Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - Thomson Reuters & BMC Software database modernization vision with DMA (DAT220)

Summary

AWS Database Migration Accelerator (DMA) is a service designed to assist customers with database and analytics migrations.
DMA's mission is to accelerate successful migrations without disrupting customer business, providing expertise, tools, and deep migration experts.
DMA Advisory evaluates schemas, data, and applications, producing a solution document to guide migration choices.
Customers engage DMA for various reasons, including lack of expertise, risk reduction, zero downtime requirements, and emergent business needs like data center exits or licensing renewals.
The migration process involves discovery, analysis, planning, and execution, with options for professional services, partners, self-migration, and DMA involvement.
DMA Last Mile was launched to assist with production readiness post-migration.
Key areas of focus in migrations include database schema conversion, application conversion and remediation, testing, bug fixing, and performance tuning.
Thomson Reuters shared their cloud migration journey, emphasizing the importance of minimizing disruption and modernizing databases as part of a larger transformation program.
BMC Software discussed their challenges with rapid growth and operational scaling, and how DMA helped them automate IT operations, improve performance, and reduce costs.
Both companies highlighted the benefits of DMA in terms of expertise, automation, and acceleration of their database modernization efforts.

DMA provides a structured approach to database migration, which is critical for companies with large portfolios of databases and applications.
The service is adaptable, offering both complimentary advisory services and fixed-fee migrations, catering to different customer needs.
Thomson Reuters' experience underscores the importance of cloud migration in corporate restructuring and the need for modernization to improve efficiency and customer experience.
BMC Software's use case illustrates the operational challenges of scaling in a SaaS environment and how cloud migration can address performance consistency and cost reduction.
The success stories from both companies demonstrate DMA's ability to significantly reduce manual effort and operational costs while improving performance and accelerating the migration timeline.
Performance tuning is a critical, yet often overlooked, aspect of migration that can impact the perceived success of moving to cloud databases like Aurora or RDS.
The use of AWS tools like Schema Conversion Tool (SCT), Database Migration Service (DMS), RDS Performance Insights, and AWS DevOps Guru for Aurora are instrumental in facilitating efficient migrations and ongoing operations.
The ability to integrate DMA's processes with existing customer workflows and the emphasis on automation suggest a trend towards more seamless and less disruptive cloud adoption strategies.