Modernizing Cloud with AWS Transform and Persistent’s Strategic Partnerships

For enterprises running VMware workloads, the clock is ticking. Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has triggered sweeping licensing changes, leaving organizations facing cost spikes of up to 3-5x on renewals with little room to negotiate. At the same time, Gartner projects that by 2027, over 75% of enterprises will have migrated workloads to the cloud, up from less than 40% today. The urgency is real, and the cost of inaction is compounding.

Yet migration remains stubbornly complex. Manual discovery, tangled dependency mapping and multi-week wave planning have historically made VMware-to-cloud migrations high-risk, high-cost undertakings that keep organizations in a holding pattern.

AWS Transform changes that equation. And Persistent, as an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and Broadcom Pinnacle Partner, is uniquely positioned to make that shift faster, safer and more cost-effective than ever before.

Partnerships Built for Scale

Persistent’s ability to deliver end-to-end VMware migration isn’t incidental; it’s the product of deep, certified relationships with the two most critical players in this space.

Persistent and AWS

• AWS Premier Tier Services Partner: Persistent operates under a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS, accelerating generative AI adoption and cloud modernization for clients.
• Scale and Expertise: 2,830+ AWS practitioners, 1,700+ AWS certifications, 150+ active AWS customer engagements and 16 AWS competencies.
• Joint Innovation: Persistent leverages AWS services like Amazon Bedrock and CodeWhisperer to deliver rapid, scalable solutions across industries.

Persistent and Broadcom (VMware)

• Broadcom Pinnacle Partner: Persistent is a top-tier member of the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program, specializing in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployments.
• 100+ VMware Certified Professionals: Persistent’s team includes over 100+ VMware certified experts, delivering advanced solutions across app modernization, data, security, CI/CD and AI/ML.
• Program Evolution: For customers navigating the post-acquisition VMware landscape, this dual-partnership structure means simplified licensing guidance, technical depth on both sides and continuity throughout the migration journey.

From Weeks to Days: Persistent’s Migration Accelerators

Before a single VM moves, Persistent’s proprietary accelerator suite eliminates the manual groundwork that traditionally stalls migrations:

• PiOLA automates migration assessment using Python-powered scripts, cutting planning time and optimizing licensing costs before the project begins.
• PiCAS brings Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) automation through enterprise-grade Terraform libraries, accelerating provisioning and enforcing governance at scale.
• PiCloud adds a GenAI-powered, low-code visual interface on top of PiCAS, making cloud infrastructure provisioning accessible without deep scripting expertise.
• AWS VMware Migration Accelerator (VMA) unlocks AWS promotional credits for VMware-to-EC2 migrations, directly reducing project costs.

What is AWS Transform and Why Does it Matter Now?

AWS Transform is AWS’s first ‘Agentic AI’ service purpose-built for large-scale enterprise workload modernization, including VMware-based virtual machines. Where traditional migration tools require significant manual input at every stage, AWS Transform automates the most time-consuming steps end-to-end.

Its core capabilities include:

• Automated discovery and dependency mapping
• Network configuration translation from VMware to AWS-native constructs
• AI-driven migration wave planning and grouping
• Rehosting to Amazon EC2 with instance sizing optimization
• Access to 200+ AWS services post-migration for ongoing modernization
• A unified, web-based collaboration workspace for all stakeholders
• Supports multiple discovery inputs, including AWS-native tools and imported VMware data, with a vSphere-based OVA for dependency mapping
• Translates VMware networking into AWS-native constructs and generates IaC (CDK, LZA, Terraform)
• Enables region-specific migration jobs with support for NSX-based environments
• Requires validation of generated configurations for security and compliance

Reimagining VMware Migration & Modernization with AWS Transform

1. Activate & Define: Launch AWS Transform, define the migration project scope and upload inventory / discovery data.
2. Discover: Deploy collectors or import data to capture VM configurations, network topology, dependencies and resource utilization.
3. Plan & Analyze: AI agents map dependencies, group VMs and applications, propose migration waves and recommend the target AWS architecture.
4. Review & Approve: Stakeholders collaborate in a unified workspace to review, edit and sign off on the migration plan.
5. Convert Networks: Automated translation of VMware network architecture into AWS-native constructs – VPCs, security groups and routing.
6. Migrate Servers: Rehost VMs to Amazon EC2, preserving workload integrity and minimizing business disruption.
7. Modernize: Post-migration, unlock the full AWS services catalog for further optimization, innovation and cloud-native transformation.

AWS Transform vs. Traditional Migration: The Difference is Stark

The Business Case: What This Means for Your Organization

The benefits of AWS Transform, amplified by Persistent’s accelerators and translated directly to business outcomes:

• Faster migrations: AI automation compresses timelines from months to days, freeing teams to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure.
• Lower risk: Logical dependency grouping and wave sequencing minimize disruption to business-critical workloads.
• Reduced TCO: Cutting VMware licensing costs, combined with right-sized EC2 instances, drives measurable savings from day one.
• Greater agility: Seamless integration with AWS’s ecosystem enables rapid adoption of new services post-migration.
• Built-in governance: A unified approval and audit workspace ensures compliance without slowing execution.
• Enterprise scalability: The platform handles large-scale, multi-tier migrations without a proportional increase in effort or risk.

Global Clean Energy Technology Leader’s 46% Faster Migration

When a leading clean energy technology enterprise needed to migrate its US and APAC on-premises environments to AWS, the stakes were high: global operations, complex VMware dependencies and zero tolerance for extended downtime.

Persistent delivered a streamlined, accelerated migration by leveraging VMware Cloud on AWS, zero trust security architecture and proprietary migration accelerators. This turned what could have been a multi-year effort into a rapid transformation.

The results speak for themselves:

• 46% faster migration than baseline projections
• 83% reduction in migration risk
• 53% lower total costs
• 48% reduction in skills, freeing internal teams for higher-value work

What made the difference? An interactive technical workshop that aligned stakeholders early, and a strategic migration path built on automation, not manual effort.

Ready to Move Your VMware Workloads to AWS?

The window for proactive VMware migration is narrowing. Organizations that act now can avoid forced licensing renewals, accelerate cloud-native transformation and position themselves to leverage AI and innovation at scale.

Persistent’s combination of AWS Premier partnership, Broadcom Pinnacle expertise and purpose-built migration accelerators, now supercharged by AWS Transform, makes this the lowest-risk, fastest path to a modernized cloud environment.

Talk to a Persistent cloud modernization expert today to map your VMware migration journey and see how fast your transformation can move.