The correct answer is the AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs. This framework is the standard taxonomy defined by AWS to categorize all possible approaches for moving workloads to the cloud, covering Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, and Relocate. It is the correct choice because AWS documentation and the official CLF-C02 exam guide explicitly reference these seven strategies as the comprehensive model for planning a migration, ensuring you evaluate every option from simply moving servers (Rehost) to completely rewriting applications (Refactor). On the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam, this question tests your understanding of foundational migration concepts, often appearing as a straightforward definition question where incorrect options might list generic IT terms or other frameworks. A common trap is confusing the 7 Rs with the 6 Rs from older AWS content, but the current exam includes Relocate as the seventh. To remember them, use the mnemonic "Really Ripe Ripe Ripe Ripe Ripe Ripe" for Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Relocate.
CLF-C02 Cloud Concepts Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of cloud concepts. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is migrating a large enterprise workload to AWS. They want to understand all the migration strategies available. Which framework categorizes cloud migration strategies as the '7 Rs'?
Why wrong: The Well-Architected Framework covers operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost, and sustainability — not migration strategies.
B
AWS Cloud Adoption Framework perspectives
Why wrong: CAF covers Business, People, Governance, Platform, Security, and Operations perspectives for adoption — the 7 Rs are a migration strategy framework.
C
AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs
The 7 Rs (Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Relocate) provide a structured way to categorize migration strategies for each application in an enterprise portfolio.
D
AWS Service Control Policy levels
Why wrong: SCPs are IAM guardrails in AWS Organizations — not a migration strategy framework.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs
Option C is correct because the '7 Rs' (Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Relocate) is a specific set of migration strategies defined by AWS to categorize how workloads can be moved to the cloud. This framework is directly referenced in AWS documentation and training as the 'AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs' and is the standard taxonomy for discussing migration approaches.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars
Why it's wrong here
The Well-Architected Framework covers operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost, and sustainability — not migration strategies.
✗
AWS Cloud Adoption Framework perspectives
Why it's wrong here
CAF covers Business, People, Governance, Platform, Security, and Operations perspectives for adoption — the 7 Rs are a migration strategy framework.
✓
AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs
Why this is correct
The 7 Rs (Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Relocate) provide a structured way to categorize migration strategies for each application in an enterprise portfolio.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS Service Control Policy levels
Why it's wrong here
SCPs are IAM guardrails in AWS Organizations — not a migration strategy framework.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse the '7 Rs' with the AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars or the AWS CAF perspectives, because all three are numbered frameworks used in AWS cloud adoption discussions, but only the 7 Rs specifically categorize migration strategies.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The 7 Rs are: Retire (decommission the application), Retain (keep on-premises), Rehost (lift-and-shift, often using AWS Application Migration Service), Replatform (lift-tinker-and-shift, e.g., moving from a self-managed database to Amazon RDS), Repurchase (move to a SaaS product, e.g., from CRM to Salesforce), Refactor (re-architect for cloud-native, e.g., using microservices), and Relocate (move to AWS Outposts or a different AWS Region). A real-world scenario where this matters is when a company must decide between Rehosting a legacy monolithic application quickly versus Refactoring it into microservices for long-term agility, with the 7 Rs providing a structured decision framework.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CLF-C02 question in full detail.
Cloud Concepts — This question tests Cloud Concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs — Option C is correct because the '7 Rs' (Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Relocate) is a specific set of migration strategies defined by AWS to categorize how workloads can be moved to the cloud. This framework is directly referenced in AWS documentation and training as the 'AWS Migration Strategy 7 Rs' and is the standard taxonomy for discussing migration approaches.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company wants to migrate 50 virtual machines from their on-premises data centre to AWS as quickly as possible to reduce data centre costs. They plan to move the VMs without making any changes to the applications. Which cloud migration strategy does this represent?
medium
A.Refactor
B.Replatform
✓ C.Rehost
D.Retire
Why C: Option C (Rehost) is correct because the company is migrating 50 virtual machines to AWS without making any changes to the applications, which is the defining characteristic of a 'lift and shift' migration. This strategy involves moving the VMs as-is, typically using AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) or AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN), to quickly reduce on-premises data center costs without application refactoring.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.
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