Thinking about migrating to the cloud?
here is why Alibaba Cloud and (CMH) might be right for you.
Let’s start with the basics.
Cloud Migration Hub (CMH) is a one-stop migration platform built by Alibaba Cloud, designed to make cloud migration simple, secure, and efficient.
CMH adapts to a wide range of IT infrastructures and environments, including:
• On-premises data centers (VMware, Hyper-V, physical servers)
• Public cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Huawei Cloud, and Tencent Cloud
Still not convinced? Let’s talk benefits.
🔐 High Data Security
CMH takes security seriously (as it should).
• Collected data can be automatically imported, validated, and migrated
• All collected IT asset metadata and configuration data are encrypted at rest using Alibaba Cloud Key Management Service (KMS)
• Data in transit is protected via TLS 1.2+ encryption
• Customers using Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) can enforce that only their imported keys—not Alibaba Cloud’s—are used to encrypt sensitive migration artifacts
• No plaintext credentials or secrets are stored; CMH integrates with KMS secret management to avoid hardcoded access tokens
Lets dive deeper into what (KMS) is:
Alibaba Cloud’s Key Management Service (KMS) is a SaaS-based solution offering secure, compliant key and secret management— while preventing sensitive data leaks from hardcoded credentials. It supports key lifecycle management, automatic rotation, BYOK, and cross-account sharing. Complementing it, the Cloud Hardware Security Module (HSM) is an IaaS offering FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated hardware-backed encryption, with options for shared or dedicated HSMs, user-controlled keys, and audit-ready logging.
In short: your data is protected before, during, and after migration.
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🔄 Full Lifecycle Migration Management
CMH supports the entire migration lifecycle, not just the move itself.
• Discovery & Assessment: Automatically scan source environments to map dependencies, estimate effort, and identify risks
• Planning: Use prebuilt templates based on Alibaba Cloud best practices—or create custom plans for databases, VMs, or apps
• Execution: Perform agent-based (for deep OS-level control) or agent-less (for lightweight, secure transfers) migrations
• Validation & Cutover: Validate data integrity, test connectivity, and switch over with minimal downtime
⚡ Ease of Use & High Efficiency
CMH is deeply integrated with Alibaba Cloud services like ECS, ApsaraDB, OSS, and VPC, enabling centralized management without juggling multiple tools.
To improve migration efficiency and stability, CMH includes batch migration components, allowing you to move large volumes of resources reliably and at scale.
📋 Advanced Task Management
CMH allows you to:
• Launch multiple migration tasks simultaneously
• Configure parameters once and apply them across tasks
• Reduce manual effort and human error
⏱️ Smart Task Scheduling
Bandwidth issues and system overload during migration? CMH handles that.
With task scheduling, you can:
• Define custom scheduling conditions
• Organize tasks into scheduling groups
• Run migrations during specific time windows
This ensures smoother migrations—even in bandwidth-limited environments.
🔁 Traffic Playback & Migration Testing
Migration often fails due to:
• Lack of experience
• Compatibility issues
• Performance uncertainty
CMH solves this with its traffic playback feature.
You can:
• Replay logs from the source database on the destination database
• Test migrations before going live
• View logs in a unified format for easier troubleshooting
CMH supports a broad range of workloads:
• Virtual Machines: Windows/Linux (VMware, Hyper-V, physical-to-cloud)
• Databases: ApsaraDb, PolarDB, AnalyticDB, and others with schema conversion and compatibility checks
• Storage: File systems, block storage, and object data (to OSS)
• Applications: With automatic dependency discovery
• Network Configurations: VPC's, SLB's, EIP, NAT gateways's, API gateways's and others.
CMH includes a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis feature.
• Hardware costs: Servers, storage, networking equipment
• Software licenses: OS, databases, virtualization platforms
• Facility expenses: Data center space, power, cooling
• IT labor: System administration, maintenance, patching
• Operational overhead: Backup, monitoring, disaster recovery
• Cloud costs: Equivalent Alibaba Cloud services (ECS, ApsaraDB, OSS, VPC, etc.)
# Key Features:
• Customizable assumptions: Adjust discount rates, utilization levels, growth rates
• Side-by-side comparison: Visual charts showing cost breakdowns by category
• Savings insights: Highlights areas where Alibaba Cloud reduces spend (e.g., no upfront CapEx, pay-as-you-go pricing, managed services)
• Exportable reports: Generate PDF or Excel files for stakeholder review
• Source environment survey (automatically collected by CMH during discovery)
• Optional manual overrides for license costs or labor rates
CMH is available globally in many regions including China, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East
It complies with major standards:
• GDPR (EU)
• MLPS 3.0 & PIPL (China)
• ISO 27001/27017/27018
• CSA STAR, PCI DSS, and others
Here are some real-world reasons organizations migrate:
• Your current cloud provider no longer meets performance or cost requirements
• You need multi-cloud deployment
• You want to move from on-premises infrastructure to a cloud-based data warehouse
• You need disaster recovery, replicating data across multiple data centers
CMH supports all of these scenarios
Final Thoughts
Cloud migration doesn’t have to be painful, risky, or expensive.
Alibaba Cloud’s Cloud Migration Hub gives you:
• Security
• Control
• Predictability
• Cost transparency
That's all for today.
Stay tuned for the next blog, where we’ll discuss Cloud governance
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