Common misconceptions about Windows modernization and migration efforts can mean some organizations will not gain significant returns from their cloud move.
Companies are wrongly assuming they cannot effectively modernize their Windows applications on a cloud platform such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Others believe they will have to make compromizes and not be able to continue running Windows-based applications that are fit for purpose.
In reality, some tools let you modernize your workloads without having to tweak the existing software code. For example, AWS App2Container (A2C) is a command-line solution that modernizes and migrates your .NET web applications into containerized applications.
A2C analyses and constructs an inventory of all applications running across multiple platforms, such as virtual machines, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances or the cloud. It packages the application artifacts and dependencies into container images, configures the network ports and generates the Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) deployment artifacts.
A2C automatically provisions the cloud infrastructure and continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) pipelines needed to deploy the containerized applications into production. More important, it lets you containerize your applications without requiring code changes.
Contrary to the misplaced notion that Windows workloads cannot be efficiently modernized on non-Microsoft cloud platforms, doing so on AWS not only produces higher performance but also higher cost savings.
After all, AWS has enabled enterprize customers to run their Windows workloads on its cloud platform for more than a decade, longer than other major cloud providers. AWS runs nearly twice as many Windows Server instances as the next largest cloud provider.
Organizations choose to do so on AWS because of the IT cost and manpower savings. It establishes a foundation for new services such as CI/CD, seamless mobile access to applications and data, as well as a self-service model for software development. Through these, companies can gain significant improvements in performance, efficiency and security, cutting operational costs and increasing developer productivity.
According to a study from research firm IDC, companies that migrate to AWS can slash the cost of running Windows workloads by 56% over five years.1 They also gain returns on investment of 442% over the same period.
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One organization realized such savings when it worked with AWS and AWS Premier Consulting Partner Rackspace Technology to transition to .NET Core so it could run a Linux environment.
iPromote was facing a tight deadline, as it wanted to avoid incurring Windows license renewal costs. The adtech company provides an online advertizing solution that includes ad creation, bidding and analytics. It has customers in the U.S. that operate in Australia and Europe. Its platform serves hundreds of millions of ads each month, requiring systems that are robust and ensure low latency.
iPromote ran Microsoft workloads on its demand-side platform, AdXpert Engine, with hundreds of cores flowing across its fleet of instances. This came with a cost premium because the instances ran on Windows, with licensing fees alone accounting for a substantial portion of running costs.
iPromote wanted to slash its operational costs, simplify its overall operations and modernize its applications. It decided that moving to Linux would enable it to achieve these goals and provide more flexibility for innovation and growth.
The company’s existing software, though, ran on .NET Framework, which required multiple development cycles to be incorporated into the transition plan. This prompted iPromote to migrate to .NET Core, which could run on Linux and allow the company’s move from Windows to the open source platform.
Migrating to Linux also enabled iPromote to optimize its compute resources, since Linux, being a lightweight operating system, gives more compute resources to the application than Windows. The move further eliminated current and future costs of operating servers that run Windows.
With the help of Onica, a Rackspace Technology company, iPromote tapped funding from AWS’s Microsoft modernization programs and put together a migration plan that outlined technical and financial details.
Onica refactored .NET legacy applications to .NET Core on AWS, which encompassed converting codes, replacing legacy libraries and updating legacy codebases to ensure compatibility. Performance issues also were identified and resolved.
In addition, the application modernization exercize established DevOps best practices and agile application development methodology.
iPromote was able to reserve its server fleet at a lower cost per instance, saving significant costs for the company within the same year the migration kicked off. Savings were further realized from running Linux instances, which cost 58% less than Windows instances. iPromote also eliminated future Windows licensing costs, generating cost savings over the long term.
Organizations can follow in iPromote’s footsteps and enjoy the cost and operational efficiencies from modernizing and moving their Windows applications to AWS.
Rackspace Technology reviews the unique characteristics of each application to assess its suitability for the cloud and conducts a risk as well as cost-benefit analysis of moving the application. Its cloud optimization tooling also offers guidance on reducing cloud spending.
AWS partners such as Rackspace Technology can engineer and architect a migration roadmap that meets each customer’s business objectives.
1 “The Business Value of Efficiently Running High-Performing Windows Workloads in the AWS Cloud,” IDC, 2020
