AWS Migration Checklist: Practice Case

To avoid confusion and omissions, there is a checklist to follow when migrating applications and data to the cloud. This is a detailed list of tasks, processes and guidelines to follow during the migration. By acting as a roadmap for planning, implementing and managing migration projects, you create the conditions for minimizing risks and completing tasks step by step. 

Why AWS is so popular

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a key cloud service provider whose services have a number of advantages compared to local deployment and other cloud services. Below are the obvious benefits of switching to AWS: 

• Postpayment. Using the selected package of services, you pay for exactly this set of products and thus control costs;
• Unlimited scalability and management options. This can be either automatic scaling on EC2, or container deployments, serverless functions;
• Flexibility in automation, integration with DevOps workflows. Provides an environment for instant deployment of development, testing, and production environments. The provision of IT self-services is simplified, the opportunity to independently create the infrastructure appears;
• Worldwide access and disaster recovery. The Multi-Az feature launches cloud services around the world even in the case of a major regional disaster. 

Read also: AWS Data Migration Step-by-Step

Migration to the cloud AWS: a full checklist

1. Opening

• Generate a list, classify and evaluate applications using criteria of purpose, complexity, and criticality.
• Create user groups, analyze patterns, and define access requirements.
• Create a network architecture map, analyze data flow and dependencies.
• Working with security policy — meeting compliance requirements and applying security tools. 
• Assessing and planning RTO RPO in the cloud. 

2. Evaluation

• Working with migration strategies: evaluate approaches to hosting, re-platforming, buyout, etc. 
• Assessment of internal resources with consideration of outsourcing opportunities. 
• Leveraging AWS Training, Professional Services, and the AWS Partner Network. 
• Identifying, evaluating and planning for the migration of third-party solutions. 

3. Checking the concept

• ROS planning. It is better to start with tasks with a minimum level of risk, after which it is needed to test the migration process in a step-by-step approach and identify indicators of success. 
• Estimating cloud costs, optimizing AWS costs, selecting optimal instances. 
• Identifyng computing resource requirements, assessing performance and capacity, scalability and cost. 
• Studying security requirements and network management tools.
• Assessing network performance, ensuring ongoing security through regular checks and audits. 
• Assessing network performance by testing, improving performance using Amazon CloudFront, AWS Direct Connect, AWS Global Accelerator services.
• Selecting tools for migration, evaluating usability, functionality, cost, support, testing tools in the environment. 

Read also: AWS Services and Tools for Machine Learning

4. Migration

• Making description of the architecture, components and services of the desired cloud environment, considering the services of Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, etc. 
• Developing a rollback plan to minimize migration issues. 
• Defining tools to automate migration and data synchronization. They can be AWS Migration Hub, AWS Migration Service, AWS Data Sync etc.
• Assessing the consequences of the transition will minimize time during the working day. To do this, you need to track the success of the migration.

5. Cloud operations

• Leverage cloud architectures for availability, scalability, and resiliency. These are Lambda, API Gateway, Dynamo DB services that help rationalize costs. 
• Leverage AWS Support and Partner Resources.
• Integrate system maintenance and robust monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config AWS Systems Manager helps you automate patch management. 
• Explore SLA, governance, security and compliance. 

Key points of Project Management while migrating

1. The migration process affects not only DevOps, but also engineers, testers and project managers. Therefore, migration requires management from the first stages. 
2. Clarify the authority over DevOps if this is a specialist from the customer’s side. 
3. Decide on the order in which tasks will be issued for DevOps engineers, project managers, QA engineers, and developers. It would be better to use a team tracking tool, such as Jira. 
4. A meeting is needed to determine the roles of all parties.
5. Clearly set deadlines for all stages. 

Additionally, concerning the meeting. Ask DevOps to create a list: 

• keys and variables that need to be registered on AWS (can be in table format) for third-party services;
• what CRON is and how it works, what commands are launched;
• work queues on the project.

Finally, make sure the list is in the works of DevOps. 

It is essential to transfer configuration files for Jenkins to DevOps if there is a need for the same setup (to put a branch on the desired server, to run the commands by yourself). Those who have access to actions via Jenkins should also have such a list. 

When testing on test AWS, make sure that the keys to the production version are not included in the environment settings for the test AWS server. Otherwise, the changes will affect real users. 

Testing is carried out strictly on an anonymized database. 

How to plan the transfer process in detail? 

1. Set a transfer day. 
2. Call your team and finalize your transfer plan. 
3. Create and distribute a transfer checklist. 
4. Ensure the availability of each employee in the team relative to the computer, which will allow you to quickly intervene in an unforeseen situation. 
5. Make plan В.

It is better to control the transfer online, for example, in a Zoom conference, according to the drawn up plan.

AWS migration company 

AWS provides a flexible infrastructure that makes it easy to scale resources as your needs change. If your product is growing and requires more computing resources, data storage, or network bandwidth, migrating to the cloud can be an effective and cost-effective solution. Choosing a cloud migration company is an important step that affects the success of the migration process and the future efficiency of using cloud resources. 

The companies Software Development Hub have 10 years of experience in migrating software products to the cloud. Among their clients are high-load medical systems with 8 million users, US-based ERP systems and an LMS used by 600 thousand students. You can be confident in clear processes, data security during migration and subsequent maintenance according to cloud provider standards. Our specialists are certified in the field of cloud technologies (AWS Certified) and can provide a transparent and structured approach to work and communication, which greatly facilitates the migration process. 

Get a free evaluation for your AWS migration project!

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