aws eks migration: 7 Powerful Steps for Easy Success 2025

Simplifying Your Journey to Amazon EKS

Let’s be honest: managing Kubernetes at scale can feel like whack-a-mole on hard mode. As clusters multiply and demands increase, the operational hassle often steals time away from actually moving your business forward. Enter AWS EKS migration—your opportunity to let Amazon manage the heavy lifting, so you can focus on what matters most.

AWS EKS migration is all about moving your Kubernetes workloads from self-managed clusters or other platforms straight into Amazon’s Elastic Kubernetes Service. What’s in it for you? Lower operational overhead (think up to 70% reduction), stronger security, a robust 99.95% SLA, and smooth integration with all your favorite AWS services.

Most organizations come to EKS from a few common starting points: maybe you’re running Kubernetes yourself on EC2, using kOps, or even another cloud’s managed service like GKE. Some migrate from EKS Managed Node Groups to EKS Auto Mode for even more automation. No matter your starting point, the process relies on tried-and-true tools—eksctl, kubectl, Terraform, and Velero for backups. Migration approaches like blue-green deployments and weighted DNS routing help ensure you don’t lose sleep over potential downtime.

The good news? Migrating isn’t as intimidating as it sounds when you break it down into clear, manageable phases. Whether you’re moving workloads, storage, or networking, a structured approach means you can often avoid any disruption. And if you like having a safety net, automation and robust testing have your back.

At NetSharx Technology Partners, we’ve helped teams of all sizes get their AWS EKS migration right—reducing risk, cutting costs, and speeding up their cloud journeys. My name is Ryan Carter, and I’m here to share the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

What You’ll Learn

This guide is for DevOps engineers, platform teams, and IT leaders who want to make their AWS EKS migration as smooth as possible—with zero downtime as the goal.

You’ll find:
– Why Amazon EKS is worth the move, especially if you want less maintenance and more reliability.
– How to assess your current Kubernetes environment—so you know exactly what you’re migrating (and what to leave behind).
– A step-by-step migration path, with practical examples that you can adapt to your own setup.
– Advanced scenarios, like moving to Graviton (ARM) and EKS Auto Mode.
– Answers to the top questions we hear about AWS EKS migration.

By the end, you’ll know how to create a migration plan that fits your needs and sets you—and your applications—up for long-term success. And if you want expert help, NetSharx Technology Partners is always here to guide you with unbiased, custom solutions.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in and make your migration to Amazon EKS a success, together.

Why Migrate to Amazon EKS?

Before starting on any migration journey, it’s important to understand the “why” behind the move. According to AWS customer case studies, migrating to Amazon EKS can reduce operational overhead by up to 70% compared to self-managed Kubernetes clusters—a compelling reason to make the switch.

When I talk with clients about their AWS EKS migration motivations, several common themes emerge. Most teams are drowning in operational work—constantly patching, upgrading, and troubleshooting their Kubernetes infrastructure instead of building features that drive business value.

The relief is palpable when they realize that AWS will handle the complex control plane management, including those finicky etcd databases that seem to cause issues at the worst possible times. With EKS providing a robust 99.95% uptime SLA by running across multiple Availability Zones, teams can finally sleep through the night without dreading those 2 AM alerts.

Beyond operational peace of mind, security and compliance needs often drive migration decisions. EKS is fully certified against FedRAMP, HIPAA, and PCI compliance standards—a significant advantage for companies in regulated industries. And from a cost perspective, the math is straightforward: $0.10 per hour for the control plane plus your worker nodes often works out cheaper than the hidden costs of self-management.

As one customer shared with us: “We were spending 20+ hours per week just maintaining our Kubernetes infrastructure. After migrating to EKS, that’s down to less than 5 hours, and our team can focus on actual product development.” This kind of change is why we’re passionate about helping clients with their Kubernetes journey.

Business Drivers & Benefits

The business case for an AWS EKS migration becomes even more compelling when you look beyond the technical benefits to the broader business impact.

