AWS cloud migration strategies

AWS cloud migration strategies

October 4, 2023

Why migrate to AWS Cloud

While many cloud service providers are available today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains one of the most versatile, secure, and powerful cloud platforms. On average, enterprises that migrate to AWS report the following:

infrastructure cost saving

Amazon Web Services

lower time to market for new features

Amazon Web Services

fewer security-related incidents

Amazon Web Services

Why choose Itransition

Delivering AWS projects since 2010, including full-cycle AWS consulting, setup, migration, and optimization.

AWS partner since 2017, recognised as Advanced Tier Services Partner, AWS Well-Architected Partner, and Amazon EC2 for Windows Server Delivery Partner.

95 certified AWS professionals, including developers and cloud practitioners, solution architects, DevOps engineers and SysOps administrators, cybersecurity and ML specialists, and advanced networking experts.

3 phases of AWS migration

The process of migrating to the AWS platform typically includes three main phases. Let us discuss each of them in more detail.

Scheme title: The main phases of AWS migration

Data source: Amazon Web Services — Overview

Rapid discoveryTCO reportMigration Readiness assessmentBriefings & workshopsImmersion dayAssessPortfolioDiscovery & planningMigration
planBusiness case/ Mig. EvaluatorMigrateMigration & modernization experiencePeopleSkills/center of excellencePlatformLanding
zoneOperating
modelSecurity & complianceMobilizeMigrateOperate & optimizeModernizeMigrate & modernizeCreate a case for changeBuild readiness through experiencesAccelerate transformation at scale

Assess

The migration process begins with analyzing the existing digital infrastructure and assessing the enterprise's cloud readiness. For a clear and comprehensive assessment, engineers can utilize the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF), which focuses on six perspectives: business, platform, governance, security, people, and operations.
Goals
  • Evaluating an enterprise’s cloud readiness from different angles
Outcomes
  • Identified the barriers to cloud migration
  • The estimated cost of ownership
  • Recommendation of the migration and modernization pattern

How to assess AWS migration readiness

AWS provides several proven practices to assess an enterprise's readiness for the AWS Cloud and mitigate migration risks. To ensure accurate assessment, enterprises can use all these practices in combination.

Scheme title: Assessing the AWS migration readiness

Data source: Amazon Web Services — Overview

Asset inventoriesApp configuration dataPerformance informationCMDBSLA/OLAArchitectureSME knowledgeCurrent IT snapshotApplicationsInfrastructurePerformanceDiscover & organize dataRefactorReplatformRepurchaseRehostRelocateRetainRetireLevel of effortMigration strategies for each workload (7 Rs)

Migration strategy decision criteria should be based on both business and technical needs

1 Establishing a migration factory

A migration factory combines people, processes, and tools that operate together based on an agile methodology. A factory transfers the least critical workloads foremost. Based on this initial experience, the migration factory optimizes automation patterns that can later be used for moving essential apps and data in a less time-consuming and more cost-effective way.

2 Considering app retirement early on

Retiring legacy applications in the early phases of a project reduces the burden on an IT team that would otherwise have to support them. If these applications are still considered essential for migration, they can be moved to AWS later.

3 Taking a data-driven migration approach

Monitoring workloads based on data analysis allows engineers to promptly identify the dependencies between apps and systems. This helps enterprises ensure a smooth migration process and, as a result, avoid operational disruptions.

4 Planning a controlled stop

By using a controlled stop, enterprises can determine in practice whether their existing applications can be taken out of service without disruptions and other negative consequences. The duration of a controlled stop can last from one week to a couple of months, depending on the application type.

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AWS migration strategies: the 7Rs

Back in 2011, Gartner outlined the five most effective cloud migration strategies (the ‘5Rs’), which were updated to the 6Rs in 2016 and the 7Rs in 2017. This gradual strategy evolution can be attributed to the emergence of innovative AWS migration services like AWS Outposts and AWS Application Migration Service. Despite the distinguished seven strategies, clients often need a combination of several 'Rs' to attain their ultimate migration goals. Itransition's DevOps engineers efficiently blend several migration strategies to derive maximum benefits and deliver the expected results.

