Module 9: Migration and Innovation

Module 9 – Migration and Innovation

Learning Objectives

  • Understand migration and innovation in the AWS Cloud.

  • Summarize the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF).

  • Summarize the six key factors of a cloud migration strategy.

  • Describe the benefits of AWS data migration solutions, such as AWS Snowcone, AWS Snowball, and AWS Snowmobile.

  • Summarize the broad scope of innovative solutions that AWS offers.

Introduction

  • Previous discussions established foundational knowledge about getting started on AWS Cloud.

  • Need arises for organizations with existing deployments or those starting a journey in the cloud without AWS.

  • Migration and innovation are crucial areas where AWS can help organizations achieve cost savings.

  • Coverage includes migration tools, AWS Cloud Adoption Framework, and Snow Family devices designed for data migration.

Six Core Perspectives of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework

  • An overview of migration indicates it is a structured process, not an instantaneous transition to AWS.

  • Successful cloud migrations require careful planning, expertise, and cross-functional collaboration within organizations.

  • Different roles within an organization (developers, cloud architects, business analysts, financial analysts) influence the migration process and its priorities.

  • AWS professional services have established the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) to provide guidance through this process.

  • The AWS CAF organizes guidance into six Perspectives, each addressing distinct responsibilities:
      - Business Perspective
      - People Perspective
      - Governance Perspective
      - Platform Perspective
      - Security Perspective
      - Operations Perspective

Business Perspective

  • Ensures IT aligns with business needs and IT investments support key business results.

  • Use this perspective to build a strong business case for cloud adoption and prioritize initiatives.

  • Align business strategies with IT strategies and goals.

  • Common roles include:
      - Business managers
      - Finance managers
      - Budget owners
      - Strategy stakeholders

People Perspective

  • Focuses on developing an organization-wide change management strategy for successful cloud adoption.

  • Evaluates organizational structures, roles, skill requirements, and identifies gaps.

  • Helps prioritize training, staffing, and necessary organizational changes.

  • Common roles include:
      - Human resources
      - Staffing
      - People managers

Governance Perspective

  • Concentrates on aligning IT strategy with business strategy to maximize business value and minimize risks.

  • Involves updating staff skills and processes necessary for business governance in the cloud.

  • Focuses on managing cloud investments and evaluating business outcomes.

  • Common roles include:
      - Chief Information Officer (CIO)
      - Program managers
      - Enterprise architects
      - Business analysts
      - Portfolio managers

Platform Perspective

  • Encompasses principles and patterns for implementing new solutions on the cloud and migrating workloads.

  • Utilizes various architectural models to understand and communicate IT system structures and their relationships.

  • Common roles include:
      - Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
      - IT managers
      - Solutions architects

Security Perspective

  • Ensures organizations meet security objectives related to visibility, auditability, control, and agility.

  • Utilizes the AWS CAF to structure selection and implementation of security controls based on organizational needs.

  • Common roles include:
      - Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
      - IT security managers
      - IT security analysts

Operations Perspective

  • Aims to enable, run, use, and recover IT workloads to meet agreements with business stakeholders.

  • Defines operational conduct in a timeframe (day-to-day, quarterly, yearly) aligned with business goals.

  • Identifies changes in processes and training needed for successful cloud adoption.

  • Common roles include:
      - IT operations managers
      - IT support managers

6 Strategies for Migration

  • Identifying application needs and grouping them helps organizations choose among the six R's of migration:
      - Rehosting
      - Replatforming
      - Refactoring/re-architecting
      - Repurchasing
      - Retaining
      - Retiring

  • Each application or application group will find the most suitable option based on factors such as time, cost, priority, and criticality.

Rehosting

  • Known as “lift-and-shift,” applications are moved without any modifications.

  • Common in large legacy migrations where organizations aim to scale quickly.

Replatforming

  • Also referred to as “lift, tinker, and shift,” involves minor cloud optimization without altering core architecture.

  • Example: Migrating a MySQL database to Amazon RDS MySQL without changes to code.

  • Other examples include upgrading to Amazon Aurora for performance improvement.

Refactoring (Re-architecting)

  • Involves redesigning applications to leverage cloud-native features driven by business needs for new functionality or performance.

