Choosing an approach for modernizing .NET applications

Mathew George and Fabian Jahnke, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

August 2023 (document history)

Choosing the right modernization strategy for .NET legacy applications can be a complex decision. This guide provides best practices for technical decision makers who want to understand the approaches for migrating their .NET legacy applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and modernizing them in the AWS Cloud.

Modernization involves replatforming or refactoring legacy enterprise applications by combining modern infrastructure, architecture, and organizational patterns. Modernization helps maximize resiliency, engineering efficiency, business agility, and operational excellence.

The .NET developer platform has evolved from the .NET Framework to .NET Core and .NET 5 (and later versions). You can modernize your .NET legacy applications and take advantage of the performance, cost savings, and robust ecosystem of the Linux operating system, or by switching from .NET Framework to .NET Core or .NET 5 (or later).

The best practices provided in this document help guide your .NET application migration and modernization efforts. The guide discusses possible migration and modernization strategies, constraints, and AWS services you can use. Your options include rehosting (lift and shift) your .NET application in the cloud, as well as containerizing, decomposing to microservices, and adopting a serverless architecture.