With control-plane offloading, your team no longer needs to worry about scaling across Availability Zones or handling health replacements—EKS does this automatically. This isn’t just a technical win; it’s a strategic advantage that allows your engineers to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure maintenance.

The flexibility in compute options is another game-changer. Need maximum control? Use managed node groups. Want to go completely serverless? AWS Fargate has you covered. This adaptability helps you right-size your infrastructure for different workloads, optimizing both cost and operational efficiency.

Security improvements are substantial too. With IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA), you can implement fine-grained access control at the pod level—a massive upgrade from the coarse-grained approaches many teams struggle with in self-managed environments.

For the budget-conscious (and who isn’t these days?), Graviton-based ARM instances deliver impressive results. We’ve seen clients achieve up to 40% better price/performance compared to similar x86-based instances. When you’re running dozens or hundreds of nodes, those savings add up quickly.

The native AWS integration is perhaps the most underrated benefit. Having AWS Load Balancer Controller, Amazon VPC CNI, and AWS-managed add-ons working seamlessly together eliminates countless integration headaches. And with improved observability through CloudWatch, X-Ray, Prometheus, and Grafana, you’ll have unprecedented visibility into your applications.

Common Migration Scenarios

At NetSharx Technology Partners, we’ve guided clients through various AWS EKS migration scenarios, each with its unique considerations and challenges.

The most common path we see is moving from self-managed Kubernetes on EC2 to EKS. This transition primarily focuses on offloading control plane management while keeping applications relatively unchanged. It’s usually the smoothest path with the quickest time to value.

For kOps users, migration has become increasingly urgent since Kubernetes 1.28 removed support for Canal CNI. These migrations require careful attention to CNI configuration and often involve updating RBAC and security configurations. The good news is that the conceptual models are similar, making this a well-trodden path.

On-premises to EKS migrations present more complexity. Network connectivity planning becomes crucial, and data migration strategies need careful consideration. Applications sometimes need refactoring to fully accept cloud-native patterns, but the long-term benefits typically justify the investment.

When moving from other managed services like GKE to EKS, the challenge often lies in aligning different networking models and mapping between distinct IAM/security approaches. These migrations are frequently part of broader AWS adoption strategies, where consolidating on a single cloud provider brings operational and financial benefits.

A newer trend we’re seeing is migration from EKS Managed Node Groups to EKS Auto Mode. This path can reduce compute costs by up to 50% through intelligent workload consolidation. For stateless workloads especially, this transition can happen with minimal disruption and deliver immediate cost savings.

Each migration scenario has its nuances, but with proper planning and execution, the journey to EKS can be smoother than you might expect. At NetSharx Technology Partners, we take pride in creating customized migration plans that minimize disruption while maximizing the benefits of Amazon’s managed Kubernetes service.

Planning Your aws eks migration Roadmap

A successful aws eks migration doesn’t just happen—it takes careful planning and a thoughtful step-by-step approach. At NetSharx, we always recommend breaking things down into four clear phases: assessment, planning, execution, and optimization. This structure helps you minimize risk, avoid those dreaded late-night surprises, and make your transition to Amazon EKS as smooth as possible.

Let’s look at how responsibilities shift when you move from self-managed Kubernetes to EKS:

Responsibility	Self-Managed Kubernetes	Amazon EKS
Kubernetes API Server	Customer	AWS
etcd Management	Customer	AWS
Scheduler	Customer	AWS
Controller Manager	Customer	AWS
Multi-AZ High Availability	Customer (complex)	AWS (built-in)
Version Upgrades	Customer (manual)	AWS (simplified)
Security Patches	Customer	AWS
Node Management	Customer	Customer (simplified with Managed Node Groups)
Application Deployment	Customer	Customer
Network Configuration	Customer	Customer (with AWS integrations)

With EKS, AWS takes over much of the heavy lifting—including high availability, version upgrades, and security patches. That means your team can finally stop losing sleep over etcd, and focus on what matters: your business and your applications.

Assess Current Kubernetes Environment

Before you can move forward, you need to know exactly where you stand. Think of this as a spring cleaning for your Kubernetes environment.

