Welcome to the final installment of our blog series on AWS database migration pitfalls. In addition to reading the preceding 3 blogs you can download our eBook for further details on all four.
Good Enough is Good Enough
It might not be an impressive statement to engender admiration, but it’s true nonetheless. It’s important to balance the drive for excellence with the need for momentum.
In blog #1, we discussed the pitfall of failing to set clear goals, and blog #2 covered failing to evaluate all AWS database options. It may seem like pitfall #4, making perfect the enemy of good, contradicts that advice, but it’s important to bear in mind that perfect is always elusive.
Prioritizing your goals and educating yourself on choices are important preliminary steps, but there comes a point where a project becomes thwarted by “analysis paralysis.” The benefits of further planning won’t outweigh the delay in launch.
Making Perfect the Enemy of Good vs. “Lift and Shift”
Making perfect the enemy of good is the opposite of “lift and shift,” in which organizations don’t make any changes, or redesign the database and data processing engine.
But you must evaluate the tradeoff of each addition. Your biggest gains may come from two to three substantial things. Piling on additional services may not only delay your launch, but unnecessarily inflate your costs.
Incremental Improvements are The Norm in AWS Database Migrations
The TCO benefits of AWS increase over time. According to IDC, “There is a definite correlation between the length of time customers have been using Amazon cloud services infrastructure and their returns. At 36 months, the organizations are realizing $3.50 in benefits for every $1.00 invested in AWS; at 60 months, they are realizing $8.40 for every $1.00 invested. This relationship between length of time using Amazon cloud infrastructure services and the customers’ accelerating returns is due to customers leveraging the more optimized environment to generate more applications along a learning curve.”
Iterative progress is the norm. There’s simply no need to wait for perfection prior to migrating.
Learning and Growing with AWS
The rate at which AWS innovates continues to accelerate. During his 2016 re:Invent keynote, CEO Andy Jassy stated that AWS added around 1,000 significant new services and features in 2016, up from 722 the previous year. Jassy stated, “Think about that. As a builder on the AWS platform, every day you wake up, on average, with three new capabilities you can choose to use or not.”
The nature of AWS necessitates growth and change. Even with the best initial migration, you’ll need to evaluate new product offerings over time.
Perspective
An AWS database migration isn’t a rocket launch. Even with zero rearchitecting, you’ll still realize numerous benefits, such as translating CapEx to OpEx. While failure to consider rearchitecting can result in leaving money on the table, it’s not going to result in a catastrophic failure for your business.
A skilled AWS partner like dbSeer can help you launch successfully in a reasonable time frame. Contact us to discuss your unique priorities.
