AWS to Azure Migration Center¶
Comparative positioning note
This document is written from the perspective of Microsoft Azure, Cloud Scale Analytics, and CSA Loom. Any description of third-party or competing products, services, pricing, or capabilities is derived from publicly available documentation and sources believed accurate at the time of writing, and is provided for general comparison only. We do not claim expertise in, or authority over, any non-Microsoft product or service; the respective vendor's official documentation is the authoritative source for their offerings, which may change over time. Nothing here is intended to disparage any vendor — where a competing product has genuine advantages, we aim to note them honestly. Verify all third-party details against the vendor's current official documentation before making decisions.
The definitive resource for migrating from AWS analytics services to Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, and CSA-in-a-Box.
Who this is for¶
This migration center serves federal CIOs, CDOs, Chief Data Architects, platform engineers, data engineers, and analysts who are evaluating or executing a migration from AWS analytics services (Redshift, EMR, Glue, Athena, S3, Kinesis, MSK, QuickSight, SageMaker) to Azure-native services. Whether you are responding to an Azure-first mandate, consolidating onto a single hyperscaler, addressing IL5 coverage gaps in AWS GovCloud, or simplifying a five-service analytics estate into a unified platform, these resources provide the evidence, patterns, and step-by-step guidance to execute confidently.
Quick-start decision matrix¶
| Your situation | Start here |
|---|---|
| Executive evaluating Azure vs AWS for analytics | Why Azure over AWS |
| Need cost justification for migration | Total Cost of Ownership Analysis |
| Need a feature-by-feature comparison | Complete Feature Mapping |
| Ready to plan a migration | Migration Playbook |
| Federal/government-specific requirements | Federal Migration Guide |
| Migrating S3 data to Azure | Storage Migration |
| Migrating Redshift/EMR/Athena | Compute Migration |
| Migrating Glue ETL pipelines | ETL Migration |
| Migrating QuickSight dashboards | Analytics Migration |
| Migrating Kinesis/MSK streaming | Streaming Migration |
| Migrating SageMaker/Bedrock AI workloads | AI/ML Migration |
| Migrating IAM/Lake Formation security | Security Migration |
Strategic resources¶
These documents provide the business case, cost analysis, and strategic framing for decision-makers.
| Document | Audience | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Why Azure over AWS | CIO / CDO / Board | Executive white paper covering strategic advantages, ecosystem synergies, talent comparison, innovation velocity, and an honest assessment of AWS strengths |
| Total Cost of Ownership Analysis | CFO / CIO / Procurement | Detailed pricing model comparison across three federal tenant sizes, 5-year TCO projections, hidden cost analysis, and cost optimization strategies |
| Complete Feature Mapping | CTO / Platform Architecture | 60+ AWS analytics features mapped to Azure equivalents with migration complexity ratings and gap analysis |
Migration guides¶
Domain-specific deep dives covering every aspect of an AWS-to-Azure analytics migration.
| Guide | AWS capability | Azure destination |
|---|---|---|
| Storage Migration | S3 buckets, lifecycle policies, versioning, access points | ADLS Gen2, OneLake, OneLake S3 shortcuts |
| Compute Migration | Redshift, EMR, Athena | Databricks SQL, Databricks Jobs, Fabric SQL endpoint |
| ETL Migration | Glue Jobs, Crawlers, Data Catalog, Step Functions | ADF, dbt, Purview, Unity Catalog |
| Analytics Migration | QuickSight dashboards, SPICE, Q | Power BI, Direct Lake, Copilot |
| Streaming Migration | Kinesis Data Streams, Firehose, Analytics, MSK | Event Hubs, Stream Analytics, Fabric RTI |
| AI/ML Migration | SageMaker, Bedrock, Bedrock Agents | Azure ML, Azure OpenAI, AI Foundry, Copilot Studio |
| Security Migration | IAM, Lake Formation, KMS, GuardDuty, CloudTrail | Entra ID, Purview, Key Vault, Defender, Azure Monitor |
Technical references¶
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Complete Feature Mapping | Every AWS analytics feature mapped to its Azure equivalent with migration complexity ratings and CSA-in-a-Box evidence paths |
| Migration Playbook | The end-to-end migration playbook with capability mapping, worked examples, phased project plan, and competitive framing |
Government and federal¶
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Federal Migration Guide | AWS GovCloud vs Azure Government comparison, FedRAMP High analysis, IL4/IL5/IL6 coverage, CMMC mapping, ITAR, procurement guidance, and agency-specific patterns |
How CSA-in-a-Box fits¶
CSA-in-a-Box is the core migration destination --- an Azure-native reference implementation providing Data Mesh, Data Fabric, and Data Lakehouse capabilities. It compresses the five-service AWS analytics estate (Redshift + EMR + Glue + Athena + S3) into a coherent Delta Lake + Databricks + Purview + OneLake stack, and deploys a complete data platform with:
- Infrastructure as Code (Bicep across 4 Azure subscriptions)
- Data governance (Purview automation, Unity Catalog, classification taxonomies, data contracts)
- Data engineering (ADF pipelines, dbt models, Databricks/Fabric notebooks)
- Analytics (Power BI semantic models, Direct Lake, Copilot integration)
- AI integration (Azure OpenAI, AI Foundry, RAG patterns)
- Compliance (FedRAMP, CMMC, HIPAA machine-readable control mappings)
- Migration bridge (OneLake S3 shortcuts for zero-copy cross-cloud reads during transition)
For capabilities beyond CSA-in-a-Box's current scope (e.g., Copilot Studio agents, Power Apps operational apps, Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence), this migration center provides direct guidance using the broader Azure and Microsoft ecosystem.
Migration timeline overview¶
gantt
title Typical AWS Analytics to Azure Migration (40 weeks)
dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
section Discovery
Inventory AWS estate & wave plan :a1, 2026-01-05, 3w
section Landing Zones
Deploy CSA-in-a-Box DMLZ/DLZ + bridge :a2, after a1, 5w
section Pilot Domain
Athena/Glue pilot to Databricks :a3, after a2, 8w
section Redshift
Redshift migration + SP porting :a4, after a2, 10w
section EMR + Streaming
EMR jobs + Kinesis/MSK :a5, after a3, 10w
section S3 Cutover
S3 bucket disposition + final copy :a6, after a4, 12w
section Decommission
Read-only + cost baseline + runbooks :a7, after a6, 4wLast updated: 2026-04-30 Maintainers: CSA-in-a-Box core team Related: Migration Playbook | Palantir Migration Center | GCP Migration | Snowflake Migration