migrate from aws

Migrating from AWS: How to Cut Cloud Costs by 30–60% Without Losing Reliability

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the world’s most mature and feature-rich public cloud platform, offering over 200 services — from virtual machines to advanced AI and analytics tools. However, as companies scale and their cloud footprints grow, one trend becomes clear: costs rise faster than value.
Let’s look at why more and more businesses are choosing to move away from AWS.

Rising Costs and Billing Complexity

AWS pricing is notoriously complex. Hundreds of instance types, multiple database licensing models, layered storage tiers, data transfer fees, and per-operation billing make financial forecasting extremely difficult.
According to Gartner, 30–40% of AWS spending comes from unused or misconfigured resources due to this opacity.

Vendor Lock-In
Many companies start with AWS for convenience, only to find themselves dependent on proprietary services years later — for example:

DynamoDB → difficult to migrate without redesigning applications
Lambda + API Gateway → unique operational constraints
Glue / Athena / Kinesis → no direct cross-cloud equivalents

This “lock-in” makes companies less flexible and increases long-term risk.

High Data Egress Costs
AWS data-out (egress) pricing is among the highest in the industry.
For data-intensive workloads, 10–20% of total spend may be purely outbound traffic fees.

Company X was paying ~$28,000/month for AWS infrastructure.
After migrating to Google Cloud, costs dropped to $19,600/month (−30%) — while reliability and performance actually improved.

Case Example

Goal of This Article
This guide shows:

where AWS costs actually come from,
which platforms offer better value,
how to plan and execute a migration,
what financial impact to expect,
how to manage risks,
and how to achieve 30–60% total cost reduction.

Assessing Your Current AWS Infrastructure

Before any migration, you need a comprehensive audit.
The biggest mistake companies make is “lift-and-shift” migration — moving workloads as-is.
That approach transfers inefficiencies and delivers limited savings.

AWS Cost Distribution
According to AWS Cost Explorer and FinOps Foundation data, typical AWS cost breakdowns look like this:

EC2 (Compute): 35–45%
S3 (Storage): 15–25%
RDS (Databases): 20–30%
Others (Traffic, CloudWatch, Lambda): 10–20%

Thus, the main optimization targets are compute and databases.

Example: Compute

Instance	Description	Monthly Cost
AWS m5.large (2vCPU, 8GB)	EC2	~$70
GCP e2-standard-2	Equivalent VM	~$52
Hetzner CPX21	Equivalent VM	~$28

➡ Savings: up to 60%
In real workloads:

20–30% of instances are underutilized (CPU < 20%),
many are overprovisioned,
others run 24/7 unnecessarily.

Example: Storage (S3)
Common waste sources:

Using S3 Standard instead of Infrequent Access,
No lifecycle policies,
Excessive GET/LIST operations,
Costly cross-region replication.

Example: Databases (RDS)
RDS is one of the most expensive AWS services, due to:

license costs,
backup and storage fees,
high IOPS pricing (especially Provisioned IOPS).
Migrating RDS PostgreSQL to Cloud SQL, Azure Database, or a self-managed PostgreSQL often saves 20–50%.

Choosing a Target Platform and Comparing Costs

Migration is not just a technical move — it’s a financial and strategic decision.
Let’s compare the leading alternatives.

Platform	VM (2vCPU, 8GB RAM)	1 TB Storage	1 TB Data Transfer	Average Savings
AWS	$70	$23	$90	—
GCP	$52	$20	$70	25–30%
Azure	$60	$22	$80	15–20%
Hetzner Cloud	$28	$12	$0 (in-region)	55–65%

Real Example
A company with 20 medium-size servers was paying ~$1,400/month on AWS.
After migrating to Hetzner, the bill dropped to $560/month —
over $10,000 annual savings.

Summary
Compute + storage + data transfer optimization yields up to 60% savings overall.

Migration Planning and Budgeting

Migration should be managed as a structured project.
1. Technical Assessment
Architecture mapping

Dependency analysis
Network planning
Load testing
CI/CD integration review

2. Financial Analysis
Current cloud spend

Potential savings
Migration cost estimate
ROI forecast

3. Migration Plan
Wave-based migration

Separate dev/stage/prod environments
Rollback strategy
Testing and monitoring

4. Migration Cost Example

Stage	Time	Cost
Infrastructure audit	40h	$2,400
CI/CD setup	20h	$1,200
Migration & deployment	20–40h	$1,200–2,400
Testing & tuning	15h	$900
Total	~110	$4,500–6,000

ROI Example
If monthly savings = $1,000 → payback in ~5 months
If monthly savings = $4,000 → payback in under 2 months

Preparation and Tooling

Preparation defines success.
Professional teams use Infrastructure as Code and migration automation tools.