Start by reviewing your cluster configuration: What’s your Kubernetes version? How is your control plane set up? What kinds of nodes are you running, and how are you handling high availability? Next, take stock of your workloads. Map out your applications and services, how your namespaces are structured, and your resource requirements. Make note of any special deployment patterns, like StatefulSets or DaemonSets.

Don’t forget the boring-but-critical stuff: RBAC and security. Audit your authentication methods, authorization policies, service accounts, roles, and network policies. For storage, look at your storage classes, persistent volumes and claims, and your backup and restore routines. And of course, networking: What CNI plugin are you using? How are your services exposed (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer), and what about your ingress controllers?

This assessment isn’t just about migration—it’s a golden opportunity to clean house. One of our clients finded over 20 unused persistent volumes just sitting there racking up bills. Their aws eks migration ended up saving them thousands every month!

Prerequisites & Tooling

You wouldn’t set out on a cross-country road trip without checking your tires. The same goes for an aws eks migration—there are a few essentials to gather first.

Start with your AWS account and IAM setup. You’ll need an IAM user or role with the right permissions, a VPC spanning at least two Availability Zones, and security groups configured for cluster communication.

Tooling is your best friend. Have eksctl (the official EKS command-line tool), kubectl, and aws-cli ready to go. If you’re using Helm for Kubernetes package management, keep that handy too.

For Infrastructure as Code (IaC), tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or AWS CDK are vital. Make sure your IaC is in version control and your deployment pipeline is ready. This keeps things repeatable—and makes it much easier to fix anything that goes bump in the night.

Migration tools make everything smoother. Velero lets you back up and restore Kubernetes resources. The AWS Load Balancer Controller handles your AWS load balancers. You’ll need the Amazon VPC CNI for pod networking, and the right CSI drivers for persistent storage.

Don’t overlook monitoring and observability. Enable CloudWatch for logs and metrics. If your team uses Prometheus, Grafana, or other monitoring tools, set those up now. Trust us: it’s a lot easier to catch issues with good observability, rather than relying on “good luck” and hope.

Our top migration advice? Automate wherever you can. Automation reduces human error, makes testing easier, and gives you the power to repeat your migration process as often as needed—before, during, and after the cutover.

Curious about cloud services that can improve your EKS setup? Check out our cloud services page for more info on how our team can help you build a robust, resilient cloud-native foundation.

With the right planning, assessment, and tools, your aws eks migration can be a smooth journey—freeing your team to innovate instead of firefight. And if you need an unbiased expert partner at your side, you know where to find us.

Step-By-Step aws eks migration Execution Guide

Now that you’ve mapped out your migration plan, it’s time for action! At NetSharx Technology Partners, we believe the best way to migrate Kubernetes workloads with confidence is by embracing a blue-green deployment strategy for your aws eks migration. That means you set up your new EKS cluster right alongside your current setup, move your workloads, and switch things over gradually—no need to hold your breath and hope for the best!

Here’s how it usually unfolds: First, you build a shiny new EKS cluster while your old cluster keeps humming along. Next, you deploy your workloads to EKS and make sure everything works just as you expect (or better). Once you’re confident, you slowly shift application traffic to EKS, keeping a close eye on performance. If something unexpected pops up, you can easily roll back to the old setup. Only after everything passes with flying colors do you retire the old cluster. This “two clusters are better than one” approach lowers risk and gives you a safety net every step of the way.

Cluster & Node Group Creation

To start your aws eks migration, you need to lay the foundation—your target EKS cluster and its node groups. If you don’t already have a VPC ready, spin one up with AWS CloudFormation. Then, use eksctl to create your EKS cluster, specifying details like the region, Kubernetes version, subnets, and whether to enable OIDC (for IAM integration). Next, add managed node groups for your worker nodes, tailoring instance types and scaling parameters to your needs. Once everything’s provisioned, use kubectl get nodes to confirm your cluster is ready.

