Google Cloud Migration Center vs Google Migrate to Containers

Google Cloud Migration Center helps plan moves from on-premises systems or other cloud environments to Google Cloud. It estimates future Google Cloud costs from existing resource sizes and configurations, and can inventory servers and Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL databases. Assessments can report total cost of ownership, show application and network dependencies, and suggest destinations based on technical fit. Planning tools offer guidance on what to move and how, including rehost, replatform, and refactor strategies. Infrastructure information can be collected automatically once or continuously, or imported manually. Documented discovery covers AWS assets, Azure virtual machines in preview, and on-premises servers and virtual machines. A Linux and Windows discovery client can create offline reports without sending sensitive data to Google Cloud; the installed client itself runs only on Windows and does not discover databases. The service says it does not collect application or file-storage data. Estimates and assessments cost nothing, though other Google Cloud products may incur charges.

Google Migrate to Containers is a free, self-hosted tool for moving applications from virtual machines or servers into containers without rewriting or re-architecting them. Its local CLI copies a source VM file system, analyzes it, creates a migration plan, and generates deployment artifacts. It can optionally move data files to persistent volumes. Sources include VMware and Compute Engine VMs, and destinations include Google Kubernetes Engine, GKE Autopilot clusters, and Cloud Run. Supported workloads include Linux applications, IBM WebSphere, JBoss, Apache, Tomcat, WordPress, and Windows IIS applications. Linux workloads can be handled locally in offline mode or on a local network without runtime internet downloads. A local machine needs Docker and several gigabytes of storage. Google recommends assessing workload fit first. The console UI, migctl, and processing-cluster CRDs were discontinued in May 2024; Google directs users to the local CLI. Migration has no charge, while other Google Cloud services cost separately.