Modernizing a spin-off in the cloud: Allspring’s journey with AWS (XNT315)

Here is a detailed summary of the key takeaways from the video transcription, broken down into sections for better readability:

Overview

  • The session covers the journey of All Spring, a mature asset management firm, in modernizing their on-premises infrastructure by migrating to AWS.
  • The speakers include Justin Stokes, the Head of Technical Architecture and Strategy at All Spring, and Vyas Babu Gali, a Senior Solutions Architect at AWS.
  • The session aims to discuss the driving factors behind All Spring's move to AWS, their journey and experience, and future plans, as well as showcase a demo of a modernization tool by AWS.

All Spring's Journey to AWS

  • All Spring was formerly Wells Fargo Asset Management, and recently became an independent, employee-owned firm.
  • In 2021, they faced a decision to either invest in data centers or migrate to the cloud, and chose the latter due to the challenges of procuring hardware at the time.
  • They had around 60 workloads, predominantly Microsoft-based (Active Directory, SQL Server, .NET), as well as Oracle databases, that needed to be migrated.
  • Their key priorities were to migrate quickly, safely, and efficiently, while setting themselves up for the future.

Why AWS?

  • All Spring opted for a multi-cloud strategy, but ultimately chose AWS for the majority of their production workloads due to the stability, maturity, and manageability of AWS services.
  • They leveraged a wide range of AWS managed services, such as Amazon RDS, Amazon FSx, AWS Systems Manager, to offload undifferentiated heavy lifting and focus on delivering value through technology.
  • Cost management was a key consideration from the beginning, with the utilization of AWS cost management tools and programs.

All Spring's Experience and Lessons Learned

  • The migration journey involved several phases, starting with core infrastructure setup, then moving to active investment systems, active maintenance systems, and finally other applications.
  • They adopted a "fail fast, fail cheap" mentality, embracing the ability to quickly provision and deprovision resources on AWS.
  • One key lesson was the importance of shifting the team's mindset from on-premises thinking to cloud-native thinking, which revealed unexpected issues and solutions.
  • Cost management was a continuous focus, with the utilization of AWS cost management tools and programs.

Future Plans and Modernization

  • After a successful migration to AWS, All Spring is now focusing on modernizing their application portfolio, including breaking down monolithic applications and moving towards more scalable, cloud-native architectures.
  • They are particularly interested in modernizing their database infrastructure, moving away from traditional licensed database options towards more open and manageable solutions.

AWS Tools and Support

  • The AWS Schema Conversion Tool was demonstrated, showcasing its ability to automatically assess the effort required to migrate a SQL Server database to open-source databases like PostgreSQL, and convert the schema with minimal manual intervention.
  • AWS provides various teams and resources to support customers in their migration and modernization journeys, including account teams, specialist teams, partners, and training/certification programs.

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