Optimising an AWS Migration

Supporting the digital needs of a future generation

With a dual stock exchange listing and global presence, the European telco’s networks provide connectivity for billions of people every day. Founded in the 1800s, it currently employs just under 100,000 people, all dedicated to delivering the hardware, software, and services necessary to capitalise on the full value of connectivity to support a rapidly changing world.

Centred around a vision to support the digital needs of a future generation, the company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry.

The challenge: rigour, efficiency & best practice

Having decided to exit its existing data centre and move infrastructure workloads and databases to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the telco was keen to instil rigour, efficiency and best practice as part of the transition. As well as ensuring both cost and risk were sufficiently managed and mitigated, it was imperative that the new cloud model delivered operational efficiency and comprised the optimal licensing architecture.

With extensive experience of delivering OLAs, alongside cloud migrations, software licensing, vendor audits with Microsoft and Oracle expertise, Synyega was a natural fit for the project. Selected based on its independence and proven capabilities, as well as a long standing and trusted record as a partner to AWS and the client’s migration partner Nordcloud. Synyega was commissioned to provide validation, scenario planning and options for both the infrastructure and licensing requirements associated with the migration and target environment.

“Our deep Microsoft and Oracle licensing knowledge, client focus, and ability to offer truly independent advice made Synyega a great fit for this telco’s needs,” comments Stuart Pomfrett, AWS OLA Engagement Lead, Synyega.

The challenge was all the more complex because workloads weren’t simply being moved from one data centre to another, but from a single-tenant to a multi-tenant model. This meant that Synyega needed to analyse the existing and projected licensing needs through a lens of new architecture demands. 

The Synyega value

“Migration projects of this nature are now incredibly commonplace, but their complexity is often underestimated,” comments Calin Bercu, SAM & Cloud Migrations Consultant, Synyega. “Migrating from an on premise or alternative data centre to AWS isn’t a question of switching apples for apples. It involves a change in architecture, which without the rigour, licensing and auditing expertise and experience which comes with Synyega’s approach, can be complex, unwieldy and costly. Education around this “apples to oranges” model is paramount and where Synyega brings immense value.” 

The initial engagement was for an Optimisation & Licensing Assessment (OLA) to move away from a data centre to AWS. However, a secondary project was subsequently initiated, with a remit to validate available license budget for a dedicated managed services agreement between the telco and AWS.

Delivering diligence

Time constraints represented one of the biggest challenges in this project. The Synyega team worked incredibly diligently and efficiently in collaboration with the client’s migration partner Nordcloud, to understand the following on behalf of the telco: 

• The total cost of ownership for target environment
• The most appropriate options for migration
• Modelling of licensing impact including the migration of licensing to the new platform
• Identification of further areas of optimisation
• Roadmap showing necessary steps involved in progressing to the next stage
• The extent to which vigorous testing for BAU operations could be achieved
• How they could efficiently execute on their plan and adhere to the timelines set out

OLA service outcomes

Working closely with the telco and their migration partner Nordcloud, Synyega reviewed the data from several sources to map out:

• The current workloads due to be migrated
• Models demonstrating the best options for the AWS infrastructure
• How the best options for the existing licensing could be modelled
• Optimisation opportunities across a number of areas and how they could be best executed

Following a three week project focused on understanding license agreements, target infrastructure and both requirements and parameters, Synyega presented its recommendations to the client.  With a detailed, data-centric, fully evidenced proposal, Synyega outlined a proposal for Nordcloud to incorporate into the Migration Acceleration Programme to conclude the project.

Key recommendations included a reduction in the telco’s exposure to initial licensing and AWS costs. This was comprised of a projected 50% reduction of Oracle licensing costs, and a projected 30% reduction of AWS infrastructure costs, when compared to a traditional non optimised lift and shift.  Given that the initial expectation was that running Oracle workloads on AWS was going to be expensive, these figures were a welcome contribution to the migration and enabled the migration partner Nordcloud to progress the migration in line with budget constraints.

“This piece of work was invaluable in helping the client and Nordcloud attain realistic cost reduction estimates from the assessment and ensure rigour, efficiency and best practice were built into the migration from a licensing and infrastructure standpoint” explains Synyega’s Stuart Pomfrett.  “The value we bring reflects the elasticity of cloud, instilling the rigour and visibility necessary to optimise migrations irrespective of their profile and architecture, ensuring that we don’t over provision or over allocate.

“For this client, not only did we promote visibility and rigorously audit every aspect of the migration, from licensing to new multi-tenant architecture and a managed services agreement, but our recommendations totalled hundreds of thousands of savings in license costs....Crucially, we instilled confidence that the transition from their incumbent data centre to AWS is optimised from a cost, risk and operational efficiency standpoint, increasing visibility and control in the face of potential audits or changes in the future,” Stuart concludes.