Empowering a telecom giant through their strategic AWS migration

BBD adopted a phased migration strategy, utilising AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) and Database Migration Service (DMS) to ensure a smooth transition of workloads. Throughout the process, BBD’s Cloud Managed Services team maintained the health and performance of AWS environments, while upholding compliance and security standards. 

To optimise costs, BBD implemented strategies like EC2 Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, ensuring financial efficiency while delivering high-quality solutions. This approach facilitated the client’s seamless adoption of AWS, allowing time for teams to upskill to manage their new cloud environment effectively in the future. 

This phased approach gives the client the necessary time to develop in-house capabilities. Once the team is ready, BBD will implement a structured handover, empowering the client to independently manage their cloud operations post-handover. As part of the engagement, regular enablement sessions are conducted with the aim to gradually transfer responsibility to the client, ensuring they are equipped to manage AWS operations independently once the migration has been concluded.

1. Enablement and future-proofing (Ongoing process): 

Beyond providing Cloud Managed Services, BBD played a crucial role in advising the client on an optimised cloud operational model that would support both their current and future needs. This collaboration focused on enhancing cloud financial management, governance, operational management, governance, monitoring and observability, and establishing scalable architecture best practices to ensure long-term success beyond BBD’s engagement. 

As part of the handover process, which is still ongoing, BBD continues to conduct enablement workshops, progressively training the client’s internal teams to adopt best practices in cloud. These workshops are focussed on knowledge transfer in the following key areas: 

• Operational management: Provides training on best practices for automating operational tasks, scaling, and governance procedures, ensuring the client can effectively manage their cloud infrastructure at scale 
• Financial management: Offers guidance on cloud cost management, budgeting, and optimisation strategies, helping the client to track, control, and reduce cloud expenses efficiently 
• Governance: Delivers comprehensive training on AWS governance best practices, emphasising continuous implementation within the client’s environment to maintain structure and control across their cloud operations. 
• Compliance: Educates the client on maintaining compliance with industry standards and regulations, leveraging tools such as AWS Config and SecurityHub for automated compliance checks and ensuring adherence to required policies 
• Monitoring and observability: Ensures the client is equipped with a robust monitoring and observability stack, enabling them to track and analyse system performance effectively. The training covers the integration of tools and expert resources to maintain operational efficiency and alignment with the six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework 

Key components of the operational model:

• Cloud architecture optimisation:

BBD implemented architecture best practices aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework, ensuring the client’s cloud environment was scalable, secure, and cost-efficient. These best practices included: 

• • Automation of infrastructure management through AWS Systems Manager, enabling centralised control of resources, streamlined updates, and automated patch management. This reduced manual intervention and allowed more efficient use of resources 
  • Governance and compliance frameworks were established using AWS Control Tower and AWS Config to enforce policies, maintain security, and monitor compliance across all cloud accounts. This ensured adherence to security standards while simplifying multi-account management 
• FinOps and cost management:

A critical aspect of the engagement was enhancing the client’s financial governance by introducing FinOps best practices. Leveraging tools such as AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and Cost Anomaly detection, BBD ensured the client could:

• • Track and manage cloud spend effectively, providing insights into resource usage and identifying potential cost-saving opportunities 
  • Set cost optimisation goals, identifying areas to reduce waste using Reserved Instances and EC2 Savings Plans. This helps in optimising both short- and long-term cloud costs 
  • Allocate cloud expenses across departments using detailed cost allocation reports, ensuring transparency of AWS usage and enabling better budget control

2. Compliance:

Compliance was maintained by following AWS security and governance best practices, utilising services like AWS Control Tower for account management, AWS Guardrails and Service Control Policies (SCPs) for policy enforcement, and AWS Config for ongoing compliance monitoring. Adherence to industry standards, including telecom-specific regulations, ensured regulatory requirements were met. Automated compliance checks were implemented using AWS Config to keep the environment aligned with evolving standards. The client’s internal SOC team remains responsible for managing and monitoring compliance within their AWS environment.

Operational efficiency:

BBD focused on building a robust and automated operational model that streamlines day-to-day management. AWS Systems Manager was used to handle tasks such as:

• • Automated backup and recovery processes for critical workloads, minimising downtime, ensuring business continuity, and enforcement of regulatory standards 
  • Resource monitoring and troubleshooting using AWS CloudWatch and AWS Systems Manager’s automation capabilities, ensuring timely detection and resolution of issues 
  • Centralised configuration management to reduce operational overhead and improve response times to incidents, making operations more efficient and reducing manual efforts. 
  • Maintain AWS environments independently post-migration, with the skills and knowledge required to manage their infrastructure efficiently 
  • Expand their cloud footprint in the future, leveraging BBD’s architectural recommendations and financial management strategies for sustainable growth 
  • Scale cloud operations efficiently, enabling the client to deploy new projects with agility while maintaining control over costs and security
• Scalability and innovation: 

By leveraging the flexibility of AWS services, BBD enabled the client to easily scale their infrastructure in response to evolving business demands. The adoption of services such as Amazon EC2, S3, and RDS provides:

• • On-demand scalability without the need for upfront investments in hardware, allowing the client to scale in line with their growth 
  • Rapid innovation by using the agility and flexibility of AWS cloud-native services to quickly deploy new applications and features, enabling the client to stay ahead in a competitive market