From On-Prem to Cloud: Modernizing Legacy Applications for Scalability and Efficiency
As organizations face the challenge of balancing legacy infrastructure with modern demands, migrating to the cloud often becomes the natural next step. In this post, we explore a recent engagement where we helped a client successfully transition their on-premises solutions to AWS. This phased migration not only improved scalability and efficiency but also laid the groundwork for future modernization efforts.
The Challenge: Legacy Infrastructure Holding Back Growth
Our client operated a complex on-premises environment consisting of web servers, database servers, and domain controllers, alongside shared SAN storage. While functional, the infrastructure presented limitations in scalability, availability, and cost-effectiveness. Security measures, including WAF licensing and monitoring solutions, were outdated, and centralized logging was lacking. Furthermore, the client required minimal downtime during the migration and a clear strategy to optimize costs while transitioning workloads.
The Solution: A Phased Migration to AWS
We proposed a phased migration approach, beginning with a lift-and-shift of critical workloads, followed by strategic modernization. The solution was designed to ensure high availability, centralized management, and cost optimization, leveraging AWS best practices.
Key Highlights of the Migration Plan:
1. Secure Networking Setup:
- Established a Site-to-Site VPN connection to securely bridge the on-premises datacenter with AWS.
- Configured redundant VPN tunnels for high availability and automatic failover.
2. Infrastructure Deployment:
- Migrated workloads to an AWS environment, leveraging services like EC2 instances for web and sync servers, RDS for SQL databases, and AWS Directory Service for seamless identity management.
- Implemented shared storage using EBS volumes, ensuring compatibility with legacy applications.
3. Enhanced Security and Monitoring:
- Replaced the legacy WAF with AWS Web Application Firewall to enhance security.
- Centralized logging using AWS CloudWatch for better observability and proactive alerting via CloudWatch Alarms.
4. High Availability and Disaster Recovery:
- Designed for fault tolerance with multi-AZ deployment for critical services.
- Configured automated backups and disaster recovery protocols.
5. Cost Optimization Strategies:
- Instance Rightsizing:
Analyze workload requirements and align instance types with actual usage patterns. By downsizing underutilized instances and upgrading resource-constrained ones, costs can be optimized without sacrificing performance. - Reserved Instances and Savings Plans:
Take advantage of AWS Reserved Instances (RIs) or Savings Plans for predictable, long-term workloads. This can result in significant cost reductions of up to 72% compared to on-demand pricing. - Leverage Auto Scaling:
Configure Auto Scaling Groups to dynamically adjust compute resources based on demand. This ensures optimal resource usage during peak and off-peak times, minimizing unnecessary costs.
The Final Architecture
The final architecture incorporates AWS services to modernize the client’s infrastructure while ensuring scalability, security, and efficiency. The solution includes:
- Web Servers: Protected by AWS WAF with optimized compute instances.
- Database Layer: Hosted on Amazon RDS with automated backups and performance tuning.
- Centralized Management: Leveraging AWS Systems Manager for monitoring and maintenance.
- Centralized Logging and Alerts: Fully integrated with AWS CloudWatch.
- Messaging Services: Migrated RabbitMQ to Amazon SQS for enhanced performance and reliability.
The Outcome
The migration resulted in significant improvements, including:
- Performance Gains: Reduced response times and improved scalability to handle peak traffic.
- Enhanced Security: Modernized security measures with centralized monitoring and proactive alerts.
- Cost Savings: Optimized infrastructure reduced overall operational expenses by 25%.
- Future-Ready Infrastructure: Positioned the client to explore serverless and containerized solutions, as well as AWS GenAI services, in the future.
Conclusion
At PREDICTif, we understand that migrating legacy systems to the cloud is not just a technical shift — it’s an opportunity to transform operations and unlock new potential. For this client, we delivered a tailored, phased approach that addressed their unique challenges, from enhancing scalability and security to optimizing costs.
Our team worked closely with the client to design and implement a robust AWS architecture that modernized their infrastructure while ensuring minimal downtime. Leveraging AWS best practices, we helped the client achieve a 25% reduction in operational costs, improved system performance, and streamlined management through centralized monitoring and automation.
Beyond immediate outcomes, we positioned the client for future innovation by laying the groundwork for advanced technologies such as serverless computing, containerization, and generative AI services. This engagement showcases PREDICTif’s commitment to delivering solutions that not only meet today’s needs but also prepare businesses for the demands of tomorrow.
If your organization is looking to embark on a similar cloud journey, PREDICTif is here to guide you every step of the way. Let us help you unlock the full potential of the cloud.