This article was contributed by John McGuire, who works as AI/ML Software Engineer at at Pulsion Technology.
Cloud migration involves moving digital assets like applications, data, and IT infrastructure from on-premises or traditional computing setups to a cloud platform, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). The primary aim is to leverage the scalability, potential reduced costs, and flexibility offered by cloud services.
Businesses are increasingly interested, in migrating to the AWS cloud due, to its benefits, including resilience, greater flexibility and potential cost savings. The appeal of innovation further drives companies to transition their IT resources and operations to the cloud.
What is AWS Migration?
AWS migration refers to the process of transferring an organisation’s IT infrastructure, its applications, and databases from an on-premises platform to the AWS cloud platform. AWS offers a range of security tools and functionalities to safeguard data and reduce costs. Leveraging AWS’s network of high-speed data centers enables you to roll out applications, to users worldwide with delays.
Transitioning to AWS brings benefits, like productivity simplified scalability and increased adaptability. The wide array of migration services and tools provided by AWS can assist your organization in evaluating, strategizing and carrying out its cloud migration smoothly.
Common Challenges in AWS Migration
There are potential challenges businesses can encounter when migrating to the AWS cloud:
- Data security concerns: Migrating sensitive data to the cloud can raise some concerns about data security and compliance. However, AWS has robust security features and compliance programs to help address these concerns.
- Downtime during migration: Migration applications and data to the cloud could potentially cause downtime if not planned and executed properly. Tools like the AWS database migration service help minimize downtime.
- Skills gaps in the IT team: The migration process requires new skills and expertise in areas like cloud architecture, cloud security, and DevOps. Finding the right company with support and options for cloud migration as a service is a safer way to ensure no downtime. AWS services also include training and certification programs to help build these skills within your IT Team.
AWS Migration Services and Tools
Migrating to the cloud can be a relatively challenging and daunting process. AWS provides a variety of services and tools to help make migration easier. These tools can help enterprise customers lower risks, reduce downtime, and ensure migration projects have a smooth and successful migration.
AWS Migration Hub
The AWS migration hub is a service that helps keep track of the progress of moving applications migrating to different AWS and partner migration solutions from one central location. This service also gives visibility into the application portfolio and streamlines migration planning and tracking. It also allows visualizing the connections and status servers and databases that make up each application being migrated. The AWS migration hub supports migration status updates from the AWS application migration service and the AWS database migration service.
Key features include:
- Automated discovery: This feature collects on premises workloads, such as configuration, usage, and behaviour data using the AWS application discovery service to understand on premises workloads.
- Network visualisation: The AWS migration hub speeds up migration planning by identifying servers, any dependencies, application groupings, and roles.
- Integrated migration tools: This service can easily integrate with AWS database migration service, AWS application migration service, and AWS server migration service to track migration status. Additionally, secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) can be integrated with migration tools to move data to and from AWS during the migration process.
AWS Application Discovery Service
The AWS discovery service helps seamlessly plan migrations by gathering data centre information about existing servers, storage, and applications. The data collected by the service can be used to plan and assess migrations to AWS, including identifying suitable workloads, predicting infrastructure needs, as well as estimating migration costs. The data collected using the encrypted data retention to securely store and can be saved as CSV files for analysis later.
Key features of the AWS application discovery service include workload discovery that collects data from on premises servers to understand the workloads and applications. The service helps identify server dependencies and application groupings to better understand the on premises and cloud environments. Furthermore, the data collected can be used to perform total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis to build a business case for cloud migration to AWS.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
The AWS database migration service is a fully managed service that allows quick database migrations. DMS supports migrations between identical database engines (homogeneous migrations) like Oracle to Oracle. It also supports migrations between different database platforms (heterogeneous migrations) like Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server.
The service can continuously replicate data with high availability and consolidate databases into a petabyte scale data warehouse by streaming data to S3 and Amazon Redshift. The AWS database migration service also allows switching over to the target database at any time and doesn’t require waiting for full migration.
DMS supports migration from a wide range of commercial and open-source servers, including Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. DMS is a fully managed service that automatically handles tasks like backups and software patching and will automatically restart from where it left off if an interruption occurs.
While DMS is focused on migrating databases and data warehouses, the AWS Transfer Family complements this by providing a secure way to migrate and file transfer workflows through their existing systems like Amazon S3 and Amazon Elastic File System (EFS). It supports common file transfer protocol like the FTP and FTPS. In other words, DMS handles the database migration while the AWS Transfer family helps secure transfers as part of the overall migration.
AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)
AWS services include the AWS Schema Conversion Tool that can assist with database migrations, especially for heterogeneous migrations or simply put, it supports migrations between different data platforms. This is a critical component in the database migration process as it simplifies and automates the task of converting database schemas between database platforms.
The SCT can automatically convert database schemas from one database platform to another. This is especially useful when migrating from a database like Oracle to an AWS database like Amazon Relational Database Service or Amazon Aurora. Additionally, the SCT tool automatically maps data types between the source and the target databases to ensure a smooth migration process.
