How Does SMS Differ from IMS in the Migration Scenario?

This following describes the differences between SMS and IMS in terms of application scenarios, migration processes, and service continuity.

IMS is used to migrate on-premises servers to the cloud. IMS enables you to create images for source servers and use the images for migration. The common application scenarios are: deploying a specified software environment, batch deploying software environments, and backing up server running environments.
SMS is used to migrate x86 physical or virtual servers on premises, private or public clouds to the cloud platform.

If you use IMS for migration, you need to create images for source servers and then use the images to create target servers.
If you use SMS for migration, you need to install and start the Agent on each source server and start the migration.

If you use IMS for migration, your services need to be stopped for long time for image creation.
If you use SMS for migration, your services do not have to go down during the migration. You only need to pause services briefly for service cutover before the final synchronization. After the final synchronization is complete, you can start services on the target server. SMS ensures minimal downtime.

Service cutover refers to switching services from the source to the target.