For many enterprise organizations, Windows workloads have been at the very core of their business operations for many years. These mission-critical workloads, commonly referred to as programs or applications running on any computer or server, such as Microsoft SQL, Windows Server, SQL Server Database or .NET framework applications, are used to perform a wide variety of tasks. The increasing demand for remote access, increased security, scalability, and improved performance are just a few reasons why enterprises are migrating their on-premise workloads to AWS Cloud. But, perhaps one of the biggest pain points is Microsoft license costs, a key driving factor for migrating Microsoft workloads to the cloud.
With Microsoft End of Support for SQL Server 2008 in 2019, and Windows Server 2008 in 2020, this certainly accelerated migration action plans. Where and how workloads are hosted on the cloud will largely depend on an enterprise’s digital transformation strategy and choice of cloud provider. Interestingly, a large majority of healthcare and life sciences organizations still have on-premise workloads that are looking to move to AWS; therefore, cloud solution providers with AWS Healthcare Competency Partner can further increase confidence in making the move to AWS.
Here at SourceFuse, as AWS Microsoft Workloads Competency Partners, our modernization led cloud migration strategy helps enterprises use cloud technology to its full potential. Why AWS Cloud services? AWS has been running Microsoft Workloads longer than any other cloud provider now, and its experience with MS applications provides the best platform for Microsoft SQL and Windows Server.
But don’t just take our word for it! In Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services, it names AWS as being the top innovation leader in cloud computing. Based on its ability to execute, and completeness of vision, compared with other cloud providers AWS consistently leads the way. This means that your digital transformation with SourceFuse ensures legacy or on-premise workloads also benefit from a complete makeover, incorporating the very latest in AWS technologies.
Proven Business Value with
Windows on AWS
According to the white paper, “The Business Value of Efficiently Running High-Performing Windows Workloads in the AWS Cloud”, IDC’s analysis projected a 442% five-year ROI with Windows on AWS. IDC’s study was able to demonstrate both quantitative and qualitative benefits, unpinning the real business value of migrating Windows workloads to AWS Cloud or simply terming it as windows modernization on AWS:
- Improved reliability: 98% reduction in unplanned downtime and 26% increase in developer productivity, resulting in 71% faster deployment.
- Higher performance: AWS provides 77 Availability Zones across 24 regions, with 99.99% availability for each Amazon EC2 region. This delivers twice the performance of the next major cloud provider.
- Reduced Costs and Lower TCO: AWS delivers 62% cost reduction for SQL Server workload, compared to the next major cloud provider. Five-year TCO can be reduced by 56%, with a 37% reduction in infrastructure costs.
- Superior security: AWS now offers 230 security, compliance, and governance services, five times the number available than the next major cloud provider. Identities and permissions can be managed at scale, for secure internal and external information access.
- Broadest capabilities: with more than 350 Amazon EC2 instances, that are not available from other cloud providers, customers achieve three times the throughput and 25% lower latency for consistent network performance.
The SourceFuse Approach For Windows
Modernization on AWS
SourceFuse delivers a unique combination of competencies, skills, and expertise in application modernization strategy / modernization of legacy systems, windows modernization on AWS to deliver a migration led strategy when modernizing Workloads on AWS. As an AWS Microsoft Workloads Competency Partner, our approach has always been a tried and tested phased approach, in full collaboration with our customers’ stakeholders:
- Discovery Phase: this initial phase focuses on fully understanding the business needs and current infrastructure of an organization. SourceFuse carries out rapid Proof of Concept (PoC) discovery before presenting the potential deliverables.
- Findings: after PoC discovery, the findings are presented to the customer, outlining the solution approach, for example, cloud infrastructure modernization or application modernization, etc. To help manage implementation expectations, the suggested approach includes deliverables, such as:
- Implementation timeline
- Estimated project costs
- Performance efficiency strategy
- (no obligation for customer to use SF to implement, fully funded by AWS)
- Validation Phase: this phase brings discovery to a close before implementation can begin. During this phase of migrate and modernize to AWS, AWS validates the entire project, which gives the customer confidence in proceeding to implementation. The comprehensive report of discovery, findings, and validation ensures there are no surprises during project execution.
SourceFuse approaches and provides unrivalled consultation services, and after completing the validation, a customer is not locked-in or obligated to proceed with the migration.
SourceFuse’s status as an AWS Consulting Partner means AWS will fund the 360-review of your environment with AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA), to evaluate cloud migration options or optimize cost savings with flexible licensing costs. Real examples of how SourceFuse has achieved migrating Windows on AWS include:
- MTS Inc. – learn how a colocated data center was successfully migrated to AWS Cloud and modernized within AWS High Availability Zones leveraging AWS Auto Scaling, delivering optimized data workflows, with increased regulatory compliance. The Microsoft Workloads modernization delivered a 40% TCO reduction while ensuring a zero-downtime deployment policy.
- RateGain – learn how a TravelTech’s Microsoft Workloads were migrated from .NET Framework to .NET Core enabling applications to run on Linux Infrastructure resolving Windows licensing concerns. Containerization methodology was implemented to increase scalability and Windows licensing cost realized.
- Firehouse Subs – learn how one of the world’s biggest restaurant chains achieve end-to-end performance optimization and scalability, migrating its legacy web-based platform to AWS Cloud using Infrastructure as a Code Deployment by leveraging CI/CD pipelines.