Scheme title: The 7Rs of AWS migration
Data source: Amazon Web Services — 7 Strategies for Migrating Applications to the Cloud, introducing AWS Mainframe Modernization and AWS Migration Hub Refactor Spaces

Retire

Retiring means removing applications that are no longer needed in a corporate IT portfolio.
Pros
  • This is a strategy that requires the least amount of time and resources
  • Retired applications no longer need IT resources, which minimizes performance costs
  • Resources no longer used by retired applications can be redistributed to improve the performance of other workloads
Cons
  • Retiring applications can be complex due to insufficient legacy documentation and quite risky if the field experts are no longer employed by the organization
When to retire

If an application appears redundant and no longer used in the AWS cloud environment, it can be removed.

Our AWS migration services

Itransition offers a full scope of AWS migration services, helping enterprises smoothly migrate their IT resources, digital assets, and databases to the AWS cloud.

AWS migration consulting

We can analyze your business infrastructure, help determine the migration requirements and scope, select the necessary tools and technologies, and draw up an actionable and comprehensive AWS migration plan.
    • Identifying legacy infrastructure pain points
    • Documenting the architecture
    • Developing a migration strategy
    • Establishing KPIs
    • Selecting the most cost-effective AWS services to migrate on
    • Calculating AWS migration costs

    Client spotlight

    Here are the examples of our completed AWS migration projects.

    A shoppable video ecommerce platform

    -30%

    feature delivery costs

    Itransition executed migration to the AWS public cloud, refactored the client's monolithic architecture into microservices, and implemented ML-based functionality.

    LMS for the casino industry

    200x

    performance increase in matrix data processing

    We transferred solution infrastructure to AWS, helping the client improve performance and boost customer satisfaction.

    A cloud-based collection management solution

    -55%

    computing costs

    We developed a cloud-based museum collection management system and transferred data from the client’s FTP server to Amazon S3.

    An ML solution for brand analytics

    +50%

    image processing speed

    Itransition developed an ML-based brand recognition platform using the AWS-based microservice infrastructure.

    A shoppable video ecommerce platform

    -30%

    feature delivery costs

    Itransition executed migration to the AWS public cloud, refactored the client's monolithic architecture into microservices, and implemented ML-based functionality.

    LMS for the casino industry

    200x

    performance increase in matrix data processing

    We transferred solution infrastructure to AWS, helping the client improve performance and boost customer satisfaction.

    A cloud-based collection management solution

    -55%

    computing costs

    We developed a cloud-based museum collection management system and transferred data from the client’s FTP server to Amazon S3.

    An ML solution for brand analytics

    +50%

    image processing speed

    Itransition developed an ML-based brand recognition platform using the AWS-based microservice infrastructure.

    A shoppable video ecommerce platform

    -30%

    feature delivery costs

    Itransition executed migration to the AWS public cloud, refactored the client's monolithic architecture into microservices, and implemented ML-based functionality.

    LMS for the casino industry

    200x

    performance increase in matrix data processing

    We transferred solution infrastructure to AWS, helping the client improve performance and boost customer satisfaction.

    A cloud-based collection management solution

    -55%

    computing costs

    We developed a cloud-based museum collection management system and transferred data from the client’s FTP server to Amazon S3.

    An ML solution for brand analytics

    +50%

    image processing speed

    Itransition developed an ML-based brand recognition platform using the AWS-based microservice infrastructure.

    AWS migration framework

    The Itransition team utilizes a robust step-by-step AWS migration approach consisting of the following steps.

    1

    Assessment

    At this stage, we conduct a comprehensive business analysis and assess the readiness for the AWS Cloud.

    2

    Planning

    We document the migration requirements, calculate AWS's total cost of ownership (TCO), and develop a clear migration plan. 

    3

    Migration

    Our team selects the right tools, executes the migration, runs necessary integrations, and validates the project’s results.

    4

    Post-migration

    We help enterprises maintain and monitor their AWS cloud infrastructures and scale them on demand.

    AWS migration tools we use

    The Itransition team helps enterprises leverage the advantages of AWS cloud technology. Depending on their business goals, enterprises can select the following AWS services.

