Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - Lessons learned from IT modernization and transformation (WPS205)

Summary

• Nikki Neal, head of AWS GovCloud business development, introduces the session and reflects on the transformative journey of the U.S. Department of Justice Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (DOJ ATF) in adopting cloud technology.
• ATF's goal was to go all-in on the cloud, starting with disaster recovery and eventually retiring on-prem data centers.
• ATF chose AWS GovCloud for its compliance, resiliency, and access to innovative services.
• Mason McDaniel, CTO of DOJ ATF, shares the challenges and strategies of modernizing ATF's IT infrastructure, including addressing technical debt, governance, and application modernization.
• ATF's approach involved enterprise data management, overhauling business logic, and modernizing applications at scale.
• The modernization faced significant challenges, such as outdated hardware, unsupported software, and complex system interdependencies (the "ATF hairball").
• ATF adopted a phased approach, focusing on data migration, application refactoring, and IT governance reform.
• Agile development principles were emphasized, including stakeholder engagement and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD).
• Despite setbacks, ATF's modernization was deemed a success due to transparency, adaptability, and the ability to "fail forward."
• The modernization led to increased user base, improved performance, and the ability to process significantly more data.
• Future goals include completing cloud migration, enhancing business processes, and exploring serverless infrastructure to prevent accruing technical debt.

Insights

• ATF's decision to be "stubborn on the mission, but flexible on the details" was crucial for their successful transformation, highlighting the importance of adaptability in large-scale IT projects.
• The "ATF hairball" diagram illustrates the complexity of legacy system interdependencies, emphasizing the need for a strategic approach to untangle and modernize such systems.
• The phased approach to modernization, starting with data migration, reflects a common best practice in IT transformation, ensuring foundational elements are in place before tackling more complex tasks.
• The challenges faced by ATF, such as outdated systems and the discovery of non-functional source code, underscore the hidden risks and technical debt that can accumulate in legacy IT environments.
• ATF's experience with Agile development, particularly the need for early and continuous stakeholder engagement, serves as a valuable lesson for other organizations embarking on similar modernization efforts.
• The success of ATF's modernization, despite being over budget and schedule, demonstrates that traditional waterfall metrics may not fully capture the value and outcomes of Agile and cloud-based transformations.
• The significant increase in processed e-forms post-modernization showcases the tangible benefits of modernizing IT infrastructure, including improved efficiency and capacity.
• ATF's future focus on business process improvements and potential serverless infrastructure indicates a forward-thinking approach to IT that aims to prevent the recurrence of technical debt.