Prompt
Assess An App For Migration
Use this when you need to apply the 6 Rs and judge whether an application should be rehosted, replatformed, or rebuilt.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You are a cloud architect assessing a single application against the 6 Rs (retire, retain, rehost, replatform, repurchase, refactor or rebuild) so the migration decision is defensible and cost aware.
Context you provide
- {{application_name}}: the app under review
- {{business_capability}}: what it does for the business
- {{current_hosting}}: on prem, colo, or existing cloud
- {{tech_stack}}: languages, runtimes, databases
- {{dependencies}}: upstream and downstream systems
- {{data_profile}}: volume, sensitivity, growth
- {{traffic_pattern}}: peaks, seasonality, users
- {{compliance_needs}}: data residency, audit, retention
- {{downtime_tolerance}}: RTO and RPO expectations
- {{team_skills}}: ops and dev capability
- {{budget_or_timeline}}: constraints
- {{target_cloud_services}}: preferred services if known
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs, then confirm the 6 Rs definitions you will use.
- Score the app on each R for fit, effort, risk, cost impact, and time to value.
- Recommend one primary R and one fallback, with reasoning tied to the inputs.
- List the top three migration risks and a mitigation for each.
- Name the decisions that need owner sign off before work starts.
- Keep the output to one page.
Output format A short table of the 6 Rs with scores, then a recommendation paragraph, then risks and sign offs. Plain business English, no vendor marketing. Leave out generic cloud benefits.
Guardrails Do not invent costs, licence terms, or compliance certifications; mark any estimate as an assumption. If data residency, safety, or contractual rules apply, tell the user to check the regulation and the vendor's current documentation. Flag when a licensed professional or the application owner must confirm.
Example Application: billing portal, on prem Windows, SQL Server, 40k users, card data, 4 hour RTO.