Key Takeaways from the Video Transcript

Verisk's Journey to Cloud and Automation

1. From On-Premises to the Cloud: Verisk's cloud journey started in 2016 after a data center incident during an Arctic freeze, leading to the decision to move to the cloud.

2. Embracing DevOps: Verisk focused on automation and deployed their first application on AWS in 2017, initially doing a lift-and-shift approach.

3. Introducing Stacks: In 2018, Verisk shifted to a "stack" architecture, where each application had its own load balancer, data store, and scalable EC2 instances.

4. Achieving Active-Active Multi-Region: Verisk implemented automated failover and traffic routing between their East and West regions using Route 53, eventually achieving a 50/50 active-active configuration.

5. Automating Failover and Reducing Outages: By automating the failover process and integrating with New Relic for monitoring, Verisk reduced their outage times from hours to minutes.

Optimizing Windows Workloads on AWS

1. Leveraging Spot Instances: Verisk initially tried to leverage spot instances to reduce costs, but the licensing fees and risk of reclamation made it less beneficial.

2. Improving Build Times: Verisk used EC2 Image Builder and Windows Fast Launch to reduce the time to build and launch Windows EC2 instances from 40 minutes to 20-25 minutes.

3. Automating Deployments: Verisk experimented with various approaches, including using Octopus Deploy, to automate and streamline application deployments.

4. Warm Pools: Verisk implemented a warm pool approach, where they pre-built and stopped Windows EC2 instances, allowing them to be quickly reactivated when needed, resulting in 75% cost savings in their non-production environments.

5. Migrating to .NET Core: Verisk started migrating their .NET Framework applications to .NET Core to take advantage of the flexibility and cost-saving benefits of running on Linux containers.

Leveraging AWS Services and Programs

1. AWS Application Modernization Lab (AML): Verisk is working with AWS to help migrate their remaining .NET Framework workloads to .NET Core, taking advantage of AWS's resources and cost-neutral programs.

2. AWS Tools and Services: Verisk is exploring the use of various AWS tools and services, such as Amazon CodeGuru, AWS App2Container, and AWS Microservice Extractor, to streamline their application modernization efforts.

3. Continuous Improvement: Verisk's story highlights the importance of continuous improvement, as they constantly evaluated and refined their approach to achieving their goals of cost savings, reliability, and agility.

Overall, Verisk's journey demonstrates the benefits of embracing the cloud, automation, and a mindset of continuous improvement, even for complex enterprise Windows workloads.