SAP-C02 Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift) Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy CRM application to AWS. The application uses a proprietary database that is not supported by Amazon RDS. The company wants to minimize licensing costs. The current on-premises deployment uses a single server. Which migration strategy should the company use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Rehost the application on Amazon EC2 and install the same proprietary database on an EC2 instance.
Rehosting (lift-and-shift) the application on EC2 with the same proprietary database minimizes licensing costs by using existing licenses, and avoids the need to refactor or replace the database. Option B is wrong because replacing the database with a SaaS alternative may increase costs and complexity. Option C is wrong because refactoring to use a different database engine would require significant application changes and may incur new licensing costs. Option D is wrong because DMS cannot migrate to a proprietary database unsupported by RDS, and RDS does not support the proprietary database.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Rehost the application on Amazon EC2 and install the same proprietary database on an EC2 instance.
Why this is correct
Rehosting with the same database minimizes licensing costs.
- ✗
Rehost the application, but replace the database with a SaaS alternative.
Why it's wrong here
Repurchasing may not minimize licensing costs.
- ✗
Refactor the application to use a different database engine that is supported by Amazon RDS.
Why it's wrong here
Refactoring is costly and may not minimize licensing.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to migrate the database to Amazon RDS.
Why it's wrong here
DMS does not support proprietary databases.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SAP-C02
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 is migrating a legacy application to AWS. The application uses a proprietary database that is not supported by Amazon RDS. The company wants to minimize changes and use a managed service. Which TWO options should the company consider? (Choose TWO.)
medium- A.Use Amazon RDS with a custom engine.
- B.Migrate the database to Amazon S3 and use S3 Select for queries.
- ✓ C.Run the database on Amazon EC2 with Amazon EBS volumes.
- D.Convert the database to Amazon DynamoDB.
- ✓ E.Use an AWS Marketplace third-party solution that provides a managed service for the database.
Why C: Options C and E are correct. Option C allows running the database on EC2 with EBS, providing full control and compatibility with any database engine, minimizing changes. Option E uses an AWS Marketplace third-party solution that offers a managed service for the specific database. Option A is incorrect because Amazon RDS does not support custom engines; it only supports specific database engines. Option B is incorrect because Amazon S3 is object storage, not a database, and S3 Select is for querying objects, not suitable as a database replacement. Option D is incorrect because DynamoDB is a NoSQL database that would require significant application changes.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-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 SAP-C02 exam.