How AWS Takes the Fear Out of Database Migrations

When it comes to upgrading legacy databases, there is no better answer than AWS database migrations. The right cloud platform can easily deliver the availability, scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness of commercial databases without the high price tag.

However, the prospect of migrating to the cloud can be intimidating for many business leaders. After all, a poor migration can put mission-critical workloads and sensitive customer data at risk. There is no room for error.

Fortunately, IT teams don’t have to go it alone. Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a slew of tools to help organizations migrate and modernize databases on the cloud. And with a partner like ClearScale, leaders can ensure their teams are ready to hit the ground running with AI/ML, serverless architecture, DevOps best practices, IoT, and more.

In this post, we’ll introduce you to two game-changing AWS products, Amazon Aurora and AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). We’ll share what makes Amazon Aurora so special and a top choice for 75% of AWS’s top 100 customers. We’ll also explain how AWS DMS dramatically simplifies the process of migrating databases to the cloud.

Let’s get started.

Amazon Aurora Overview

Amazon Aurora is a fully managed, MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) built specifically for the cloud. The service provides commercial-grade performance at a fraction of the cost of legacy products. From a throughput standpoint, Aurora is 5x more than MySQL and 3x more than PostgreSQL!

In addition, Aurora offers drop-in compatibility, database backtracking, low-latency replication, and distributed storage. The service makes 6 copies of your data across multiple Availability Zones (AZs), while only charging for storage capacity used in the database layer. Furthermore, users can set Aurora to scale storage automatically and independently of compute requirements.

Today, Aurora is the fastest-growing service in AWS’s history and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Engineering teams love Aurora because AWS takes on a lot of the backend work, including patching, provisioning, and hardware configuration. IT managers appreciate it because they can reduce licensing costs and operational overhead simultaneously.

To put simply, there’s a lot to like about Aurora.

Amazon Aurora ensures that data is available whenever it’s needed. The service is highly secure, efficient, and cost-effective, making it the ideal database solution for those who want to upgrade from legacy products.

Given these benefits, why aren’t more organizations switching over to Amazon Aurora?

In many cases, it’s because leaders don’t have the expertise or resources needed to execute a large-scale database migration without any hiccups. For these reasons, AWS created the Database Migration Service (DMS).

Why Use AWS’s Database Migration Service (DMS)

To date, organizations have migrated over 350,000 databases using AWS Database Migration Service. The tool is designed to minimize downtime for application users when migrating data from legacy databases to the cloud.

After ensuring migration readiness, AWS DMS enables engineers to migrate source data to target Aurora databases in five steps. Users only need to:

1. Select a source database
2. Set up a target Aurora database with custom options using dropdown selectors
3. Set the source endpoint
4. Set the target endpoint
5. Execute a replication task between the two endpoints

In a matter of minutes, IT teams can follow this process and move data securely to a new Amazon Aurora database. For those who’d rather work with a migration expert for maximum assuredness, ClearScale has expertise and experience that few in the cloud services industry can match.

We’ve helped organizations like The Sierra Club gain control over their cloud infrastructure, design scalable Aurora databases, and deploy highly available applications that people love. In every project, we customize our approach to match our clients’ overarching goals and make sure that teams are fully prepared to leverage the cloud.

We’ll guide you through how to use AWS DMS and set up the ideal Amazon Aurora instance to match your legacy MySQL or PostgreSQL databases. More importantly, we’ll make sure to clear any roadblocks that would otherwise trip up your migration goals.

Watch a Database Migration Demonstration Today

Recently, teamed up with AWS to host a webinar about how to migrate legacy databases to the cloud. In the webinar, we walk through a live demonstration of AWS’s Database Migration Service and explain the advantages of working with a cloud migrations expert, like ClearScale.