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So you want to migrate to the Amazon cloud?
You’ve got your entire organization ready to do the ‘lift and shift’ forklift move, and you’re on your way to migrating your infrastructure, your data, and basically your entire way of doing things into the cloud.
But wait! Before you make that jump, enterprise migration to AWS is no easy task.
How to Prepare for Enterprise Migration to AWS Cloud
You’ll need to move an entire service to a new IT environment and decide how to migrate your compute, storage and networking. In addition, you’ll have to ensure your organization’s continuity with the right ongoing operational plan.
For example, GE is migrating more than 9,000 workloads to AWS while reducing their amount of data centers from 34 to 4 over the next few years. And through the use of Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier, SoundCloud was able to utilize various AWS solutions to store and process the massive data sets its users upload each day.
In this article, we’ll briefly show you how you too can successfully migrate your enterprise to the cloud.
With this surefire, 5 phase approach and utilization of the right AWS resources, your migration to AWS will be up and running in no time. Just be sure to map out your strategy carefully, and plan for the unexpected. The rewards will far exceed the risks.
Phase 1: Discovery - Which Apps Can Move to the Cloud?
There's ultimately one commonality when it comes to enterprise migrations to AWS: they are looking to enhance their current IT operations with more flexibility, less cost, better performance and even enhanced security.
It’s the discovery phase where enterprises can start to make this happen. They can use this phase to understand which applications can be moved and which cannot, the frequency of users and usage and who they are, and network configurations and interdependencies.
Phase 2: Assessment - Choosing Your Migration Method
The assessment phase is where you can select your migration method.
Gartner’s past analysis states that when you migrate to IaaS, you can either rehost (i.e., redeploy applications on an IaaS without making changes), or revise (i.e., modify or extend the existing code to fit the cloud environment).
At this stage, you can also start to build your migration team and identify the resources you’ll need.
The AWS Professional Services Mass Migration Team, for example, is focused specifically on helping enterprises with large cloud migrations.
You can also map third party on-premise solutions at this stage, and learn if these can easily migrate to Amazon.
Phase 3: Proof of Concept (POC) for AWS Storage
Here is where you’ll test your workload. With that you’ll be able to learn, for example, about AWS storage services benefits and limitations, and understand necessary security controls—taking in mind that in the cloud you lose the ability to manage your physical security.
Keep an eye on determining which network and security controls are needed. Security Groups, Amazon VPC and dedicated tunnels such as AWS Direct Connect will help you protect your public cloud network.
Phase 4: Migrating Your Enterprise to AWS
Put together your blueprint design here, along with migration tools and a list of assignments and rollback, ‘what-if’ procedures. Consider the amount of data involved for the enterprise migration to AWS, and its synchronization with your on-premises data repositories.
For further migration and replication assistance, use database tools such as:
- AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
- AWS Schema Conversion Tool
- ONTAP Cloud (based on NetApp’s SnapMirror technology) for NetApp users
Phase 5: Enterprise Cloud Operations
With the significant and frequent changes that the cloud brings, you’ll need to constantly keep up with the rapid pace of innovation and change.
In the cloud operations stage, ensure that you have 24x7 support, and that you’re staying on top of system maintenance and upgrades after the move. Consider SLA requirements also, as cloud SLAs contain details regarding governance, security, compliance, performance and uptime. Be aware also that Amazon has different SLAs for each product.
The Bottom Line of Enterprise Migration to AWS
From listing your applications to creating a blueprint of your desired cloud environment, moving to the AWS cloud takes dedication on all fronts.
Every organization will have a unique migration journey, but each will need to define comprehensive migration methodologies at every stage in order to transform from a traditional on-premises platform to a cloud infrastructure.
Want to get started? Try out Cloud Volumes ONTAP today with a 30-day free trial.
