Top Five Reasons for Moving Your Oracle Workloads to AWS

The cloud has grown to become table stakes in the world of business and organizations across nearly every industry have migrated to the cloud. Not only has the cloud helped evolve their technology stack, but it’s helped to lower total cost of operations, better manage data and analytics, software development, and countless applications that enable today’s hybrid work environment. Yet despite these advancements and efficiencies, many IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) remain hesitant to make the move.

While there are many options to consider when moving to the cloud, this blog will specifically focus on moving Oracle workloads to Amazon Web Services (AWS). To help offer some additional clarity, we’re sharing the top five reasons to consider migrating Oracle workloads to AWS, based on the most pressing questions and outcomes we’ve heard from our clients.

1. Retiring a data center is easier and quicker than you think
   Considering the continuous maintenance, management, and protection involved for on premises (on prem) data centers, it’s clear that this legacy approach to corporate infrastructure has become costly in every aspect. And with today’s distributed work model, embracing the agility, scalability, and security that the cloud has to offer is essential for any business. We’ve found that more than nine out of ten (91%) IDTMs state increased confidence that Oracle applications can successfully run on AWS, and more than four out of five (84%) believe it’s easy to make the move.

1. Ultimately, change is natural and unavoidable. Requirements will continue to evolve and being proactive in assessing and managing assets is a great way to stay ahead. Migrating Oracle to AWS is an opportunity to retire datacenter assets that have outlived their use and invest more into the things that matter.

2. Cloud providers invest heavily in security to reduce risk
   There’s a common myth that the cloud is insecure. In fact, we surveyed 300+ IT Decision Makers and found that 97 percent ranked security as one of the main concerns holding them back from cloud migration. But the truth is, security is not a cloud-only concern—it’s with us across all environments. AWS and other cloud providers invest in designing data centers with a security-first mindset, enabling greater control to securely run a business from the most flexible cloud environment available today. With a network architected to protect information, AWS prioritizes core security and compliance requirements, keeping identities, applications, and devices protected. To top it all off, AWS takes full responsibility for cloud security under the AWS Shared Responsibility Model.

• As an AWS Premier Consulting Partner and member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), Apps Associates integrates native security services and best practices into our Oracle on AWS Solutions. Working with both AWS and other trusted security partners, Associates reduces risk for the entire Oracle Stack. 

3. The cloud drives technology evolution and team connectivity
   The world today moves faster than legacy technology is capable of handling, but technology is the key to creating a connected culture capable of accelerating internal and external growth. For businesses with large footprints of legacy products across all categories (applications, database, analytics, middleware, engineering systems, hardware), shifting IT spend to AWS can move improvement timing from weeks and months to hours and days. Not only does this create ongoing efficiencies that drive connectivity, but it enables the anytime anywhere use of all services that empower employees to securely work from any location, while maintaining productivity.

4. The cloud lowers your total cost of ownership
   First and foremost, don’t believe the hype that Oracle is 2x more expensive running on AWS compared to other cloud providers. When it comes to managing data, the cloud in general is no longer the more costly option, and companies around the world have made the switch to run Oracle on AWS because of that. Migration also turns the unknown cost of investing in data center infrastructure into a steady, monthly operating expense, allowing for greater flexibility in spending. Additionally, as a seasoned Oracle Partner, we take an optimize-what-you-have approach when it comes to helping clients manage licenses, to ensure Oracle and AWS services are being utilized at the best financial value. For example, with AWS, you can buy what you need, when you need it, as it relates to services, allowing more time to tune your Oracle license requirements and avoid inclusion of hardware capacity of the physical servers. You can also decrease cost further by fully utilizing available discounts. 

5. We provide support to help you actively manage your Oracle licenses when using AWS
   Next to security and cost, one of the biggest barriers to entry surrounding Oracle on AWS (or any other cloud really), is that you cannot take your existing Oracle licenses and employ them in public cloud. To date, App Associates has never reviewed any Oracle contracts that prohibit public cloud adoption. Contrary to popular belief, Oracle license contracts focus on usage, not the location where the application is used. This gives users the flexibility to migrate or remain on prem as described in Licensing Oracle Software in the Cloud Computing Environment. What’s more, experts from our Licensing and Support Hub provide peace of mind by conducting pre-migration license assessments so we can recommend steps for optimizing your existing licenses for AWS. So far, we have proudly overseen 350+ Oracle workload migrations to AWS.

It is important to do your research and know that facts when making a move to cloud. With knowledge comes power to make the right decision for you and your organization. For those considering the switch, App Associates will be there every step of the way. Together, we will build a roadmap allowing you to leverage cloud-native service while remaining compliant and planning for the future.

To learn more on moving Oracle to the cloud, check out The Four Roadblocks to Accelerated Cloud Adoption and Apps Associates Helps Pearson plc Migrate Entire Enterprise Oracle Environment to AWS in Record Time to discover other benefits of migrating to AWS.