Creating a Plan for Success
Working with CTP , we forged a series of initiatives to drive us toward our goals . We established a minimum viable cloud ( MVC ), developed an agile process , created and trained a cloud-focused team and executed migrations in small blocks .
Building the MVC gave Cowen a framework to start migrating workloads to AWS . CTP worked with us to identify migration tools and set up a process for doing the migrations . Over the past year , Cowen has migrated approximately 40 applications to the AWS environment , accounting for about 100 TB of data .
Cowen ’ s IT team migrated workloads in short sprints . Early on , we had no trouble meeting our targets of three weeks per app , until we were faced with issues with app dependencies and firewalls . Still , the timing of the overall project did not suffer . We were able to hit our targets of retiring one data center in late 2017 and a second , along with three co-located facilities , in early 2018 .
While the planning and the physical work were important , CTP ’ s biggest contribution to the project included training a team of system administrators , database administrators and network engineers in the finer points of agile development . That training was critical in ensuring we met our deadlines .
Enjoying the Benefits of Public Cloud
As Cowen turns on cloud apps one by one , the benefits are becoming clear .
• Cost Savings - Using AWS , Cowen has been able to significantly reduce its tech budget . We continue to reduce our costs by shutting off underused applications , and dialing up services when we need them . We expect further savings as we continue to re-architect our systems .
• Agility - It is now much easier for IT to react to new environments or requests . When a business comes to us and says we have a new product we would like to test and deploy , we now have the capacity to turn it on right away .
• Elasticity - Earlier this year , the volatile stock market pushed daily trading volumes to limits we haven ’ t seen in several years . Having access to the cloud lets us add capacity for an overnight batch , and then remove it after that batch has completed , saving money and minimizing any issues .
Other Takeaways
We recognized early on that migrating workloads is never as smooth as you would expect . What we found was that certain applications , based on their legacy nature , could not be pushed through the migration factory . We had to make some hard decisions about lifting and shifting certain apps rather than pushing them through the migration factory .
Then there is the compliance issue . As you move to AWS , the high levels of speed and agility generated creates a whole new set of changes for the business regarding data tracking , data governance and application transparency . It ’ s critical to ensure these environments , which are spinning up quite rapidly , remain compliant . CTP ’ s Continuous Compliance framework gave us the visibility we needed to assure customers and regulators that the changes were all accounted for in the proper way .
What Comes Next ?
As for the future , Cowen is gearing up for another cloud migration project starting in spring 2018 . Through acquisitions , Cowen has several more data centers to exit . Initial assessments again indicate approximately a one-year time frame to complete the project . We are confident , based on the experience of the last year , that this new project will be seamless and equally successful .
26 | THE DOPPLER | SPRING 2018