Helping a Large Federal Agency Transition to the AWS Cloud
Through expert planning and implementation, a large agency migrated to an efficient, secure cloud setup in less than a year.
For large organizations balancing departmental and centralized control, moving to the cloud can be daunting. Top-down migration strategies that work for some departments can be counterproductive for others. On the other hand, allowing each department to make its own move to the cloud leads to a lack of centralized control and visibility, along with limited support for smaller departments that lack the resources to develop their own migration plans.
While migrations like this can feel impossible, they don’t have to be. What does it look like to conquer complex migration? During a recent project in which we helped a large federal agency migrate to the AWS Cloud, CDW uncovered best practices for organizations attempting to strike a balance between departmental freedom and centralized visibility.
Although the agency is a government organization, its work with CDW is a valuable example of what complex cloud migration can look like for any large government or commercial organization navigating the push and pull of a multi-department structure.
66%
reduction in compute, storage and networking costs when organizations migrate from on-premises to AWS cloud infrastructure
Source: Economic Validation, Maximizing Economic Advantages by Migrating to AWS Cloud Infrastructure, August 2024
A Model for Complex Cloud Migration in Large Organizations
Step 1: Portfolio discovery
In 2018, a large federal agency approached CDW for assistance with cloud migration. The agency wanted a centralized cloud setup to support its entire organization, but its many agencies were in various stages of cloud adoption. The smaller federal agencies needed quick setup in the cloud, and the larger agencies with their own cloud solutions were hesitant to migrate again.
To address the challenges, CDW developed a migration roadmap for all stakeholders. They began with a readiness assessment, creating a portfolio discovery “report card” to gauge how ready the agency’s system was for cloud migration.
To simplify the process, the team leveraged SkyMap, CDW’s versatile cloud migration planning software. SkyMap efficiently identified redundant or defunct apps the agency could immediately eliminate to save money, as well as overprovisioned systems that could be sized down. The CDW team augmented SkyMap data with in-person conversations with agency staff about how they used the tools, ensuring all business-critical tools were accounted for.
The readiness assessment and migration expertise made thousands of small decisions at a much faster pace than the large federal agency could have made on its own.
Step 2: Migration planning
After assessing the current landscape, it was time to develop a roadmap. As a Premier Tier Partner with AWS, CDW has years of experience articulating common migration patterns. To guide the agency’s migration process, the team used a series of pre-planned pathways developed by CDW and AWS with the option to alter or develop new pathways based on any unique departmental needs.
Given the varying levels of cloud usage throughout the agency, the team placed each department into one of three categories that would help define its migration process. By separating each into its own category, CDW was better able to coordinate the specific migration pathways each department necessitated.
Category 1:
Greenfield
Small departments with limited resources awaiting a centralized migration plan comprised this category. The goal was to build them a functional cloud setup quickly, along with additional staff training and upskilling due to their limited cloud experience.
Category 2:
Transitional
This category included departments that had moved to the cloud within the last 18 months. The focus was on modernizing their current setup and integrating it into the agency’s infrastructure with an emphasis on maintaining and improving compliance.
Category 3:
Mass workload migration
Large, complex departments already operational in the cloud for over 18 months fell into this category. The focus was on maintaining compliance and uptime while gradually integrating them into the agency’s infrastructure.
Step 3: Migration process
After a detailed portfolio discovery, the migration planning began with a proof of concept (POC). A few applications were migrated to identify and fix any flaws before full migration. This minimized the risk of downtime.
SkyMap played a crucial role, ensuring transparency by providing a real-time dashboard for stakeholders to track approvals, reviews and processes.
As the POC was being tested and eventually proved successful — meaning it was time for full migration to proceed — CDW began upskilling staff so the transition remained smooth and effective.
CDW helped a large federal agency achieve its cloud infrastructure Authority to Operate and Authority to Test (ATO/ATT) by providing 80% of the required material ahead of time, which sped up and simplified the process.
Step 4: Upskilling staff
Knowing that it’s crucial to empower agency teams to manage their new cloud solutions effectively, CDW provided tailored training for the agency — including HR and managerial training — and rewrote its job descriptions for cloud utilization. For staff with no AWS experience, a “101” training offered a rapid introduction to AWS services and their application in daily tasks to optimize costs and ensure consistency.
Security training was also essential. CDW trained agency security professionals on AWS security offerings, ensuring compliance and maintaining a secure environment as standards evolved.
The State of Cloud Migration
In its 2024 annual survey of cloud-based decision-makers, Flexera discovered the following:
49%
of organizations are using AWS for significant workloads, showing the growing adoption of public cloud services
54%
of large organizations say understanding app dependencies is a major challenge in migrating workloads to the cloud
57%
of organizations silo applications on different clouds, an increase from 44% year over year
53%
of organizations outsource at least some public cloud work, including 26% that use managed service providers (MSPs) for most public cloud usage
Source: Flexera, 2024 State of the Cloud Report, August 2024
Complex Cloud Migration Simplified
With CDW’s help, this large federal agency transformed from a decentralized patchwork of disparate departments lacking internal transparency to an upskilled, security-compliant setup operating efficiently on the AWS Cloud.
Key achievements included:
- Efficient transformation. The entire transformation took only six months, despite a six-week government shutdown.
- Secure, speedy expansion. The agency expanded from five active AWS accounts at launch to over 60 within a year.
- Streamlined processes. The organization can now generate new accounts in 45 minutes, a process that previously took months.
Moving to the cloud can be daunting. Which applications should you move? Which should stay on-premises? Which need to be modernized? Our new status as an AWS Premier Partner, combined with our deep experience, has enabled CDW to form a strong partnership with the federal agency.
This collaboration exemplifies the potential of complex cloud migration to AWS Cloud for any large organization, showcasing how thoughtful planning and expert guidance can ease the transition and drive significant value.
