Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - Enabling successful MRO operations with the AWS Cloud (PRT079)

Summary

GE, a leading manufacturer of jet engines, has a significant presence in both commercial and military aviation sectors, with a focus on MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul).
GE's purpose statement emphasizes innovation in flight and the safety of the 400,000 people flying with GE engines at any given moment.
GE's migration story to AWS was driven by the need for performance, agility, cost savings, and reduced downtime for patching.
The company had been using SAP ECC 6.0 EHP8 for over a decade, hosted on a third-party data center as a platform as a service.
AWS was chosen for its ability to sustain performance, provide agility for new deployments, offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and reduce patching downtime, which was costly for GE.
The migration to AWS, in partnership with Techem and AWS ProServe, took seven months and included eight different SAP products and 200 terabytes of data across production and non-production systems.
The migration was meticulously planned to minimize business impact, with only one available window for downtime.
Three mock runs and thorough testing ensured a "boring go-live" with seamless user experience.
Post-migration benefits included a 20% performance increase, 20-30% reduction in TCO, and zero downtime patching using Pacemaker on RHEL.
Additional smart solutions like AWS DataSync and CloudEndure were used for efficient migration and disaster recovery.

The decision to migrate to AWS was not taken lightly, considering the critical nature of GE's MRO operations and the high cost of downtime.
GE's migration showcases the importance of thorough planning and testing in large-scale cloud migrations, especially when dealing with complex systems like SAP.
The successful migration demonstrates AWS's capability to handle enterprise-level workloads and its potential to improve performance and reduce costs.
The use of AWS services like DataSync and CloudEndure highlights the cloud's role in simplifying data migration and ensuring business continuity.
The reduction in patching downtime from five hours to zero with Pacemaker on RHEL is a significant achievement, showcasing the benefits of cloud infrastructure in maintaining system availability.
The overall positive outcome of the migration serves as a case study for other enterprises considering a similar move to the cloud, particularly those in the aviation industry with stringent regulatory requirements.