Braving the storm: TJRS’s 3-week cloud migration amid disaster (WPS205)

Overcoming a Disaster: Keeping the Court of Justice Online

Introduction

  • The presenters, Vanessa, Rafael, and Alison, share the story of how they successfully migrated the Court of Justice in Brazil to the AWS cloud during a major flood crisis.
  • The Court of Justice is a critical system with over 350,000 users, 384 million documents, and 10TB of data, running on more than 100 servers with 46 integrations.

The Challenge

  • The Court of Justice's two data centers were both impacted by the flood, forcing them to turn off the systems and leave the building.
  • They had to act quickly to restore the critical services to the population, who were facing increasing cases of domestic violence, crimes, and health issues due to the disaster.

The Timeline

  • On May 2nd, the team decided to move the Court of Justice's systems to the cloud as the primary data center was getting flooded.
  • On May 4th, they were forced to turn off both data centers due to power outages.
  • In just 21 days, they were able to fully migrate the Court of Justice to the AWS cloud and have it fully operational.

Lessons Learned

  1. Break the problem into chunks and assign dedicated owners for each.
  2. Choose solution-driven leaders who can think positively and improvise in critical situations.
  3. Communicate key information effectively to the entire team and stakeholders.
  4. Choose the right partners, such as AWS, who can provide the necessary support.
  5. Maintain a strong sense of purpose and ensure everyone on the team is aligned and committed to the mission.

AWS Disaster Response Support

  • Rafael explains the AWS Disaster Response program, which provides support to organizations and communities in vulnerable areas during crisis situations.
  • This support includes providing cloud credits, technical guidance, and specialized support from AWS Professional Services and Solutions Architects.

Technical Challenges and Solutions

  • Alison outlines the three main technical challenges they faced:
    1. Migrating the objects (documents, videos, and other files) to AWS S3 using AWS DataSync.
    2. Migrating the database to Amazon Aurora using AWS DMS and backup/restore strategies.
    3. Migrating the servers by creating AMIs from the existing VMs.
  • He also explains the security and architecture design decisions made to ensure the system's resilience and reliability.

Key Takeaways

  • Vanessa summarizes the key lessons learned, emphasizing the importance of strong leadership, clear communication, the ability to improvise, and a relentless commitment to the mission.

Conclusion

  • The presenters share their contact information and invite the audience to reach out if they have any further questions.

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