Migrating out of AWS just got a lot easier

As an IT leader, you’re asked to do it all: innovate and optimize your tech stack for business outcomes — all while being secure and compliant. It takes heroic efforts to achieve innovation and progress while also tightening budgets and teams. This is why many of you are considering migrating applications to Google Cloud, for benefits like scalability and flexibility, security and compliance, disaster recovery and business continuity, and cutting-edge technologies at lower costs.

To help you do this, we suggest using Google Cloud’s Migrate to Virtual Machines – part of Migration Center. This managed cloud service lets you lift and shift workloads at scale to Google Cloud Compute Engine with minimal changes and risk.

And recently, we rolled out our latest release which introduces support for workload migration from AWS to Google Compute Engine. With this addition, you can now migrate both your on-prem and AWS workloads at scale. This means centralized management for your end to end workload migration journey from both sources via Cloud Console or APIs. 

Simple and easy migrations from AWS and VMware sources to Google Cloud

Migration of AWS EC2 instances directly to Google Compute Engine using Migrate to Virtual Machines follows a well established and easy journey, which means a minimal learning curve for users who are already migrating workloads from VMware. Workload migration is agent-less, which means you do not need to access or alter workloads as a prerequisite for migration, allowing you to execute zero-touch migrations. Migrate instance data with no interruptions to the running workload at the source for a fast cutover to Google Cloud. In addition, our end-to-end cloud console interface surfaces your AWS EC2 inventory, migrations, and groups so you can execute migrations without ever leaving the cloud console interface. 

Large-scale migrations 

Completing a large-scale migration project in a timely manner calls for careful planning and streamlined migration sprints. The Migrate to Virtual Machines’ Groups construct enables you to group source VMs together in the planning phase. When it's time to execute the planned migration, VM Groups let you execute migration operations on a group level, or on a subset of the group, streamlining the process at scale.

Minimal downtime and risk

Application uptime is key to keeping your business running. Every migration with this latest release of the service periodically replicates data from the source workload to the destination without manual steps or interruptions to the running workload, minimizing workload downtime and enabling fast cutover to Google Cloud. You can also launch non-disruptive migration tests — referred to as test-clones — to help you validate that these workloads will work properly in the cloud before cutting over. This helps avoid issues that might have otherwise been costly or disruptive to your business. 

How the service works

Migrations simply work, at scale, in a managed service fashion. With Migrate to Virtual Machines, there’s no requirement to provision or manage migration-specific resources in the cloud. The service uses replication-based migration technology to lift and shift workloads from source environments to Google Cloud. The Migrate Connection replicates source VM disk snapshots in the background with no interruption to the source workload. Replicated data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and when you instantiate a migrating VM using a test-clone or cut-over, the service seamlessly adapts your source VM operating system to boot and run natively in the cloud — including configuring network settings and deploying Google Cloud guest packages. 

The migration journey of an EC2 instance — or VMware VM — to Google Cloud is comprised of the following steps:

1. Onboarding a source VM for migration: Onboard one or more VMs for migration from the source environment fleet.

2. Configure landing zone target: You can migrate an instance to any Google Cloud project in your environment and update landing zone details at any time before executing a test-clone or cutover.

3. Initiate VM data replication of source workload: Migrate to Virtual Machines periodically replicates instance disks to the cloud with no interruption to the source instance. You can control replication frequently and pause or resume at any point in time. 

4. Test migrating instance: Test-clone creates a copy of your source instance in the defined landing zone to validate the migrating instance in the cloud before executing a cut-over. You can repeat the test-clone multiple times to multiple landing zones for thorough validation

5. Cutover migrating instance: Cutover operation shuts down your source instance and then performs the short final sync to Google Cloud. Migrated VM is instantiated in the target landing zone.

Getting started with Migrate to Virtual Machines 

It’s quick and easy to start migrating your AWS EC2 instances and on-premises VMs today:

1. Enable the vmmigration API in a Google Cloud project 

2. Create an AWS source in your environment

3. Onboard and initiate replication of instance data from source 

4. Set migrating instance target details. 

5. Perform non-disruptive tests of your migrating instance using test-clone

6. Cutover your instance to the cloud with minimal down time

You can also visit our website to learn more about Migrate to Virtual Machines. If you know you have to migrate in 2023 but aren’t sure how to get started, you can sign up for a free discovery and assessment of your current IT landscape so we can help craft the ideal migration plan for you and your business.