Questions to Ask Before Starting a MySQL to Amazon Aurora Migration

Amazon Aurora is an AWS fully managed database service that supports MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. Migrating to this solution can offer many benefits to MySQL workloads, such as lower costs, greater scalability, and high availability.

However, when you move from on-premises to the cloud, you want to answer some crucial questions to help with planning. Here are several questions we recommend answering before your organization starts to migrate.

Do Your MySQL Workloads Benefit from a Cloud Migration?

Don’t migrate your databases to the cloud simply because you think it’s expected of you. First, take a look at your MySQL workloads to determine whether they will benefit from cloud capabilities. Older applications may need to undergo significant changes before they can take advantage of these features, or they may need complete replacement.

Does Amazon Aurora Make the Most Sense for Your MySQL Databases?

You have many options for taking MySQL databases into the cloud, and Amazon Aurora is only one of them. Start by comparing other AWS solutions and those on other platforms to determine whether Aurora is the best choice for you.

You also want to assess the level of control your organization needs over your MySQL databases, as the fully managed Aurora platform limits what you can do to the underlying infrastructure. In addition to this, you’ll want to fully review the version-specific limitations in Amazon Aurora for features and functionalities, along with the costs incurred by the service. For example, if you want MySQL 8.0 Community Edition wire compatibility, you would need to use Aurora MySQL Engine 3.

What Does Your On-premises MySQL Infrastructure Look Like?

Audit your existing infrastructure to get all the technical requirements of your MySQL databases. You need to look at your current and future capacity requirements, the MySQL versions you’re using, the servers powering everything, and the application interdependencies. On top of that, you also want to look at your network capabilities to ensure that you can easily connect to public cloud platforms to access your resources.

What Technical Resources Do You Have to Support a Database Migration?

You also need to consider whether your in-house team has Amazon Aurora experience or any cloud migration expertise. What other responsibilities do they have to handle alongside this process? Are you able to spare them from those duties while they move databases?

If your team already has a full plate, you may need to work with a trusted service provider, such as an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner like Datavail, to bring in additional staffing for the migration.

How Sensitive Are Your Applications to Latency?

Finally, you may have internal MySQL applications that are incredibly sensitive to latency. This would make them a poor choice to move to the cloud, especially if your network is slower. You may need to make changes to the application to make it suitable for the cloud, keep it on-premises, or run tests with the closest AWS region and Availability Zones to determine whether it can keep up with performance requirements. You’ll want to ensure the Amazon Aurora SLAs and failover times are acceptable for your application requirements.

You have a solid start for your MySQL to Amazon Aurora migration after you answer these questions. Download our whitepaper “Everything You Need to Know to Plan a Successful MySQL to Amazon Aurora Migration” to learn more about this process and how Datavail can help.