Migrating your work to AWS brings many benefits, like better scalability, flexibility, and cost savings. However, to make the transition successful, it’s really important to understand and estimate the costs involved.
A 2024 report by TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group found that companies shifting from on-premises to AWS reduced their computing, storage, and networking costs by up to 66%. Another survey cited by CloudZero shows that cloud migration can also open up new revenue streams, leading to profit growth of up to 11.2% year-over-year.
By reviewing all the factors that influence AWS cloud migration costs, you can build a more accurate budget. This not only supports better financial planning but also helps ensure a smoother, more cost-effective transition to the AWS cloud.
In this blog, we’ll walk through simple, practical steps to estimate AWS cloud migration costs and plan a move that’s both efficient and financially sound.
What are AWS Cloud Migration Costs?
Before we dive into numbers, it’s important to understand the basics of what AWS cloud migration actually involves and where the costs come from.
What is AWS Cloud Migration?
AWS Cloud Migration is the process of moving your organization’s digital assets, including data, applications, and IT resources, from your local systems or other cloud services to Amazon Web Services. This move helps businesses use AWS’s powerful cloud solutions, which are flexible, secure, and worthwhile, to improve their operations and create new opportunities.
Now let’s break down what goes into AWS cloud migration costs, so you can plan more effectively.
- Assessment and Planning: Before migration begins, you’ll invest time and resources in evaluating your current environment, deciding what to migrate, and choosing the best migration strategy. This phase may involve consulting fees, tool licenses, and internal labor costs.
- Data Transfer and Migration Tools: Moving large volumes of data to the cloud can incur transfer costs, depending on your existing infrastructure and the tools used.
- Re-Platforming and Application Changes: Some applications may require modification to run efficiently on AWS. This customization or optimization adds to both project time and cost.
- Infrastructure and Resource Usage: Post-migration, your cloud environment costs depend on the compute power, storage, and network usage. These ongoing expenses are influenced by the resources you allocate in AWS and how well you optimize your cloud footprint.
- Security, Compliance, and Monitoring: Ensuring your cloud environment meets security and compliance requirements may require additional tools, services, or personnel dedicated to monitoring and governance, all adding to costs.
- Training and Support: Equipping your team with the skills to manage and operate in the AWS environment involves training expenses, while ongoing support and maintenance may require external partnerships or additional hires.
What Affects the Cost of Cloud Migration?
Several key factors influence how much your AWS cloud migration will cost. Understanding these can help you plan better and avoid unexpected expenses:
- Data Size and Complexity: The amount of data you’re moving and how complicated it is can impact costs.
- Application Dependencies: Some applications rely on others. If they are complicated or need special attention, migrating them may cost more.
- Customization and Optimization: Changing or optimizing your applications after moving to the cloud can add extra costs.
- Compliance and Security: If you have to meet specific rules or ensure high levels of security, those requirements can increase costs.
Hidden Costs in Cloud Migration
In addition to the obvious expenses, there are hidden costs to watch out for:
- Data Transfer Fees: Moving a lot of data can be expensive.
- Licensing Costs: Some software may need new licenses or adjustments to work well on AWS.
- Training Costs: Training your team to work with AWS services may be necessary and could be costly.
- Ongoing Costs: After migration, there may be ongoing costs for things like monitoring, maintaining your new cloud setup, and scaling your resources.
You can create a realistic budget for migrating to AWS by carefully planning and keeping these factors in mind.
Now that we’ve covered potential hidden costs, the next step is to estimate the migration expenses. Let’s go over how to calculate and estimate AWS cloud migration costs.
Calculating and Estimating AWS Cloud Migration Costs in Simple Steps
When moving your work to the AWS Cloud, it’s important to plan carefully so you can estimate and manage the costs. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you:
1. Make an Inventory of Your Current IT Setup
Start by making a list of all the technology you’re using right now. This includes things like computers, software, and servers. Be sure to note when these items were bought, their warranties, and how often they are used.
You may also need to talk to different teams in your organization to get all the details. Tools like AWS’s Application Discovery Service can help gather data about your current system, which makes planning easier.
2. Figure Out Your Current IT Costs
Before you can estimate migration expenses, it’s important to understand what you’re currently spending on your IT infrastructure, both the obvious and hidden costs.
- Direct Costs: Calculate how much you are spending on your current IT setup. This includes the cost of hardware, software licenses, and maintenance. You can work with your accounting team to get the exact numbers.
- Indirect Costs: These are harder to see, like lost time due to system downtime or delays. You can look at system logs to see how often your systems have problems and estimate the cost in lost productivity.
3. Estimate the Costs of Using Cloud Services
Once you understand your current costs, the next step is to estimate your expenses on AWS. Using the right tools can help you get a clear and realistic picture.
- Use Online Tools for an Initial Estimate: AWS offers a Pricing Calculator that lets you enter information about your current setup to get a rough idea of what your cloud costs will be. This helps you plan.
- Get Detailed Pricing with AWS’s Calculator: The AWS Pricing Calculator lets you customize your cost estimate based on your needs. You can choose which services you need, like storage or computing power, and get a more accurate estimate.
Also read: The Ultimate Guide to AWS Cloud Services
4. Estimate Cloud Migration Costs
Understanding your applications and choosing the right migration approach are key to accurately estimating your cloud migration expenses.
- Check if Your Apps Are Ready for the Cloud: Not all applications can move directly to the cloud. Some might need adjustments (called re-platforming) or even major changes (called refactoring), which will affect the cost of moving them.
- Think About the Best Way to Move to the Cloud: There are different ways to move your apps to the cloud, like “lift-and-shift” (moving everything as is), replatforming (making some changes), or refactoring (completely changing the app). Each method has its own cost and challenges.
