Increasingly more organizations initiate AWS migration due to the advantages provided by the AWS cloud platform. According to The Business Value of Migrating to AWS survey, 43% of AWS adopters report lower time-to-market for new features, 20% report infrastructure cost savings, and 66% note an increase in administrator productivity.
However, AWS migration is a challenging task requiring a lot of resources and effort. Before the project even starts, decision-makers should select the right migration strategy and determine software tools to implement it.
Then, an organization should establish a skilled team to execute and validate AWS migration. Choosing and allocating the right talent can be incredibly challenging since migration involves many tasks requiring diverse experience and skill sets.
This article covers the essential roles that are required for successful AWS migration.
1. Cloud architect
Cloud architects are responsible for cloud adoption within their organization. They also play a vital role in projects related to AWS migration. In particular, they develop and select AWS migration strategies, which are later executed by the entire AWS migration team.
Before establishing a strategy, an architect must first ensure that AWS migration is necessary and that the game is worth the candle. To assess an organization’s need for AWS migration effectively, an architect must have a deep understanding of the AWS infrastructure and acknowledgment with other providers that operate in the cloud market.
A cloud architect is also responsible for the vital aspect of AWS migration, namely the design and development of the cloud architecture in the AWS environment, where data and workloads are migrated. To build a robust and efficient architecture, an architect should use best practices from various technology areas, such as data management, IT security, and app development.
Among other things, a cloud architect helps an organization monitor the performance of its cloud architecture in an AWS environment. In addition, an architect should track expenses on various AWS services, allowing an organization to run more cost-effective migration.
2. Software developer
Skilled and experienced developers are also essential to AWS migration projects as they build, improve, and fix software solutions that operate in the AWS cloud. During the initial stages of the migration, developers ensure that all workloads and systems are optimized and ready to work with AWS.
In addition, a software engineer is usually responsible for resolving different technical issues that can emerge throughout the migration. For example, developers should fix issues that prevent EC2 from launching or connecting.
To contribute to the migration, a qualified developer should be able to operate with various AWS services such as Amazon CloudWatch, Fleet Manager, and Systems Manager OpsCenter. Ideally, a cloud software engineer should also be able to automate the solutions for the recurring issues, thus helping other team members avoid tedious manual work.
3. Database engineer
The main focus of a database engineer involved in an AWS migration project is moving data, data systems, and databases to the AWS cloud. Given that data is one of the most valuable assets of any organization, the contribution of a database engineer is also critical to the overall migration success.
On the one hand, a skillful database engineer should be able to execute data migration in AWS. In particular, working on large-scale projects, database engineers should establish custom pipelines to effectively migrate massive data volumes in batches or in real time.
In addition, a database engineering expert should have the knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to use them throughout a project. For instance, by using pre-configured ML algorithms, an expert can model the impact of data transfer to AWS to forecast and prevent potential errors or data losses.
4. DevOps engineer
The main task of a DevOps engineer is deployment automation, which implies establishing continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipelines. Automated deployment helps organizations maintain a more efficient and faster process for building and testing applications in an AWS environment.
A DevOps engineer automates infrastructure deployment and management using AWS DevOps tools and sets up monitoring systems to ensure the infrastructure stability and smooth performance.
5. Cybersecurity expert
The loss of corporate data during the migration process can compromise an organization’s business reputation and negatively affect its profitability. Therefore, organizations should involve cybersecurity experts from the very start of their AWS migration projects to avoid such risks.
A qualified cybersecurity expert should determine corporate security requirements before the migration begins and adopt the necessary practices, such as encryption, to store and transfer data securely. In addition, an expert should help monitor the corporate cloud environment after AWS migration to mitigate risks in advance, for example, by using metadata analysis.
6. QA engineer
First, a QA engineer is required to create and select a testing strategy for an AWS migration project. These strategies vary as they depend on the specifics and type of an AWS project, be it server, app, or data migration.
At the end of the project, a QA expert also validates the AWS migration success from different angles. For example, a QA engineer performs performance testing to check the cloud infrastructure’s operability, runs integration testing to ensure smooth communication between various components, and conducts load testing to measure response time.
7. Project manager
While a project manager’s job is not directly related to the technical aspects of AWS migration, this position is also essential to the project’s success. On the one hand, a project manager oversees the entire AWS migration team and distributes tasks among members. On the other hand, a project manager helps an organization ensure that the migration goes as planned by providing regular reports.
Final Thoughts
For most organizations, migrating to the AWS cloud is advantageous yet challenging. One of the challenges is building an efficient and versatile AWS migration team that can execute migration successfully at the lowest effort and cost.
To ensure migration success, an organization should allocate many qualified specialists – cloud architect, software developer, database engineer, and DevOps engineer, to name a few – and consider involving third-party AWS developers with official qualifications and certifications.