If your setup is more complex or you want to future-proof your infrastructure, we highly recommend using Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform or AWS CloudFormation. This approach brings consistency, lets you recreate environments easily, and keeps your deployments as repeatable as your favorite recipe.

Stateful Data & Storage Move

Migrating stateful workloads and data is often the trickiest part of any aws eks migration—but don’t worry, it’s manageable with the right tools and a little patience. Start by installing the EBS CSI driver using eksctl so your EKS cluster can manage persistent storage. Next, define StorageClasses in your new cluster, making sure they match your workload needs and enable features like encryption.

When it’s time to actually move the data, you have a few options:

• Velero: Back up your resources (including persistent volumes) in the old cluster, then restore them in the new one. Velero is well-suited for Kubernetes-native backups.
• EBS Snapshots: For more direct migrations, create EBS snapshots of your old block storage, then restore these as new volumes in your EKS cluster. Just remember to update your PersistentVolumeClaims.
• Manual Copy: For small datasets, you can run pods in both clusters with attached storage and use tools like rsync to transfer data.

No matter which method you choose, always validate your data after migration. Run your application, check logs, and make sure everything is right where you left it. We’ve seen clients move terabytes of data using a combination of EBS snapshots and Velero—with zero downtime—thanks to careful testing and dry runs before the real move.

Networking & Load Balancer Cut-over

Networking often feels like a game of “connect the dots,” but EKS makes it pretty approachable. Begin by installing the AWS Load Balancer Controller, which allows your Kubernetes Services and Ingresses to create and manage AWS load balancers on your behalf. Use the correct service annotations to decide whether you want an internal or external load balancer, and whether you need a Network Load Balancer (NLB) or Application Load Balancer (ALB).

For the actual cutover, create the new load balancers in your EKS cluster and test them with internal traffic first. When you’re happy, use Route 53’s weighted DNS routing to shift traffic from the old cluster to the new one, a few percentage points at a time. This lets you canary the migration—if users notice anything at all, it’ll only be that things are running smoother! Over time, ramp the weights all the way to 100% on EKS.

As one of our fintech partners put it, “Weighted DNS was a game-changer. We quietly moved our customers to EKS over the course of a week—and nobody even noticed.”

Security and IAM Hardening

A secure migration is a successful migration. EKS supports powerful security features right out of the box, but it’s up to you to put them to work.

Start by enabling the OIDC identity provider for your cluster, which allows you to use IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA). This gives you fine-grained control over what pods can access in AWS—think of it as giving each pod its own security badge. Update your Kubernetes pod specs so they use these service accounts.

For secrets, enable KMS encryption on your EKS cluster. This keeps sensitive information (like passwords) secure at rest. Also, consider enabling security groups for pods, which let you define network rules at the pod level for even more control.

Don’t forget about pod security standards! Apply namespace labels to enforce best practices and keep workloads isolated as needed. And remember: security isn’t a “set it and forget it” affair. Schedule regular audits and reviews to stay ahead of threats.

Validate, Rollback, Clean-up

Before you pop the champagne, you need to validate that your migration actually worked! This means conducting thorough functional testing (are the apps running? are integrations working? is data accessible and correct?) and performance testing (latency, resource usage, autoscaling under load). If you find any issues, don’t panic—because you’ve kept the old cluster running, you can roll back by simply redirecting traffic back to it.

Once you’re confident your workloads are thriving in EKS, it’s time to clean up. Decommission old EC2 instances, tear down legacy clusters (like kOps), remove unneeded DNS entries, and delete unused EBS volumes to avoid surprise bills. Most importantly, document what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d do differently next time—your future self (and your team) will thank you.

One of our retail clients kept their old cluster running for two full business cycles before finally letting it go. That’s peace of mind you can count on when you approach your aws eks migration with a blue-green mindset.

If you’re ready for a deeper dive or want to see a live demo of these strategies in action, check out Simplify Kubernetes with Amazon EKS Auto Mode: Webinar, or learn more about our cloud services at NetSharx Technology Partners.

