Contributors
Travis Langhals, Principal Architect
Stephen Sadowski, Head of Cloud Engineering

In the last decade, cloud computing has become a major part of the IT landscape – and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most popular and reliable providers of cloud computing services, constantly leading Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure.  Let’s review some of the various benefits of migrating to AWS and why it’s a great choice for businesses of all sizes.

The very first thing on the list is the cost savings. AWS offers reliable and secure services, and the cost savings can be significant. As the cloud provider, AWS offers on-demand services, meaning businesses only pay for the services they use and don’t have to commit to a full-time subscription. This makes it an economical choice for any business. This comes with several caveats – the primary of which is that a full lift-and-shift of your data center will cost more if you do not perform a combination of rightsizing, utilization analysis, and leverage the cost management tools AWS provides such as savings plans and reserved instances.

Another key benefit is scalability. With AWS, businesses can easily scale up or scale down their services as needed, eliminating the need for costly IT purchases. This makes it a great choice for businesses that experience fluctuations in demand. Something to strongly consider is a business’ actual utilization. Demand for services can be temporary and localized or broad and homogenous. Understanding how to respond to spikey, periodic demand can be difficult, but AWS offers many different tools and services to address known and unknown demand.

Next, security is a massive benefit of AWS when implemented correctly. AWS’s security measures include encryption of data (in many cases by default – both in transit and at rest) authentication, and access control. It also offers tools to monitor and audit user activities such as CloudTrail and CloudWatch, helping to ensure that only authorized users are accessing services. This makes AWS an excellent choice for businesses that need to store information securely.

Finally, migrating to AWS can help businesses reduce the time and effort required to maintain their IT infrastructure. A proponent of Infrastructure as Code as evidenced by both their internally developed tools such as CloudFormation and the Cloud Development Kit, as well as support of externally developed tools such as Terraform and Pulumi, AWS leans into the idea of “Don’t Repeat Yourself.” AWS also provides a wide range of managed services that can help businesses automate manual tasks and streamline processes. This can help businesses save time and money and focus on more strategic work.

In conclusion, AWS offers a range of benefits that make it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes. It offers cost savings, scalability, security, and managed services that can help businesses reduce their time and effort while ensuring their IT infrastructure is running smoothly.

The biggest question mark for many enterprises is how to know which services to use, what path to take when implementing them, and how to get from point A (on-premises) to point B (AWS). Partners like Uturn can help reduce the amount of “analysis paralysis” as well as provide a streamlined path for migration. Reach out to the Uturn team today and schedule a Well-Architected Review or initial consultation with our AWS-certified team.