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

Mobilize

Building a proper foundation is vital to a successful AWS migration, so the mobilization phase is essential. Here, enterprises prepare their resources and workforce for migration, and developers start moving business applications to the cloud.
Goals
  • Prioritizing applications and data for migration
  • Identification of the relevant migration practices
Outcomes
  • Prepared the base environment
  • Automated risk, compliance, and security policies
  • An actionable plan for AWS migration
  • Maintained AWS operating model

Migrate

Now, it is time to implement a migration plan using AWS's best practices and tools. During the migration phase, DevOps engineers transfer the apps and data prepared in the mobilization phase to the cloud. At this point, DevOps engineers and developers also switch out legacy systems, on-premises data centers, and applications.
Goals
  • Executing the migration at the lowest cost and with minimal disruption to business operations
Outcomes
  • All workload and software elements are moved to AWS

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.

Retain

Retaining means keeping applications in an existing environment.
Pros
  • Keeping some applications on-premise reduces cloud waste and allows for the redistribution of resources to other vital workloads
  • Retaining allows businesses to leverage the benefits of the cloud while leaving some of their workloads in legacy environments
Cons
  • Applications that remain on-premise often drain valuable IT resources
When to retain

It can be reasonable to retain applications that need significant resources for refactoring. These are usually the workloads that can't run in the cloud due to strict compliance requirements, compatibility issues, security concerns, unacceptable latency times, or insufficient ROI. In most cases, retaining is applied for large-scale hybrid cloud projects that can take several years to complete.

Relocate

In the AWS migration context, relocating means using VMware Cloud to move IT infrastructure to the cloud without changing its code, investing in hardware, or disrupting workflows.
Pros
  • Developers can use familiar VMware tools, eliminating the need for employee retraining or modifying existing workflows
  • Given that apps require little to no adjustments, workloads can be migrated relatively quickly without interrupting existing processes
  • Enterprises that use VMware products can replicate them in the cloud using vSphere elements and move servers without causing disruptions
Cons
  • Doesn’t support some cloud-native features (for example, VIBs on the ESXi host)
When to relocate

Relocate migration strategy is applicable only to VMware vSphere-based workloads and is the best option when migrating these types of apps.

Rehost

Also known as lift and shift, rehosting is the most popular migration strategy among enterprises. Rehosting implies moving applications to the cloud with little to no modifications.
Pros
  • By quickly increasing system scalability and accessibility, rehosting can bring immediate economic returns
  • This is the least stressful and demanding cloud migration strategy since it allows both enterprises and users to adjust to the new environment gradually
  • Rehosting requires no employee retraining
Cons
  • Given that rehosted applications are not cloud-optimized, they сan require additional modifications - changing the types (sizes) of instances and FinOps optimization
  • If a company decides to keep rehosted applications intact, cloud costs can rise significantly, making the migration economically ineffective in the long term
  • Rehosted applications that are not optimized for the cloud can have a limited number of cloud-native features
When to rehost

Rehosting is a viable option for enterprises that need to migrate as quickly as possible but are planning to optimize their workloads for the cloud in the future. For example, rehosting is the most popular choice for apps whose lifecycle is ending.

Repurchase

Repurchasing means switching to an alternative software solution, often from an on-premise license to a SaaS model. For example, enterprises can turn to the AWS marketplace and purchase Sensifiai's cloud-native Automatic Video Recognition API instead of using a proprietary video recognition system running on-premise.
Pros
  • Purchasing a new solution is usually less costly than migrating one
  • Repurchasing is one of the quickest ways to migrate
  • SaaS models take care of backend operations, allowing businesses to cut maintenance costs
Cons
  • Switching to a new solution usually calls for additional employee training
  • Compared to on-premise licensing models, SaaS-based solutions offer limited customizability and control
When to repurchase

Repurchasing makes the most sense for applications incompatible with the AWS cloud environment or too costly to migrate. However, if application customizability is critical for a particular application, companies should consider other migration strategies.

Replatform

Replatforming means optimizing on-premise workloads to run in the cloud while keeping the core architecture as is.
Pros
  • Since replatforming requires only partial code modification, migration is relatively quick
  • Minimum employee training is required
  • Replatforming allows enterprises to squeeze the most out of the cloud compared to other migration strategies
Cons
  • It is one of the most error-prone migration strategies, as cloud-optimized legacy workloads can still malfunction in the new environment
  • Replatforming calls for extensive and continuous monitoring to minimize the possibility of failures
When to replatform

Replatforming makes the most sense for enterprises that need to leverage only some of the cloud-native features. Organizations commonly use replatforming to automatically scale backend workloads and optimize database management (usually with the help of Amazon RDS) by capitalizing on cloud capabilities.

Refactor

Refactoring implies a complete revamp of applications to make them cloud-native.
Pros
  • Gives full benefits of cloud migration
  • Enables AWS auto-scaling, allowing services to adjust to server demands in real time
  • Cloud-native architectures require fewer resources to operate as maintenance is done by AWS
  • By rearchitecting applications as microservices and distributing databases, companies significantly improve their resilience
  • Overall, application performance is dramatically improved
  • Enables distributed databases
Cons
  • This is the most resource-intensive migration method, which takes time to complete
  • Provides minimum short-term benefits, with sufficient ROI realized in the long term
  • Requires extensive planning and often calls for a significant part of the code to be rewritten
  • Requires employees to learn new cloud skills
When to refactor

When it becomes clear that a legacy system architecture has reached its limits in terms of scalability and performance, decision-makers can consider refactoring. Refactoring is about ensuring business continuity. Given that cloud providers (AWS in particular) are continuously introducing new features and innovating in the cloud space, refactoring ensures business growth and agility.

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

    AWS migration delivery

    We can help you execute migration at a lower time and cost by taking care of all technical aspects, as well as validating the migration's success.
      • Infrastructure, app, and data migration
      • Migration testing
      • Ongoing maintenance and support

      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

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

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

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

      Managing maintenance costs

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

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

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

      Ensuring data security

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

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

      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

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

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

      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

      Get in touch

      FAQ

      What are the critical considerations when planning an AWS migration?

      Organizations should clearly identify their objectives and goals as this helps create more effective and realistic migration plans. In addition, organizations should consider calculating AWS’s TCO in advance to adequately assess AWS pricing and migration costs.

      Which companies have migrated to AWS?

      Thousands of organizations have successfully undergone the AWS migration. Spotify, Coca-Cola, and Samsung, to name a few.

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