Optimizing app migration to the AWS cloud without compromising network performance

The enterprise journey to the cloud can be a slow and tedious process, and businesses need to be aware of how application migration impacts their networks. Any company undergoing a cloud migration should pay careful attention to its SD-WAN performance to ensure applications and end users are not being negatively impacted.

That may be easier said than done. Sure, most enterprises are in the process of migrating at least some of their applications to the public cloud, and an overwhelming majority of them have chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their infrastructure platform. But an AWS migration can present challenges, particularly for apps built on legacy systems that may not be native to the cloud.

One of the biggest potential problems with cloud migration is a negative impact on the enterprise network, especially in light of SD-WAN adoption. An increasing number of companies are deploying software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) for their geographically dispersed, multi-site needs. SD-WANs build intelligence, scalability and flexibility into the enterprise network at an attractive price point. When done correctly, SD-WAN can simplify the delivery of cloud services to the branch office. Organizations that implement hybrid-WAN architecture will need to ensure end-to-end traffic visibility across the LAN, WAN, and cloud.

Understanding how to optimize app migration to the AWS cloud while mitigating the impact on SD-WAN performance is one of the keys to a successful deployment. Below are five further tips to help enterprises optimize apps and network performance throughout an AWS cloud migration.

1. Consider a lift-and-shift approach

One of the most common ways to move enterprise apps and workloads to AWS is through a “lift-and-shift” approach. Ideally, businesses want to move their legacy applications to the cloud wholesale, without modifying or rewriting them—even if the app isn’t cloud native. But how can legacy apps take advantage of the features of the cloud while also maintaining optimal performance?

There are several ways an enterprise can ensure all apps lifted and shifted to the cloud are optimized and operating at peak performance. Choosing a good network and application performance management solution (NAPM) like Accedian’s Skylight is one way to ensure that SD-WAN performance isn’t compromised during a cloud migration. When used in tandem with AWS tools, a NAPM solution will ensure app migration is optimized and not having a negative impact on the enterprise network.

2. Match the VM to the app and the workload

AWS provides a wide variety of VM and instance types to accommodate all manner of apps and workloads. For optimal app performance, businesses need to ensure they match the proper instance to the app they are migrating, and scale it appropriately to meet demand. This will go a long way towards optimizing app migration and ensuring a strong network performance.

Placement groups are also available to help enterprises assess their needs and decide whether to cluster instances or spread them across underlying hardware. AWS even offers instances with 100Gbps networking for the most demanding workloads and apps.

3. Choose the right storage option for the job

Enterprises need to be mindful of the types of cloud storage options they select to ensure migrated apps are optimized for peak performance. AWS encourages companies to choose a range of tiered storage types to suit the specific needs of individual workloads, apps and price points.

Available types include elastic block storage, which may be attached to specific instances and is offered in a variety of volumes. Instance storage provides direct-attached temporary block-level storage not physically attached to instances. Durable object storage is yet another option and may be used with the AWS Storage Gateway, a virtual appliance. The gateway may be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

4. Deploy apps efficiently and automate management

Enterprises embarking on a cloud migration don’t want to have to modify their apps. But an important step they can take to ensure optimized performance is to change the way the app is deployed.

AWS offers a number of tools to ensure apps and workloads are being deployed in the most efficient way possible. Once apps are up and running, automating their management is pivotal to success. Again, a strong NAPM solution will be invaluable for monitoring these deployments to make sure they are consistently operating at peak performance as well as ensuring cloud resources are being utilized in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible.

5. Make security a priority

Perhaps one of the biggest concerns with any cloud migration is making sure apps and workloads are secure. This is especially true for native apps that may lack encryption and other security measures. AWS offers a variety of tools to help enterprises ensure their cloud apps are not only optimized, but also protected.

Legacy apps often utilize HTTP or outdated SSL and TLS vulnerable protocols, and implementing TLS 1.3 isn’t always an option. AWS provides application load balancers and classic load balancers with SSL offloading to get around this issue. The load balancer acts as the interface with users, while the application servers are protected within a subnet that is only accessible by the load balancer.

A sidecar pattern approach is another way AWS enables enterprises to simply add encryption to their legacy apps. The approach spins up a second process, which acts as a proxy to the native app. The app’s services are only accessible by the sidecar, which provides an encrypted proxy. The sidecar approach may also be used to enable native apps to access modern services and manage files.

Successfully migrating to the cloud starts with planning and monitoring and ends with… monitoring

The best way to ensure app and workload migration to the AWS cloud is optimized is to carefully consider the factors above before and during deployment. Taking advantage of AWS tools and using them in tandem with a strong NAPM offering will ensure enterprise networks and apps remain rock solid and operating at peak performance during and after cloud migration.

Accedian’s Skylight is specifically designed to support enterprise networks, whether they are software-defined, virtualized or cloud-based. It closely manages network and application performance before, during and after an app migration, ensuring enterprise network performance remains optimized.