AWS Transform adds containerization capability during migrations
AWS Transform now containerizes your apps during migration—generating Dockerfiles, IaC, and Helm charts automatically, so modernization happens alongside the move.
View original announcement →Visual Summary
graph TD
A{{AWS Transform Containerization}}:::announced
B((Source Repos)):::external
C([AI Dockerfile Generation]):::feature
D([CVE Security Scanning]):::feature
E(Amazon ECR):::storage
F(Amazon ECS):::compute
G(Amazon EKS):::compute
H(AWS CodeArtifact):::storage
I([Terraform & Helm Charts]):::feature
J([Wave Planning]):::feature
B ==>|"ingests code"| A
A -->|"analyzes & generates"| C
C -->|"builds images"| D
D -->|"publishes to"| E
E -->|"deploys to"| F
E -->|"deploys to"| G
A -.->|"resolves deps"| H
A -->|"produces IaC"| I
A -->|"rehost or replatform"| J
classDef announced fill:#ff9900,stroke:#ec7211,color:#fff,font-weight:bold
classDef compute fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1565c0,color:#1565c0
classDef storage fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#2e7d32,color:#2e7d32
classDef feature fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#e65100,color:#e65100
classDef external fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#616161,color:#616161
What's New
AWS Transform has expanded its agentic AI-driven migration platform to include automated containerization, allowing teams to replatform applications to containers at the same time they execute rehost migrations. The capability ingests source code from GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or .zip archives, generates Dockerfiles and container images, and deploys them to Amazon ECS or Amazon EKS — all within the existing Transform migration workflow. This effectively collapses what was previously a two-phase effort (lift-and-shift first, modernize later) into a single, unified migration motion.
How It Works
- Source ingestion: AWS Transform connects to GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab repositories, or uploaded .zip files, supporting both monorepos and multi-repo project structures.
- AI-driven Dockerfile generation: The agentic AI layer analyzes source code, infers runtime dependencies, and automatically generates optimized Dockerfiles without manual authoring.
- Container image build and security scanning: Images are built from the generated Dockerfiles and scanned for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) before being published to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).
- Private dependency resolution: AWS CodeArtifact integration enables resolution of private or internal package dependencies during the build process, ensuring enterprise codebases with proprietary libraries are handled correctly.
- Infrastructure-as-code output: Transform produces deployment-ready Terraform configurations and Helm charts tailored to the target ECS or EKS environment, enabling immediate infrastructure provisioning.
- Wave planning integration: During migration wave planning, each application can be individually assigned to either a rehost (lift-and-shift) or replatform-to-containers path, allowing mixed strategies within a single migration program.
- Scale: The service is designed to containerize thousands of applications in parallel, making it viable for large enterprise migration portfolios.
Why It's Important
- Eliminates the modernization debt trap: Traditionally, teams rehost first and modernize later — a second project that often never happens. Parallel containerization removes this deferred technical debt from the outset.
- Reduces time-to-cloud-native: By automating Dockerfile creation, image builds, CVE scanning, and IaC generation, Transform compresses weeks of manual containerization work into an automated pipeline.
- Lowers skill barrier: Teams without deep Docker or Kubernetes expertise can produce production-grade container artifacts and Helm charts without specialized knowledge, democratizing cloud-native adoption.
- Integrated security posture: Built-in CVE scanning at image build time means security is not an afterthought, reducing the risk of shipping vulnerable containers into production.
- Enterprise scale: Support for thousands of applications and complex dependency structures (monorepos, private registries via CodeArtifact) makes this viable for large organizations with heterogeneous portfolios, not just greenfield projects.
- Faster ROI realization: Moving directly to containers means organizations can immediately leverage ECS/EKS cost optimization, auto-scaling, and operational efficiency rather than waiting through a multi-year modernization backlog.
How It's Different
- Unified migrate-and-modernize workflow: Unlike standalone containerization tools (e.g., AWS App2Container) that operate independently, Transform embeds containerization directly into migration wave planning alongside rehost paths, providing a single control plane for the entire migration program.
- Agentic AI automation vs. assisted tooling: Rather than providing templates or wizards that require human configuration, Transform's agentic AI autonomously analyzes code and generates artifacts, reducing human decision points in the containerization pipeline.
- End-to-end artifact generation: Competing approaches typically stop at the container image; Transform goes further by producing Terraform IaC and Helm charts, delivering a fully deployment-ready package rather than just a Docker image.
- Private dependency handling at scale: Native CodeArtifact integration for private dependency resolution is a differentiator for enterprise codebases that cannot rely on public package registries, a gap in many open-source containerization tools.
- Dual-path wave planning: The ability to mix rehost and replatform strategies within the same migration wave is unique to Transform's orchestration model, giving program managers fine-grained control without managing separate toolchains.
- Scale-first design: The explicit support for containerizing thousands of applications positions Transform for portfolio-level migrations rather than the application-by-application approach typical of most containerization tools.
When to Prefer It
- Large enterprise migrations with mixed modernization readiness: When some applications are ready for containers and others are not, Transform's per-application path assignment lets you modernize where possible without blocking the overall migration timeline.
- Organizations with limited container expertise: Teams that lack experienced Docker/Kubernetes engineers benefit most from the AI-generated Dockerfiles and Helm charts, avoiding the need to hire or upskill before starting migration.
- Codebases with private or internal dependencies: Projects that rely on internal artifact repositories are well-served by the CodeArtifact integration, which handles dependency resolution that would otherwise require manual pipeline configuration.
- Programs with aggressive timelines: When business deadlines make a sequential rehost-then-modernize approach impractical, parallel containerization during migration is the most time-efficient path to cloud-native.
- Security-conscious organizations: Teams that require CVE scanning as a gate before any container reaches a registry benefit from the integrated scanning step, which enforces this without additional tooling or pipeline setup.
- Monorepo-heavy engineering organizations: Companies that have consolidated code into large monorepos will find explicit monorepo support removes a common blocker that causes other containerization tools to fail or require significant pre-processing.
- Teams already using AWS Transform for rehost migrations: Organizations already invested in Transform for lift-and-shift planning can extend their existing workflows to include containerization at no additional process overhead.
Availability
- General Availability: This capability is generally available as of May 11, 2026; it is not a preview or beta release.
- Regional availability: Available in all AWS Regions where AWS Transform is currently offered; no additional regional opt-in is required.
- Target deployment platforms: Supports deployment to both Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS, giving teams flexibility in their container orchestration choice.
- Source control compatibility: Supports GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, and .zip file uploads as source inputs.
- Pricing: Specific pricing details were not disclosed in the announcement; refer to the AWS Transform pricing page or the User Guide for current cost information.
- Dependency on AWS CodeArtifact: Private dependency resolution requires CodeArtifact to be configured; teams without an existing CodeArtifact setup will need to provision it separately for this feature.
