SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating an on-premises monolithic application to AWS. The application uses a legacy database that cannot be easily refactored. The company wants to minimize changes to the application code while gaining scalability and high availability. Which migration strategy should the architect recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests the trade-off between migration speed and optimization, tempting candidates to choose replatforming or refactoring when the requirement explicitly says 'minimize changes' — the trap is over-engineering the solution instead of selecting the simplest lift-and-shift.
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 use Amazon RDS for the database.
Rehosting (lift-and-shift) moves the application to Amazon EC2 and the legacy database to Amazon RDS with minimal code changes, satisfying the requirement to minimize application modifications. Amazon RDS provides managed high availability through Multi-AZ deployments and read scalability via read replicas, while EC2 offers the familiar environment the monolithic app expects. This strategy preserves the existing database engine compatibility (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server) so the application's connection strings and queries remain largely unchanged. It directly addresses scalability and HA without forcing a refactor or replatform.
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 use Amazon RDS for the database.
Why this is correct
Rehosting on Amazon EC2 preserves the application's existing code, satisfying the minimal-change constraint, while Amazon RDS supplies managed Multi-AZ high availability and read-replica scalability for the legacy database. Because the monolith cannot be refactored, lift-and-shift onto EC2 with a managed database engine avoids code rewrites yet still delivers the required resilience.
- ✗
Replatform the application to use AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Amazon DynamoDB.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value store, so the legacy relational schema and SQL queries would require rewriting application code, contradicting the minimal-change requirement. Replatforming suits swapping a self-managed engine for a managed equivalent, such as moving to Amazon RDS for the same database engine.
- ✗
Refactor the application to use a microservices architecture with Amazon Aurora.
Why it's wrong here
Microservices with Aurora demands decomposing the monolith and rewriting database access, directly violating the minimal-code-change constraint. Refactoring is the correct strategy when the business needs new capabilities and is willing to invest in redesign, not when a legacy database must remain largely untouched.
- ✗
Retire the application and replace it with a SaaS solution.
Why it's wrong here
Retiring and replacing with SaaS discards the application entirely, so no migration of the legacy database occurs and scalability or high-availability gains are irrelevant. Retire is appropriate only when an application is no longer needed and a commercial SaaS product already covers the business function.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways 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 on-premises application to AWS. The application uses a proprietary database that is not supported by Amazon RDS. The migration must minimize downtime and require minimal changes to the application. Which migration strategy should the company use?
medium- A.Migrate the database to Amazon RDS with a compatible engine and modify connection strings.
- ✓ B.Rehost the application on Amazon EC2 instances and migrate the database using AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication.
- C.Refactor the application to use Amazon Aurora and modify the code to use the Aurora query interface.
- D.Replace the database with Amazon DynamoDB and rewrite database access layer.
Why B: Rehosting (lift-and-shift) the application on Amazon EC2 allows the proprietary database to run without modification. Using AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication minimizes downtime by keeping the database synchronized until cutover. Option A is incorrect because the proprietary database is not supported by Amazon RDS, so migrating to RDS is not feasible without changing the database engine. Option C is incorrect because refactoring to Amazon Aurora would require modifying the application code to use Aurora's query interface, resulting in significant changes. Option D is incorrect because replacing the database with Amazon DynamoDB would necessitate rewriting the entire database access layer, which is not minimal change.
Variation 2. A company is migrating a legacy on-premises application to AWS. The application uses a proprietary database that runs on a single Windows server. The company wants to minimize downtime and avoid re-architecting the database. Which migration strategy should the solutions architect recommend?
hard- A.Retire the application and replace it with a SaaS solution
- ✓ B.Rehost using AWS Application Migration Service (CloudEndure)
- C.Re-architect the application to use Amazon DynamoDB
- D.Replatform by migrating the database to Amazon RDS for SQL Server
Why B: Rehosting (lift-and-shift) with AWS Application Migration Service (formerly CloudEndure) moves the Windows server and its proprietary database to EC2 with minimal changes and minimal downtime, preserving the existing database engine. This aligns with the goal of avoiding re-architecture while meeting the migration timeline.
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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