Getting ready for migration to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud?
Companies that are trying to modernize their existing business apps frequently discover that shifting them to the cloud is the most effective method to do it. You can increase agility, performance, and cost savings by transferring all or a large portion of your workload to the cloud.
Many organizations, however, struggle to build the appropriate employees, tools, and processes to transition fast and effectively. This blog will discuss tried-and-true AWS migration procedures, as well as how to deal with unexpected difficulties that may create delays or inefficiencies.
- The migration Process
- Step 1: Migration preparation and business planning
- Step 2: Portfolio discovery and planning
- Step 3: Design
- Step 4: Migration and validation
- Step 5: Operate and optimize
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Migration Process
When migrating existing apps to AWS, stakeholders from throughout an organization are usually involved. As a result, it’s vital to recognize that cloud migration affects many different groups and frequently demands strong collaboration between finance, compliance, product, systems, and other departments.
If you are preparing to migrate, the steps outlined below can assist your organization in migrating to AWS efficiently and quickly:
Step 1: Migration preparation & business planning
Identifying and finalizing your cloud migration goals requires bringing together key stakeholders as the first stage in any migration effort. AWS claims that in order to fully utilize the cloud computing services offered, each business unit needs to learn how to refresh skills, modify current processes, and implement new processes. The AWS CAF is divided into six focus areas:
The AWS Cloud Adoption Framework’s ultimate purpose is to bring stakeholders together and produce an action plan that will help your team move from cloud goals to cloud implementation.
Step 2: Portfolio discovery & planning
The hardest part of beginning a project of significant scale is figuring out where to begin.
Choosing the right applications for migration is both an art and a science. You can get through this phase with the right data and expertise.
1. Understand & document your current infrastructure:
You must have a common method for analyzing, documenting, and evaluating your current infrastructure in order to identify the right applications for migration. An architecture assessment solution can assist in gathering and analyzing infrastructure performance, usage, and configuration data from on-premises or virtualized servers.
2. Determine which applications to include in the first wave of migration:
After gathering data on your current systems, it is time to identify the best applications for migration.
3. Choose a migration strategy
After determining your desired end state and which workloads, to begin with, you must choose a migration strategy.
- Lift and shift: This method allows you to keep the application mostly as is while making any necessary changes to run on AWS.
- Partial refactor: Some aspects of your applications may need to be rebuilt to work properly on AWS.
- Full refactor: A full rebuild of your application is the most time-consuming approach, but it also provides the best opportunity to leverage the AWS Cloud’s elasticity and availability.
- Transition to SaaS or PaaS: If the workload you’re migrating is a commodity application (e.g., email, CRM) or has commodity components (e.g., a relational database), you can throw in a SaaS or PaaS.
4. Decide on the right team to architect, build, migrate, and manage your cloud:
While a new AWS instance can be created in minutes, architecting and managing a growing AWS environment requires the same level of expertise as managing any complex system. Many businesses hire an AWS partner to assist them with the initial migration phases. This allows the internal team to gain some AWS experience while receiving the assistance of a vetted AWS Partner team to help you avoid common pitfalls.
Step 3: Design
The final but most important question to consider is tactical but complex: how will your infrastructure look on AWS? Which instance types and configurations should you use? Which Reserved Instances should you buy to get the most out of your money?
The process usually involves the following steps:
- Examine historical performance data for servers across CPU, memory, network, and disc, and storage across throughput, capacity, and IO.
- Select which AWS instance type makes the most sense for you by deciding how much “headroom” you want to offer each asset and then looking at the actual minimum, maximum, and average consumption across these parameters.
- Create a mock-up AWS architecture that includes a list of suggested services, such as Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon EBS volumes, Amazon VPCs, etc., along with their prices.
- When security and compliance teams are involved in the design stage, they are much more likely to meet project deadlines than when they are involved after the infrastructure is built out.
Step 4: Migration and validation
The following stage is entirely technical. Your team must construct the authorized AWS architecture and move apps and data to the target architecture.
By automating infrastructure build-out from the start, your team is able to create consistently, documented, and easily updated AWS environments. Learning AWS CloudFormation is time well spent. All experienced AWS users use a templating tool, such as AWS CloudFormation, to create and manage AWS resources.