  • Requires significant planning and effort and incurs higher initial costs.

Repurchasing

  • Transitioning from a traditional license to a software-as-a-service model; replacing existing applications with cloud versions.

  • Common for organizations looking to migrate to solutions like Salesforce.com from legacy software.

Retaining

  • Keeping certain applications in their original environment, especially those nearing obsolescence or needing significant refactoring.

  • Planned retention provides time for proper migration strategy.

Retiring

  • Entails removing unused applications from the portfolio; estimates suggest that 10-20% of applications may fall into this category.

  • Migrating strategies can capitalize on the opportunity to decommission unnecessary applications.

AWS Snow Family Members

  • To efficiently migrate data to AWS, the typical internet transfer might be too slow due to bandwidth limitations.

  • AWS Snow Family consists of devices designed to facilitate physical data transport to AWS, including:
      - AWS Snowcone
      - AWS Snowball
      - AWS Snowmobile

  • Each device varies in capacity and offers on-device computing capabilities.

  • AWS manages these devices, ensuring security through cryptographic security measures and encryption of stored data.

AWS Snowcone

  • Compact, rugged edge computing device offering:
      - 2 CPUs
      - 4 GB memory
      - 8 TB usable storage

  • Used for analytics, video libraries, image collection backups, and tape replacement.

AWS Snowball

  • Offers two device types:
      - Snowball Edge Storage Optimized
        - 80 TB HDD capacity and 1 TB SSD for Amazon S3 compatible storage.
        - 40 vCPUs; 80 GiB memory for higher capacity computing.
      - Snowball Edge Compute Optimized
        - 42 TB usable HDD and 7.68 TB NVMe SSD capacity for EBS-compatible storage.
        - 52 vCPUs; 208 GiB memory; optional NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU.

AWS Snowmobile

  • Designed for large-scale data transfer, capable of moving up to 100 petabytes per unit.

  • Rugged 45-foot shipping container equipped with security features such as:
      - Tamper resistance
      - Temperature control
      - Fire suppression
      - 24/7 video surveillance
      - Escort security vehicle during transit.

Innovation with AWS Services

  • AWS enables varied innovative implementations beyond basic migration.

  • Example: Running VMware on AWS, maintaining familiar infrastructure in the cloud.

  • Innovative outcomes must consider:
      - Current state
      - Desired state
      - Problems to solve

Serverless Applications

  • Serverless architecture allows developers to focus on core products without managing servers.

  • AWS Lambda helps execute functions without server provisioning, offering built-in fault tolerance and availability.

Artificial Intelligence Services

  • AWS provides multiple AI-driven services such as:
      - Amazon Transcribe (speech-to-text)
      - Amazon Comprehend (text pattern recognition)
      - Amazon Fraud Detector (fraud identification)
      - Amazon Lex (building conversational interfaces).

Machine Learning

  • AWS Amazon SageMaker simplifies the ML development process, enabling quick model building and deployment.

  • Supports analysis, problem solving, and outcome prediction without extensive in-house expertise.

  • Amazon Augmented AI (A2I) integrates human workflows into machine learning processes.

Summary

  • Key insights gained about migration strategies, AWS CAF, and AWS Snow Family devices.

  • Recognized six R's of migration as various strategies for app movement to the cloud.

  • Noted AWS Snow Family solutions for moving large data sets efficiently and securely.

Quiz

  • Security Perspective helps structure selection and implementation of permissions in AWS CAF.

  • Strategies for application migration include Retaining and Rehosting.

  • AWS Snowmobile has a storage capacity of 100 PB.

  • Amazon Lex is a service for building conversational interfaces.

Additional Resources

  • Migration & Transfer on AWS.

  • A Process for Mass Migrations to the Cloud.

  • 6 Strategies for Migrating Applications to the Cloud.

  • AWS Cloud Adoption Framework.

  • AWS Fundamentals: Core Concepts.

  • AWS Cloud Enterprise Strategy Blog.

  • Modernizing with AWS Blog.

  • AWS Customer Stories: Data Centre Migration.

Compiled by Kenneth Leung – December 2020