5. Don’t Forget About Post-Migration Costs
Estimating migration expenses doesn’t stop once your data and apps are moved; ongoing costs like integration, testing, training, and security also play a big role.
- Integration and Testing: After you move to the cloud, you may need to do more work to ensure everything runs smoothly. You’ll need to test your applications to ensure they work well in the cloud.
- Training, Security, and Admin Costs: After migration, there will be costs for training your team to use AWS, improving security, and managing the new cloud setup.
With these steps, you can get a good idea of the cost of your AWS cloud migration, make the process go smoothly, and keep it within your budget.
Challenges with AWS Cloud Migration Costs’ Estimation
Estimating the costs of moving to AWS can be tricky, and there are a few challenges you should be aware of to get more accurate financial predictions:
1. Complexity of Vendor Pricing Models
AWS has different pricing models and service levels, each with its own pricing structure. It can be tough to figure out which one is best for you, and knowing all the options is important to avoid unexpected costs.
2. Unpredictable Data Transfer Costs
Estimating the cost of moving your data to AWS can be difficult, especially if you’re transferring a lot of data or doing it often. The costs depend on factors like the amount of data you’re moving and how often you do it, and these can change, leading to costs that might go over your budget.
3. Knowing Data Transfer Expenses
Large-scale data transfers can get really expensive, especially if you haven’t planned them out well. If you don’t carefully check how much data you need to move, you might end up spending more than expected.
4. Not Assessing Application Dependencies Enough
Sometimes, not checking how different applications rely on each other can lead to missing important details about what needs to be moved. This can cause surprises that increase costs during the migration.
5. Comparing On-Premises and Cloud Costs
It can be hard to compare the cost of running things on your current systems with what it would cost on AWS. The pricing structures and how resources are used are different, making it tricky to predict the total costs.
6. Assessing Technical Feasibility
It is important to determine whether your current setup will work well with AWS. If there are any mismatches between your needs and AWS’s capabilities, it could cause extra costs and challenges after the migration.
Also read: AWS Cloud Readiness Assessment: A Quick Guide
By anticipating these challenges, you can improve the accuracy of your cost estimates and make the migration process smoother.
Best Practices for Optimizing AWS Cloud Migration Costs
Optimizing your AWS cloud costs is important for making sure you’re getting the most value out of your cloud investment. To help you save money while keeping everything running smoothly, here are some best practices to follow:
1. Use Auto Scaling and Spot Instances
Auto-scaling automatically adjusts your AWS resources to match the amount needed at any time. This ensures that your performance stays optimal, but you only pay for the resources you actually need. You can also use Spot Instances, which lets you bid on unused cloud capacity at a cheaper price, saving you even more money.
Also read: EC2 Instance Types and Features: How to Choose the Right Fit for Your Cloud Needs?
2. Choose the Right AWS Pricing Models
AWS offers different pricing options, such as On-Demand, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instances. Based on your usage patterns, you can choose the best pricing model for you. For example, if you commit to using certain resources consistently, Reserved Instances or Savings Plans can offer big discounts.
3. Use Load-Based Autoscaling for Efficiency
Load-based autoscaling fine-tunes your resource allocation based on real-time workload, preventing over-provisioning and reducing costs. This approach ensures your infrastructure scales with your needs, optimizing both performance and spend.
4. Work with AWS Consulting Partners
Collaborating with AWS experts can help identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency. These consultants can assess workload performance, recommend services like AWS Graviton processors for better price-performance, and help you follow the AWS Well-Architected Framework for optimized setups.
5. Utilize AWS Cost Management Tools
Tools such as AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Budgets give you visibility into your spending patterns and offer insights to reduce unnecessary costs. Regularly reviewing these tools helps you stay on top of expenses and make data-driven decisions.
These strategies can make your AWS setup more efficient and economical. Keep reviewing and adjusting your approach to ensure you’re always getting the best value for your money.
Optimize AWS Cloud Migration Costs with CrossAsyst
CrossAsyst can help you manage and reduce the costs of migrating to AWS with a range of specialized services. Here’s how we can support you:
- Setting Up AWS Foundations: We use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with tools like Terraform to quickly set up and manage your AWS resources. This method ensures everything runs smoothly, reduces human error, and gives you a solid, scalable base for your cloud environment.
- Migration and Modernization Services: Our team helps move your applications and data to AWS without issues. We use practices like Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) to automate processes, making the transition smoother and reducing downtime.
- Cost Optimization Strategies: We help automate how your resources are managed. For example, we can schedule services to run only during times when demand is low and set up auto-scaling for things like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). This way, you only pay for what you need, which maximizes your savings.
- Monitoring and Logging Solutions: We integrate monitoring and logging tools like Prometheus or Datadog to track your cloud environment’s performance. This lets us fix issues quickly and continually optimize your setup.
By working with CrossAsyst, you’ll have an expert team guiding you through AWS cloud migration, ensuring it’s profitable and efficient.
Conclusion
Accurately estimating AWS cloud migration costs is important for planning your budget and using resources wisely. To do this, you should take a detailed look at your current IT setup, consider all costs (both direct and hidden), use AWS pricing tools, and explore different migration methods.
Working with AWS experts and optimizing costs after migration can help you save even more. Regularly checking and adjusting your plan will keep your migration on track with your financial goals and ensure you get the expected benefits.
CrossAsyst can help make your AWS cloud migration easier and more economical. We guide you through the whole process, starting by setting up a solid foundation for your AWS infrastructure that is optimized for saving money.
We help automate how resources are allocated, follow best practices for setting up your cloud system, and use cost management tools to monitor and adjust your spending in real-time. By working with CrossAsyst, you’ll have a team focused on making sure your migration is aligned with your financial goals and helps you save in the long run. Contact CrossAsyst today.