After you’ve created your target environment, it’s time to migrate your applications and data. AWS provides nearly a dozen services to assist you in migrating to AWS. Here are a few examples:
- AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) allows you to easily and securely migrate databases to AWS During the migration, the source database remains fully operational, minimizing downtime for applications that rely on it.
- VMware Cloud on AWS allows customers to run VMware workloads on the AWS Cloud with ease. Customers will be able to deploy and manage VMware workloads across all on-premises and AWS environments using VMware’s virtualization and management software.
- AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) is an agentless service that makes migrating thousands of on-premises workloads to AWS easier and faster.
- AWS Snowball employs secure appliances to move massive volumes of data into and out of AWS on a petabyte scale.
Step 5: Operate and optimize
While many of the crucial components of a cost-effective migration are established during the migration process, continuing optimization is essential for long-term success on the AWS platform.
- 24×7 Ticket Support
If you are managing internally, use the time between migration and go-live to establish SLAs, roles and responsibilities, and procedures for common tasks such as instance rebooting, access management, and so on. - Cost tracking and analysis
One of the most significant advantages of using AWS Cloud is the ability to receive real-time billing information and notifications of unusual or unexpected spending. Use a cost analysis and cloud governance platform, however, to filter that information and turn data points into actionable information. - Well-architected framework reviews
Every team should conduct a Well-Architected Framework review every six months, according to AWS. The Well-Designed.
A framework is a structured method for evaluating cloud environments that are based on the following five Pillars:
• Security
• Reliability
• Performance efficiency
• Cost optimization
• Operational excellence
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AWS migration free?
AWS Server Migration Service is completely free to use; you only pay for the storage resources used during the migration process.
How much does IT cost to migrate to AWS?
The AWS Migration Hub is free to use for collecting and storing discovery data in your home region, as well as planning and tracking migration to AWS. You are responsible for the cost of the migration tools you use as well as any AWS resources consumed. Refactor Spaces is an optional feature that comes at a cost.
Does AWS charge INR?
If you create a new account and select India as your contact address, your user agreement will be with Amazon Internet Services Pvt. Ltd (AISPL), an AWS seller in India. AISPL handles your billing, and your invoice total is shown in rupees rather than dollars.
Is AWS cheaper than Google?
Google Cloud is much cheaper than AWS and Azure for computing-optimized cloud-based instances. On the other hand, it's more expensive than others when it comes to the instance types of accelerated computing.
Which tool is used for cloud migration?
Carbonite Migrate tools: Carbonite is one of the leading cloud migration tools and solutions providers, acquired by OpenText in 2019. This provides sophisticated cloud backup solutions for home, professional, and enterprise use.
How do I reduce the cost of the cloud?
Ways to reduce the cost of the cloud: 1. Opt for reserved or spot instances. 2. Capacity planning. 3. Limit data transfer fees. 4. Use cost monitoring tools. 5. Prevent cloud sprawl. 6. Cache storage strategically. 7. Run workloads where the computing is cheaper. 8. Restrict access to the cloud.
What is the migration cost in the cloud?
The migration costs vary greatly depending on the scope and scale of a cloud migration project. The migration team costs range from $5,000 – 15,000 (for a small workload) to $20,000 - $500,000 (for a medium/large workload).
Related Links/References
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Exam details
- AWS Free Tier: Create an Account
- AWS Free Tier Limits
- AWS Free Tier Account Details
- Top 10 Must-Have AWS Cloud Migration Tools in 2023
- AWS Database Migration Service: Everything You Need To Know
- Application Migration to AWS & Its 6 Phases
- 7R Cloud Migration Strategy – Steps to Successful App Migration
- AWS Cloud Migration | Advantages & Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)
Next Task For You
Begin your journey towards an AWS Cloud by joining our FREE Informative Class on Amazon Cloud Free Class by clicking on the below image.
Raildson Felipe da Silva says
Cost tracking and analysis are essential, or the AWS bill can be quite expensive. Trusted Advisor, Kubecost (if we use EKS), or Harness are amazing tools to help us manage cloud costs on a daily basis.