Cloud innovation for a cause: One organization’s all-in AWS journey (IMP101)

Bona's Journey to AWS: Lessons Learned and Insights Gained

Overview

  • Bona, an umbrella organization with several nonprofit companies under its wing, decided to migrate to AWS after a competitive procurement process.
  • The organization had different companies on various platforms, including Heroku, on-premises, Azure, and some already on AWS.
  • The goal was to migrate all these companies to a standardized AWS architecture while ensuring minimal disruption to client experience and a 50% cost reduction.

Key Takeaways

Lessons Learned

  1. Simple is not always easy: Even if the migration process seems straightforward, there may be unexpected challenges during subsequent migrations.
  2. Leadership buy-in is crucial: One of the larger clients resisted the migration, citing a previous bad experience, but eventually agreed to move to AWS.
  3. Document everything: Thoroughly documenting the existing architecture and understanding the differences between platforms is essential to avoid mistakes.

Insights Gained

  1. Consolidated billing: Consolidating billing across different products and services can help manage costs more effectively.
  2. Implement Service Control Policies (SCPs): SCPs can help control the resources that teams spin up, preventing uncontrolled spending.
  3. Standardize and simplify: Adopting a standardized reference architecture simplifies support, growth, and cost management.
  4. Overcome resistance to change: Convincing long-standing teams to embrace the new platform can be challenging, but necessary for the overall success of the migration.
  5. Leverage training and cross-pollination of ideas: Providing training and access to skill-building resources can help teams adapt to the new platform.
  6. Automate with runbooks: Automating processes using runbooks and tools like Amazon Q can make the organization more efficient and "lazy" in a good way.
  7. Conduct Robust Cause Analysis (RCAs): Performing RCAs for incidents can help identify and address root causes, preventing future problems.

Nonprofit Initiative

Bona is also using AWS services, such as Amazon Q and AI models, to help a nearby nonprofit organization, Carson's Kitchen, improve its grant application process and increase success rates by 40%.

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