Key features also include an object conversion that converts tables, functions, and stored procedures. An assessment report can be generated to identify any unsupported database features or conversion issues. This is especially helpful when planning your cloud migration strategies. Additionally, the tool can be used with DMS to allow for ongoing data replication from the source to the target base.
AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)
The SMS is an agentless service that makes it much easier and faster to migrate thousands of on-premises workloads to AWS. This means that it does not require installing any type of software on the source servers. It can automate, schedules, and track any duplications of live server volumes. SMS supports the migration of a wide range of applications including SAP.
The key benefit of SMS is the tool makes it much easier and faster to transfer data from a physical on premises platform, virtual private cloud, and cloud infrastructure. It also ensures the source servers stay current on AWS through continuous data replication. Furthermore, it allows the migration of servers without any interruptions or impact on performance.
Common AWS Migration Strategies
The common AWS migration strategies are typically referred to as the “6 R’s”. These strategies assist enterprise customers choose the most suitable way to transition their tasks to the cloud, taking into account their individual needs and limitations.
- Rehost: The rehost migration strategy, also known as lift-and-shift, is the simplest approach. The VMware Cloud Rehost and NetApp allow you to move an application and its dependencies to the cloud with little to no changes.
- Replatform: The replatform migration strategy (lift-tinker-and-shift) makes some cloud optimisations to the applications, like changing the underlying operating system or middleware, without actually changing the core architecture.
- Repurchase: The repurchase migration strategy involves replacing the existing authentication systems with a cloud-based alternative. It switches to a different product, often a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, that offers the same functionality, which simplifies and expedites migration.
- Refactor (Re-architecting): The refactoring strategy or rearchitecting is the most complex migration strategy but it can unlock the best benefits of the cloud. This approach redesigns the application to take full advantage of cloud-native features and services. Due to the complexity, the issue is the high initial investment in terms of time and resources.
- Retire: The retire migration strategy is the decommissioning of applications that are no longer useful or needed. This helps reduce the overall footprint and costs of migration. The issue with this migration strategy is that it may require re-training users and re-integration with other systems.
- Retain: The retain strategy keeps some applications on premises when they’re not ready for migration or even when they are tightly coupled with the on premise infrastructure. This could be due to financial, technical, or regulatory constraints but will require a hybrid cloud management system like the AWS Storage Gateway, available on the AWS marketplace.
The Phases of AWS Migration
The phases refer to the different stages that migration projects go through from start to finish. Each phase represents a key part of the migration process
Assessment and Planning
During this phase, businesses can use tools like the AWS application discovery service to gather information about their on premise databases and plan the migration. The AWS Migration Evaluator provides insight to build a data-driven business case for migration to AWS. The AWS Cloud Adoption Readiness Tool can assess a business’s readiness for cloud migration and can provide a detailed roadmap.
Migration
The AWS Migration Hub provides a centralized place to track the progress of migrations across several AWS and partner migration tools. Tools like the AWS Database Migration Service and AWS Server Migration Service can help minimize downtime and disruptions.
Validation
During this phase testing and validation can ensure the migrated workloads function as it should. The validation phase verifies that the migrated environment meets the required performance, including the security and compliance standards.
Optimisation
The optimisation phase allows businesses to optimise the environment post-migration to take full advantage of the cloud capabilities. For instance, this could involve implementing auto-scaling policies that can automatically scale resources on demand and integrating other AWS services like AWS Lambda or Amazon Cloudwatch.
In this phase, businesses could choose to either refactor or re-architect their applications to take advantage of cloud-native services. This is the phase where continuous monitoring and optimisation are critical to ensure the migration remains efficient, secure, and cost-effective.
Best Practices for a Successful Migration Process
To ensure a smooth and successful AWS migration, it is vital to follow best practices. Always conduct a thorough readiness assessment using tools like the AWS Cloud Adoption Readiness tool to identify any dependencies and suitable workloads.
Engage stakeholders early to secure their support and involvement throughout the migration process communicate the benefits and explain any risks of the migration process.
Leverage AWS support and resources to automate and streamline the migration process. AWS provides training, and documentation to support your migration, use this opportunity to build a team with the necessary skills, expertise and experience in cloud migration.
Conclusion
Migrating to AWS can provide significant business benefits, including reduced costs, increased operational efficiency, and improved security. Using AWS’s comprehensive migration tools and services can help your business streamline its cloud adoption, unlocking the full potential of the cloud.
About the author
John McGuire is a notable figure at Pulsion Technology, serving as an AI/ML Software Engineer. With a background in machine learning, John contributes significantly to both front-end web development and machine learning projects at Pulsion. His work involves developing innovative solutions that leverage artificial intelligence to meet client needs.
John McGuire’s expertise and dedication to advancing technology are evident in his approach to integrating machine learning with practical applications, enhancing the capabilities of Pulsion’s offerings. He is part of a dynamic team at Pulsion that delivers cutting-edge technology solutions, from custom software development to cloud migrations, ensuring clients receive optimal and tailored technological support. In addition to his professional endeavors, John enjoys engaging in 5-a-side football, balancing his technical career with personal interests.