Special Topics: Architecture & Compute Upgrades

Migrating to Amazon EKS isn’t just about “lifting and shifting” your workloads. It’s also a golden opportunity to upgrade your architecture and compute resources for better performance, cost savings, and even a lighter carbon footprint.

Let’s look at two upgrade paths that are especially popular with teams optimizing their aws eks migration: moving to Graviton ARM processors and switching from Managed Node Groups to EKS Auto Mode.

Graviton ARM Migration Path

Ready to save money and get more bang for your buck? Migrating your Kubernetes workloads from traditional x86 nodes to ARM-based Graviton instances can deliver up to 40% better price/performance. Many clients include this as a phase in their aws eks migration roadmap.

Here’s the practical approach:

First, spin up a new node group in your target EKS cluster using Graviton instances (like the m6g family). This is straightforward with eksctl. Once created, you’ll want to make sure those nodes are running on the ARM64 architecture. You can check this using kubectl to see the node details.

Of course, your applications need to run on ARM too. That means building multi-architecture Docker images. Docker Buildx makes this a breeze by letting you build and push images that support both amd64 and arm64 platforms. No need to be a rocket scientist, just follow the buildx commands.

Next, test your workloads on the new Graviton nodes. Use Kubernetes node affinity in your manifests to “gently nudge” your pods onto those ARM nodes. Monitor how things go—sometimes there are tiny code tweaks needed, but most modern stacks just run.

Once you’ve validated everything works, you can gradually migrate more workloads to Graviton. Many teams start with non-critical services and work up to production.

Customers who have made this switch often share impressive results. One financial services client told us, “Not only did we see a 35% drop in cost, but our app response times improved by 15%. If only my coffee budget could be optimized this easily!”

If you want to learn more about Graviton and other cloud-native technologies, check out our cloud services page.

Managed Node Groups to EKS Auto Mode

Looking for even more efficiency? EKS Auto Mode is AWS’s latest way to let Kubernetes manage compute for you—think of it like cruise control for your cluster.

Here’s how you can work this into your aws eks migration:

First, make sure your EKS cluster is running Kubernetes 1.29 or newer. You can then enable Auto Mode using eksctl or the AWS CLI. Once enabled, the cluster intelligently provisions and scales nodes, reducing waste and helping you save on compute costs—sometimes by up to 50%.

To migrate, you simply delete your existing managed node groups. Don’t worry—EKS Auto Mode picks up the slack instantly. As nodes are drained, your pods are automatically rescheduled onto new, right-sized nodes, with zero downtime. (It’s a bit like a magic trick, minus the rabbit.)

Check that your workloads are running smoothly post-migration by using kubectl get pods -A -o wide and reviewing AWS cost and performance dashboards. Most teams notice immediate improvements in resource usage and a drop in compute bills.

One SaaS customer recently told us, “We expected a bumpy ride, but moving to Auto Mode was so smooth, we barely noticed. Our resource utilization is way better—my CFO even smiled. That’s rare!”

Taking advantage of these architectural upgrades during your aws eks migration is one of the quickest ways to set your organization up for long-term success—combining performance, savings, and sustainability. If you’d like practical advice on building your migration plan, the NetSharx Technology Partners team is always here to help with unbiased guidance and deep expertise.

Frequently Asked Questions about aws eks migration

What downtime should I expect?

Great news—if you plan your AWS EKS migration carefully, you can often achieve zero downtime. The secret sauce is a blue-green deployment paired with weighted DNS routing. This approach lets you gradually shift traffic from your old cluster to the new EKS environment without your users ever noticing a thing.

Of course, the real world can be a little messier, especially if you have stateful applications or tricky data migrations. For these special cases, you might need a brief maintenance window. It’s always wise to:

• Schedule any necessary maintenance when your app sees the least traffic.
• Communicate with your users ahead of time, so there are no surprises.
• Have a clear rollback plan—just in case.
• Test, test, and test again in a non-production environment before touching anything live.

One of our clients summed it up perfectly: “We migrated 40+ microservices with zero downtime by using a phased approach. The key was thorough testing and automation.” That’s advice worth its weight in gold.

