Data Modernization Guide
Cloud Data Modernization
From legacy data warehouse migration to preparing data for generative AI. What AWS offers for each scenario, including funding programs.
How AWS helps
Wanting to retire Oracle or SQL Server?
Amazon Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA) provides a free analysis of your current licensing and shows how to migrate to equivalent AWS services at lower cost, including AI-assisted schema conversion.
Planning a large-scale data migration?
The Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) provides $100K+ in credits, a proven methodology, and access to tools like AWS DMS and Schema Conversion Tool for data warehouse and database migrations.
Need to validate the approach first?
Proof-of-concept credits (up to $25K) to test migrating a specific workload with defined KPIs before committing to the full project.
Startup building a data platform?
AWS Activate provides up to $100K in credits for pre-Series B startups building data lakes, analytics pipelines, and AI platforms on AWS.
Amounts, programs, and requirements as published by AWS and subject to change.
Approaches
Which data modernization approach is right?
| Lift-and-shift | Re-architect | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Move data as-is to the cloud with minimal changes | Completely redesign the data model for cloud-native (lakehouse) |
| Speed | Fast (4–8 weeks) | Slower (12–24+ weeks) |
| Upfront cost | Low | High |
| Long-term cost optimization | Limited, may carry legacy inefficiencies | Best, uses serverless and pay-per-query services |
| AI/ML readiness | Limited | Yes, data ready for SageMaker and Bedrock |
| Best for | Urgent on-premise exit or license expiration | Orgs needing real-time analytics and AI |
Step by step
How does a data modernization project work?
Assessment and discovery
We map all data sources, ETL pipelines, downstream dependencies, and usage patterns. We identify quick wins and risks before moving anything.
Target architecture design
We design the lakehouse architecture on AWS: S3 as central storage, Lake Formation for governance, Glue for ETL, Redshift or Athena for analytics, and SageMaker for ML.
Data migration and transformation
We migrate data using AWS DMS and Schema Conversion Tool. We transform legacy ETL pipelines to Glue jobs. We validate integrity with automated tests.
Validation and cutover
We run parallel validation (legacy vs new) to ensure data parity. Cutover with planned rollback and zero downtime for critical systems.
Optimization and ongoing operations
We implement cost monitoring with AWS Budgets, optimize queries, set up data quality checks, and train your team on the new platform.
AWS services
What AWS services are used in data modernization?
Amazon S3 + Lake Formation
S3 as the central data lake with Lake Formation for column, row, and cell-level access governance. Supports open formats (Parquet, Iceberg) for interoperability.
AWS Glue + DMS
Glue for serverless ETL pipelines with auto-crawler and data catalog. DMS for continuous database migration with real-time CDC (change data capture).
Amazon Redshift + Athena
Redshift for high-performance data warehousing with Redshift Spectrum for federated queries on the data lake. Athena for serverless ad-hoc queries directly on S3.
SageMaker + Bedrock
With modernized data, your team can train models with SageMaker and use generative AI with Bedrock, connected directly to the data lake via Lake Formation.
30–60%
cost reduction vs on-premise
8–24 wks
typical modernization timeline
200+
integrated AWS services
About Elevata
Your AWS partner for Cloud Data Modernization
Elevata is a consulting company specialized in helping your business tap into the full potential of AWS. Whether it's generative AI, modernization, or migration, our solutions are built to support efficient, sustainable growth. As an AI-native AWS Advanced Partner, we bring deep AWS expertise to help you adopt generative AI and build secure, scalable cloud environments aligned with your business needs and focused on outcomes you can sustain and build on over time.
More about usFrequently asked questions
What do people ask about Cloud Data Modernization?
What is cloud data modernization?
It's the process of migrating legacy data platforms (Teradata, Oracle, SQL Server, Netezza) to a modern cloud architecture, typically a lakehouse on AWS using S3, Glue, Lake Formation, and Redshift. The goal is to reduce costs, enable real-time analytics, and make data AI/ML-ready.
How long does an AWS data modernization take?
It depends on the approach and complexity. A lift-and-shift of a data warehouse can take 4–8 weeks. A full re-architecture to a lakehouse with governance and ML takes 12–24+ weeks. Proof-of-concept (PoC) projects can be completed in 4 weeks.
Should I use Redshift or Athena?
Redshift is ideal for data warehousing workloads with complex, frequent queries, real-time dashboards, and high concurrency. Athena is better for ad-hoc queries, data exploration, and intermittent workloads where you pay per query. Many companies use both: Redshift for production and Athena for exploration.
How does data modernization enable generative AI?
Generative AI models (like those available via Amazon Bedrock) need clean, cataloged, and accessible data. A modern data lake with Lake Formation provides access governance, lineage, and data quality. These are requirements for RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) and model fine-tuning.
What are the most common data modernization mistakes?
The most common mistakes: migrating without assessment (moving inefficiencies to the cloud), ignoring data governance from the start, not validating data parity between legacy and new, underestimating downstream ETL dependencies, and not training the team on the new platform.
Can Elevata help with AWS data modernization?
Yes. Elevata is an AWS Advanced Partner with experience migrating legacy data warehouses to lakehouse architectures on AWS. We work from assessment through ongoing operations, including architecture design, ETL migration, governance with Lake Formation, and AI enablement with Bedrock and SageMaker.
Next step
Assess your data platform for modernization
Get a free assessment of your current data infrastructure and a customized AWS modernization roadmap.
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