- [Alex] So, how's your assessment process going? Have you had a chance to go through your strengths-and-weaknesses review meeting? Well, you've been doing a lot of work, so I think it's time to take a step back and have a break. Now, this doesn't mean that the migration work stops. Oh no, the very opposite. The migration stops for no person. What I'm talking about is utilizing an amazing resource, the Migration Evaluator. Now, we've talked a bit about the Migration Evaluator in a previous lesson. So, let's go ahead and dive right in. I want everyone to put their hands together for our special guest, straight from AWS. Please give it up for Frank. (audience cheering and clapping) - [Frank] Thanks, Alex. Hello, everyone. I'm really happy to be here. My name is Frank, and I work for AWS, helping customers to find solutions. - [Alex] We're so happy to have you today, Frank. Could you start off by telling everyone a little bit about the Migration Evaluator service? - [Frank] Sure, it's a tool that AWS provides to help folks make the transition to the cloud a bit easier at no cost to you. It's relatively straightforward to get started with. It all begins by reaching out directly to the folks on my team. We've got a contact form available that I'll link in the notes, if anyone wants to drop us a line. Once you fill that out, someone like myself will reach out directly to you. - [Alex] That's perfect. And is that it? - [Frank] Oh, that's where the process begins. While we can collect some information by speaking to you about the kind of architecture that you're building, we really need to get some data to start making informed suggestions on what you're going to need to build in AWS. - [Alex] Got you, how is this data collected? - [Frank] Well, you're going to need to sit down with a spreadsheet, manually tabulate all of the networking traffic by hand. - [Alex] Wait, really? - [Frank] No, I'm just messing with you, Alex. (audience laughs) We've got an agent that can help you out with these steps. The agent can be installed directly onto bare metal systems or into your virtualized environments. If you are running VMware, you don't have to install the agent on all of the VMs. You can simply add it once at the vSphere level, and let VMware do all of the heavy lifting, collecting the data that you need. You can even get information about your SQL servers so we can make informed choices when building out your databases in AWS. - [Alex] What if I already have this data collected? Because I take meticulous notes on everything that I build. - [Frank] You're always welcome to update a CSV file that contains all of the information, so we can load it into the databases properly. - [Alex] Once this data is collected, what happens to it? - [Frank] We collect that data so we can build a report that looks a little, something like this. This is an example report. That includes a whole lot of information about what kind of resources you're going to need in AWS. - [Alex] So, this looks a bit like a roadmap - [Frank] Sort-of, it'll give you a general breakdown of what you're going to need, but it won't give you a complete step-by-step guide to actually migrate your architecture. You'll need to continue on through this migration course to learn how to build your step-by-step plan. - [Alex] Oh, that makes sense. So, scrolling through here, I see a lot of valuable information. It looks like the executive summary says we could turn off about 15 percent of our architecture, and it seems that there's a decent cost saving here by moving to the cloud. - [Frank] Exactly, you're getting it. We want you to save as much money as possible. The more money you save, the longer you're likely to be an AWS customer. It's a win for everyone. We've also prepared an on-prem estimate of what we think your costs currently are. We want to make sure you are taking everything into account before you make any migrating decisions. - [Alex] Wow, this is chock full of useful information. - [Frank] If you like this, I've got a spreadsheet with all of the data around here, somewhere. (Alex chuckles) - [Alex] I think we're good at reviewing that one, Frank. - [Frank] Okay, I won't go into everything with you today. - [Alex] This product looks like it's really helpful for the assessment phase of the migration process. - [Frank] Yep, the Migration Evaluator is here to assist you. - [Alex] Well, it looks like we're running out time for this lesson. I want to thank you for joining us today, Frank, and sharing your amazing talents. Is there anything else you want to share before we go? - [Frank] Not only do I help folks migrate to the cloud, I'm also an aspiring country-music crossover singer. - [Alex] I was thinking more AWS related content. - [Frank] Would you like to hear a song? - [Alex] No, Frank, I think we're good. (Frank singing) ♪ The wheels on the bus ♪ ♪ go round and round, ♪ ♪ round and round, ♪ ♪ round and round. ♪ - [Alex] Okay, well, I think that's going to end it out for us today. Thanks for joining us. And we'll see you soon. (Frank singing) (audience applauds and cheers)
