The Migration Readiness Assessment (MRA)
After applying the Well-Architected Framework pillars to evaluate on-premises systems, the next step is to take a structured look at your organization’s overall migration readiness. That’s where the AWS Migration Readiness Assessment (MRA) comes in.
The MRA is more than a checklist—it’s a tool designed to help organizations identify gaps in people, processes, and technology that could slow down or derail migration efforts. By addressing these gaps early, you create a realistic, actionable roadmap for moving to AWS with confidence.
Overview of the AWS MRA Tool
The AWS MRA is a structured assessment conducted through workshops or surveys with key stakeholders. It evaluates six dimensions of cloud readiness:
- Business – Alignment of migration with business goals and executive sponsorship.
- People – Skills, training, and cultural readiness for cloud adoption.
- Process – Operational practices, governance, and change management maturity.
- Platform – Current infrastructure, applications, and data environment.
- Operations – Monitoring, security, and compliance processes.
- Security – Policies, identity management, and risk mitigation strategies.
The outcome is a readiness heat map that highlights strengths and weaknesses across these dimensions.
Assessing Gaps in People, Process, and Technology
The power of the MRA lies in surfacing gaps across three domains:
- People: Do teams have the skills for AWS operations? Are training programs in place?
- Process: Are governance models, compliance, and DevOps practices mature enough for the cloud?
- Technology: Is the infrastructure standardized, monitored, and scalable—or is it a patchwork of legacy systems?
These gaps are not red flags—they’re guideposts showing where to invest first to ensure migration success.
Creating an Actionable Roadmap
The final output of the MRA isn’t just a scorecard—it’s a roadmap. With executive sponsorship, organizations can:
- Prioritize training and upskilling initiatives.
- Establish governance frameworks aligned to cloud operations.
- Modernize critical workloads before migration.
- Sequence migration waves based on readiness and business impact.
By turning the assessment into a plan, you reduce uncertainty and accelerate the migration timeline.
Why the MRA Matters
Cloud adoption is as much about organizational maturity as it is about technology. The MRA ensures that before workloads move, your people, processes, and platforms are aligned for success. It sets the stage for designing a landing zone in Part 5, where AWS services, networking, and governance foundations will be built.
What’s Next
In Part 5, we’ll explore how to design a landing zone that establishes identity, governance, and networking foundations for scalable and secure AWS adoption.
📘 Read: Designing a Landing Zone