AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C02) Domain 4
Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
Official Exam Guide: Domain 4: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
Skill Builder: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Exam Prep
Domain Overview
Domain 4 (20% of exam) focuses on selecting workloads for migration, determining optimal migration approaches, designing new architectures, and identifying modernization opportunities.
Task 4.1: Select existing workloads and processes for potential migration
Knowledge Areas:
- Migration assessment and tracking tools (Migration Hub)
- Portfolio assessment
- Asset planning
- Prioritization and migration (wave planning)
Essential Documentation:
7Rs Migration Strategies:
- Retire - Eliminate unnecessary applications
- Retain - Keep on-premises for now
- Rehost (Lift-and-shift) - Move as-is to AWS
- Relocate - Move to AWS managed infrastructure (VMware Cloud on AWS)
- Repurchase - Move to SaaS
- Replatform - Optimize during migration
- Refactor/Re-architect - Redesign for cloud-native
Task 4.2: Determine the optimal migration approach for existing workloads
Knowledge Areas:
- Data migration tools (DataSync, Transfer Family, Snow Family, S3 Transfer Acceleration)
- Application migration tools (Application Discovery Service, Application Migration Service)
- AWS networking services and DNS (Direct Connect, Site-to-Site VPN, Route 53)
- Identity services (IAM Identity Center, Directory Service)
- Database migration tools (DMS, SCT)
- Governance tools (Control Tower, Organizations)
Essential Documentation:
- AWS DataSync
- AWS Application Migration Service
- AWS Database Migration Service
- AWS Schema Conversion Tool
- AWS Snow Family
Task 4.3: Determine a new architecture for existing workloads
Knowledge Areas:
- Compute services (EC2, Elastic Beanstalk)
- Containers (ECS, EKS, Fargate, ECR)
- AWS storage services (EBS, EFS, FSx, S3, Storage Gateway)
- Databases (DynamoDB, OpenSearch, RDS, self-managed on EC2)
Essential Documentation:
- Amazon EC2 User Guide
- Amazon ECS Developer Guide
- Amazon EKS User Guide
- Amazon RDS User Guide
- Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
Task 4.4: Determine opportunities for modernization and enhancements
Knowledge Areas:
- Serverless compute (Lambda)
- Containers (ECS, EKS, Fargate)
- AWS storage services (S3, EFS)
- Purpose-built databases (DynamoDB, Aurora Serverless, ElastiCache)
- Integration services (SQS, SNS, EventBridge, Step Functions)
Essential Documentation:
- AWS Lambda Developer Guide
- Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide
- Aurora Serverless
- AWS Step Functions
- Amazon EventBridge
AWS Service FAQs
- AWS Application Migration Service FAQs
- AWS Database Migration Service FAQs
- AWS DataSync FAQs
- AWS Lambda FAQs
Study Tips
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Master the 7Rs - Understand when to use each migration strategy based on application characteristics, business requirements, and timeline.
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Learn migration tools - AWS Application Migration Service for servers, DMS for databases, DataSync for file systems, Snow Family for large data.
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Understand database migration - DMS for homogeneous and heterogeneous migrations, SCT for schema conversion, read replicas for minimal downtime.
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Practice modernization patterns - Monolith to microservices, VMs to containers, traditional databases to purpose-built, synchronous to event-driven.
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Study TCO analysis - Compare on-premises costs (hardware, software, facilities, staff) vs AWS costs with appropriate purchasing options.
Complete Exam Summary
Exam Format:
- 75 questions (65 scored + 10 unscored)
- Multiple choice and multiple response
- Passing score: 750/1000
- 180 minutes
Domain Weightings:
- Domain 1: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity (26%)
- Domain 2: Design for New Solutions (29%)
- Domain 3: Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions (25%)
- Domain 4: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization (20%)
Target Candidate:
- 2+ years designing and implementing cloud solutions on AWS
- Advanced understanding of Well-Architected Framework
- Experience with complex, multi-application architectures
Key Areas to Master:
- Networking: VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Route 53
- Security: IAM, encryption, security services, least privilege
- Reliability: Multi-AZ/Region, DR strategies, auto scaling
- Performance: CloudFront, caching, purpose-built databases
- Cost: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, rightsizing, tagging
- Migration: 7Rs, migration tools, modernization patterns
- Multi-Account: Organizations, Control Tower, Resource Access Manager
Well-Architected Framework Pillars:
- Operational Excellence
- Security
- Reliability
- Performance Efficiency
- Cost Optimization
- Sustainability
Study Resources:
Good luck with your AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional certification!
Note: This is Domain 4 of 4, representing 20% of exam content.