Key ToolsTerraform → infrastructure definition
Ansible → server configuration
AWS DMS / pg_dump → database migration
rclone / gsutil / rsync → data transfer
Kubernetes + Helm → workload portability
Grafana + Prometheus → observability

Example
Migration of a 200GB PostgreSQL RDS to Cloud SQL:
Duration: 6 hours
Data transfer cost: ~$50
Old cost: $220/month → new cost: $150/month
Annual saving: $840 per DB

Migration Process

Typical migration flow:
1. Deploy New Infrastructure
Create:

networks/subnets,
VMs or Kubernetes clusters,
storage,
CI/CD pipelines.

2. Data Replication

rsync for files,
DMS for databases,
rclone/gsutil for objects.

3. Data Synchronization
Use:

logical replication,
queue mirroring,
real-time sync for minimal downtime.

4. Blue-Green Deployment
Run two environments:

Blue = existing AWS
Green = new cloud
Switch traffic once validation passes.

5. Phased Rollout
Start with:

Dev → Staging → Non-critical production
Then migrate core workloads.

Example:
One company migrated dev/stage to GCP, keeping prod on AWS.
They reduced total cloud spend by 40% with minimal risk.

Post-Migration Optimization

The real savings begin after migration.
Compute Optimization

Downsize underused VMs
Use auto-scheduling to stop idle nodes
Apply autoscaling policies

Storage Optimization

Apply lifecycle management
Move cold data to archive tiers
Clean up duplicates

Database Optimization

Use serverless or managed DBs
Tune vacuum/IO parameters
Add read replicas

Discount Programs

GCP Committed Use Discounts: up to −57%
Azure Reserved Instances: up to −40%
Hetzner: already low base rates

Example
After right-sizing, one company reduced 30% of VM resources, saving an additional 15%, reaching 45% total savings from AWS costs.

Financial Summary and ROI

Metric	AWS (Before)	After Migration	Savings
Monthly Cost	$12,000	$7,800	−$4,200
Annual Cost	$144,000	$93,600	$50,400/year

With a $5,000 migration budget, the ROI was achieved in under 2 months.
Additional gains:

transparent billing,
predictable budgets,
fewer hidden fees,
multi-vendor flexibility.

Risks and Mitigation Strategies

1. Data Egress Fees
Outbound data from AWS is expensive.
Mitigation:

plan staged transfers,
compress and archive old data,
prioritize in-region movement.

2. IAM Differences
AWS IAM roles don’t directly translate to other platforms.
Mitigation:

rebuild role structures,
apply least-privilege policies.

3. API Incompatibility
Some AWS services have no direct equivalents.
Mitigation:

replace with open-source tools,
adopt Kubernetes-native solutions.

4. Architectural Differences
Apps may need minor redesigns.
Mitigation:

sandbox testing,
pilot migrations,
detailed rollback planning.

5. Organizational Risks
Team readiness and process maturity matter.
Mitigation:

clear communication plan,
DevOps training and documentation.

Ready to Reduce Costs and Eliminate Risk?

Don’t take on the risk alone — trust the migration to professionals.

Our team will help you assess your current AWS setup, calculate potential savings, and design the optimal migration strategy tailored to your business.

💡 AWS Migration Consultation

In just 90 minutes, you’ll learn:

how much you can realistically save,
which services to migrate first,
how to avoid downtime and data loss.

Conclusion

Migrating from AWS is not merely a cost-cutting move — it’s a strategic transformation.
It brings financial control, architectural independence, and operational transparency.

Based on multiple real-world cases:

companies save 20–60%,
improve reliability and scalability,
regain ownership of their infrastructure,
and reduce lock-in risk.

To maximize results:

Audit your AWS usage,
Choose the right target platform,
Execute a phased migration,
Optimize continuously afterward.

A well-planned AWS migration can save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, without sacrificing performance or stability — while giving your company the flexibility and control it deserves.