you're planning a data center exit or looking to maximize Oracle performance on AWS, this session provides the insights you need.

Migrating to Amazon RDS for Oracle provides a fully managed database experience with built-in automation for backups, monitoring, high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), patching, upgrades, and security. In this session, we’ll explore the selection criteria for RDS for Oracle as compared to other deployment options.

Through real-world migration scenarios, discover how enterprises can reduce Oracle licensing costs, enhance database performance, and leverage other AWS services. Whether your goal is to streamline database administration, improve reliability, or optimize costs, this session will equip you with practical insights and best practices to successfully migrate to Amazon RDS for Oracle.

Migrating from Oracle to a PostgreSQL-based managed service is a key step in database modernization, unlocking cost savings, flexibility, and scalability.
In this session, we’ll explore modernization strategies tailored to different Oracle workload dependencies. Discover how Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL provides high availability, enhanced performance, and cloud-native efficiency, with Aurora delivering up to 3x the throughput of standard PostgreSQL.

We’ll also cover automated migration tools, including AWS DMS with generative AI schema conversion, zero-copy clones, and serverless deployment options. Whether you're planning an incremental transition or a full-scale migration, this session will provide the insights and best practices needed to successfully move to an open, scalable, and cost-effective database future.

In this session, we’ll explore how to kickstart your Oracle workload migration to AWS and achieve quick wins along the way. Learn how to identify and implement high-impact optimizations that streamline your transition, reduce costs, and set the stage for long-term modernization success.

Successful modernization of mainframe workloads requires the right strategies, tools, and plan for implementation. In this session, we’ll explore the key modernization pathways (the R’s), common migration challenges, and mitigating risk while accelerating transformation. Learn how AWS Mainframe Modernization and AWS Transform for mainframe are streamlining migration and modernization efforts for the world’s leading enterprises. Whether you’re starting your journey or optimizing an ongoing project, this session provides the necessary insights and best practices as you chart your course.

Modernizing mainframe workloads isn’t one-size-fits-all. Choosing between replatforming and refactoring can impact cost, speed, and long-term scalability. In this session, AWS experts will break down the trade-offs, business and technical considerations, and implementation strategies for each approach. Join to hear real-world examples of how enterprises determined when to replatform for quick cloud benefits and when refactoring was the right path for deeper transformation. We’ll also explore AWS tools and best practices for optimizing performance, ensuring security, and reducing costs—so you can confidently define the best modernization strategy for your mainframe workloads.

The future of mainframe modernization is here. With the launch of AWS Transform for mainframe, AWS is redefining COBOL-to-Java transformation, leveraging the power of Agentic AI to cut mainframe modernization timelines from years to months. Building on the value of Blu Age and AWS Mainframe Modernization, AWS Transform for mainframe simplifies and accelerates code analysis, refactoring, and monolith decomposition, enabling enterprises to move beyond legacy constraints. Join us to see how AWS delivers an AI-assisted experience for streamlining modernization projects, with a demo of AWS Transform for mainframe in action.

Mainframe modernization doesn’t end with refactoring—it’s just the beginning. This sessions explores the critical next steps after transforming COBOL to Java with Blu Age, focusing on containerization, microservices extraction, and event-driven architectures. Learn how to optimize modernized applications for performance, scalability, and operational efficiency while addressing challenges like distributed observability. Through a balanced mix of traditional best practices and targeted AI assistance, we’ll showcase how enterprises can reduce operational overhead, improve agility, and deliver impressive result.

Inspired to modernize your mainframe workloads with AWS? This session will equip you with the programs, tools, and best practices to take your journey from pilot project to full-scale production with confidence. Learn how to identify the best starting point, run a proof of concept, and accelerate migration goals with AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), funding opportunities, and partner support. Hear how other enterprises have successfully navigated mainframe modernization, leveraging AWS services to reduce risk, optimize costs, and streamline operations. Finish the day with a clear roadmap and excitement to begin or scale your mainframe transformation.

In higher education, establishing the business case to modernizing applications during migration is a common challenge. Understanding how AWS services can provide those business insights, at-scale, is a differentiator for the industry. Key topics covered include executive alignment, Cloud Centers of Excellence, re-skilling, data migration, and application assessment. Overall, the session provides a high-level overview of best practices for customers undertaking major cloud transformations.

After this session, join our fire side chat: 
Accelerate your datacenter exit: A federal migration success story

Time-sensitive datacenter exits require careful planning and execution. This session explores how a federal agency leveraged AWS Professional Services and AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) to migrate mission-critical workloads in under a year. Learn how they maintained operational capabilities during the transition while implementing security controls and achieving Authority to Operate (ATO). Walk away with proven strategies for accelerating your own cloud migration. 

Nonprofits face a big challenge: increasing giving to drive more global impact. Bonterra, one of the world’s largest social good software companies, is going all in on AWS to help nonprofits get more for their missions. Join us as Bonterra shares their cloud journey—rapidly migrating from data centers to AWS, rearchitecting applications with cloud-native services, and sunsetting legacy tech debt. Hear how this decision—and adopting services like Amazon SES and Amazon Q—drives more impact across fundraising, grant management, and strategic philanthropy. The end result: a major step toward Bonterra’s mission to create $573 billion in new annual global impact by 2033.

Discover how migrating legacy systems to AWS and developing novel solutions on AWS can transform your organization's capabilities and innovation potential. This session covers proven strategies for modernizing critical workloads including electronic health record systems and other Healthcare mission applications. AWS modernization helps customers reach business goals faster and can redirect IT spending from operations to innovation, building rapid, secure solutions that scale with needs. Modernizing key workloads, moreover, enables organizations to leverage their data in impactful ways, such as in powering artificial intelligence solutions that can assist clinicians and improve patient care. Learn why leading Healthcare and Life Sciences organizations choose AWS as their strategic partner.

The AWS cloud affords governments the infrastructure to achieve scale, security, resiliency, and reliability, without the burden of managing that infrastructure. The State of Maryland created a modern application architecture, as they moved away from traditional IT and and into the cloud. Learn how Maryland Benefit has empowered the state government to delivering business value, and improve citizen experiences with data and analytics powered by Amazon Sagemaker Unified Studio.

AWS migration and modernization can significantly accelerate business transformation by boosting agility, reducing costs, enhancing security, and enabling access to innovative technologies. By moving to AWS, businesses can modernize their applications and infrastructure, leading to faster development cycles, greater operational efficiency, and the ability to deliver more features and respond to market changes more quickly. Come learn about this, and how Maximus has helped revolutionize Government benefits through AI and modernization.

AWS Innovate is a free online conference designed to inspire and educate customers on maximizing innovation through AWS’s cloud infrastructure. Once you register for the event, you’ll receive an email with detailed instructions on how to access the conference platform.

You will create a username and password to complete your registration and access the event on live day. If you have any questions, contact us at innovatesupport@amazon.com.

After completing the online registration process, you will receive a confirmation email.

If you have questions that have not been answered in the FAQs above, please email us at innovatesupport@amazon.com.

Yes, all sessions will be available on-demand immediately after the event ends. However, please be aware that AWS Innovate content is protected by copyright law. Recording sessions or sharing them on platforms like YouTube or other media without AWS's explicit permission is strictly prohibited.