How do I migrate persistent volumes?

Persistent data can feel like the final boss of AWS EKS migration, but don’t worry—there are tried-and-true strategies:

For most workloads, Velero is a lifesaver. It backs up both your Kubernetes resources and volume data, making it a solid choice for common applications. Just be aware that for giant volumes or databases with strict consistency needs, Velero might not fit the bill.

If you’re dealing with Amazon EBS-backed volumes, EBS snapshots are your friend. You simply create a snapshot in your source environment, then restore it in your target EKS cluster. Don’t forget to update your Persistent Volumes (PVs) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) so your applications know where to find their data.

For databases or specialized systems, it’s often best to use application-level migration tools. Think native replication, pg_dump/pg_restore for PostgreSQL, or trusty old rsync for file storage. This approach gives you the most control but may require a bit of hands-on effort and domain knowledge.

At NetSharx, we usually recommend database tools for production systems, especially when uptime and data integrity really matter.

Which tools automate large-scale migrations?

If your migration looks less like a backpacking trip and more like moving an entire village, automation is your best friend. For large-scale aws eks migration projects, here are the standouts:

Kubernetes Migration Factory (KMF) is an open-source tool from AWS Labs that automates migrating both Kubernetes resources and container images. It’s especially handy if you’re juggling multiple clusters or want to move images from other registries to Amazon ECR.

Velero is a popular choice for both backup and migration. It can handle scheduled backups, persistent volumes, and supports multiple storage providers. It’s not just for migration—Velero also helps with disaster recovery planning.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or the AWS CDK bring order and repeatability to your cluster provisioning. They help you keep everything versioned and tested—no more “snowflake” environments.

Of course, many organizations write custom scripts (using kubectl, eksctl, and the AWS CLI) to address their unique needs, especially for integration into CI/CD pipelines or tracking migration progress.

One of our enterprise clients shared: “For our migration of 200+ services, we built a custom orchestration tool around Velero and Terraform. It allowed us to track migration progress and automatically verify each service post-migration.” That kind of automation pays off in peace of mind.

If you’re considering a major move to Amazon EKS and feeling a little overwhelmed, don’t worry—that’s what we’re here for. NetSharx Technology Partners brings agnostic guidance, deep experience, and a warm, practical approach to your migration journey. For more tips and custom help, explore our cloud services or reach out for a custom migration roadmap.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Migrating to Amazon EKS isn’t just a technical upgrade—it’s a chance to refocus your energy where it matters most: building and running great applications. Throughout this guide, we’ve walked through everything you need to plan and execute a successful AWS EKS migration—from understanding the real business value and mapping out your migration plan, to detailed step-by-step execution, and even advanced paths like Graviton and EKS Auto Mode.

By now, you should feel confident about what it takes to move to EKS with zero or minimal downtime. We’ve covered assessing your existing Kubernetes environment, choosing the right automation and tooling, and making sure security, cost, and performance are all top priorities. And, of course, we tackled those burning questions that can keep a platform team up at night.

At NetSharx Technology Partners, we know that no two migration journeys look the same. Every organization brings its own challenges, priorities, and quirks (we see you, legacy workloads!). That’s why our favorite word is “unbiased”—we look at your goals, your environment, and your budget, then help you build a migration roadmap that’s truly yours. No cookie-cutter solutions here.

If you’re still in the “just exploring EKS” phase, we’re happy to walk you through your options. If you’re ready to get going, we’re here for that too. With our agnostic approach and the backing of an extensive provider network, you’ll get honest guidance and competitive pricing—plus a little bit of cloud wisdom, and maybe even a laugh or two along the way.

Ready to make Kubernetes simpler and your operations smoother? Learn more about our cloud services or reach out to start mapping your own migration journey.

AWS EKS migration isn’t just about moving workloads—it’s about changing how your business delivers technology, cutting unnecessary costs, and setting the stage for innovation. With NetSharx by your side, you’ll have a partner who’s as invested in your success as you are.

Let’s build something better together—one cluster at a time.