    AWS Application Migration Service

    AWS Application Discovery Service

    AWS Database Migration Service

    AWS DataSync

    AWS Mainframe Moderni- zation

    AWS Migration Hub

    AWS Transfer Family

    AWS Migration Evaluator

    AWS migration tools

    This tool automates many migration tasks, helping developers migrate both on-premise and cloud-based solutions to the AWS platform.
    We use AWS Application Discovery to analyze existing data centers, create Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances, and plan migration.
    Developers use this service to securely migrate corporate databases and analytics to AWS.
    AWS DataSync is another tool that allows developers to transfer data to AWS and replicate, encrypt, and validate it.
    With this tool, developers can modernize and migrate mainframe workloads and identify the dependencies between them.
    This AWS service helps enterprises manage and track all their migrations via one digital hub and automate the migration workflows.
    With this tool, engineers can use FTP, FTPS, and SFTP protocols to migrate, track, and automate file transfer workflows.
    This AWS solution helps developers gather and analyze enterprise data for building AWS migration business cases.
    AWS Application Migration Service
    This tool automates many migration tasks, helping developers migrate both on-premise and cloud-based solutions to the AWS platform.

    AWS migration benefits

    By migrating their computing resources, enterprises can leverage the general advantages of cloud computing, in addition to the unique benefits of the AWS cloud platform.

    Proprietary CPU

    One of the most apparent advantages of AWS is that it uses a custom Graviton 3 ARM CPU for processing cloud workloads, which provides better value for money and performance than Intel or AMD chips. However, AWS does not limit users to using Graviton 2, as some workloads are better optimized for other chips.

    High security standards

    AWS has over 200 security and compliance features and supports most influential security standards, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, and others. AWS regularly completes various industry-recognized attestations by independent auditors. Lastly, given that AWS is usually the choice for governmental organizations, one can be reassured that AWS employs the highest security standards.

    Extensive functionality

    Currently, AWS offers the broadest range of cloud services compared to other cloud providers. Notably, AWS also provides multiple options within those services. There are many purpose-built databases optimized for specific use cases. For example, customers can use Amazon RDS or Aurora for ERPs, DynamoDB for ecommerce, Neptune for fraud detection, and Timestream for IoT applications.

    Advanced scalability

    By using AWS platform capabilities, enterprises can scale their infrastructures horizontally and vertically on demand. Thus, developers can quickly introduce new features and technologies (such as AI or IoT), minimize downtime, and increase the number of users without limitations.

    AWS migration challenges

    Challenge

    Solution

    Migrating legacy apps

    Challenge

    Not all legacy solutions can be painlessly migrated to the AWS cloud, as they could require modernization.

    Challenge

    Solution

    Сonsider retiring legacy apps instead of rearchitecting or refactoring them to save time and resources.

    Managing maintenance costs

    Challenge

    Without proper management, the costs of using AWS cloud services can be high.

    Challenge

    Solution

    Сheck if you are using only necessary services and opt out of redundant or supplementary ones to optimize costs.

    Ensuring data security

    Challenge

    Without adequate security measures, corporate and customer data could be at risk.

    Challenge

    Solution

    Engage cybersecurity experts from the very start of migration projects to mitigate the risk of any potential data breach or security violation.

    Allocating the right talent

    Challenge

    Without deep AWS expertise, organizations risk losing data and failing their migration projects.

    Challenge

    Solution

    Engage third-party AWS experts to augment the in-house workforce and access the required competencies.

    Choose your best-fitting AWS migration strategy

    Choose your best-fitting AWS migration strategy

    Migrating to AWS is one of the most critical yet challenging initiatives a modern organization can commit to. However, in most cases, organizations lack cloud architecture experience to estimate migration costs adequately, choose an appropriate migration method, and create a realistic implementation roadmap. Since AWS migration is an essential endeavor a modern organization embarks on, it’s paramount to partner with experienced and certified AWS consultants like Itransition.

    Choose your best-fitting AWS migration strategy

    Entrust AWS migration to Itransition

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    FAQ

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