Seamless AWS to GCP Migration for Travel Creators by AntStack

About Migration from AWS to GCP

Travel Creators is a company with a mission to keep travel human by empowering creators worldwide to turn their passion into a sustainable income. They achieve this through a unique technology platform that allows creators to curate and customise authentic travel experiences for their clients.

The Challenge

The objective of this project was to migrate Travel Creators compute infrastructure from AWS to GCP. This included migrating their EC2 instances and RDS databases to Compute Engine and SQL Database in GCP. By leveraging the capabilities of Google Cloud, Travel Creators aimed to enhance their application’s performance, scalability, and overall efficiency and cost-cutting.

Our Goals

Our team was responsible for delivering a fully functional application running on GCP instead of AWS. This involved migrating all EC2 instances and associated services to Compute Engine and transferring the RDS databases to SQL Database in GCP. The successful completion of the migration ensured a seamless transition for Travel Creators’ operations in both Production and Staging environments.

Methodology

To facilitate the migration process, we utilized the migration feature provided by GCP. We initiated the migration by generating an SQL dump file from the existing EC2 instances in AWS. Subsequently, we created new instances in Compute Engine and SQL Database in GCP. The SQL dump file was then used to populate the SQL Database instance in both the Production and Staging environments.

Challenges Faced

Throughout the migration process, we encountered a few challenges that required attention. One significant challenge was attempting to access the SQL database from the Compute Engine. The database was throwing errors, impeding the migration progress in both the Production and Staging environments.

Solutions and Results

To overcome the challenges faced during the migration, we diligently investigated the issue with SQL database access from Compute Engine. Through troubleshooting, we identified and resolved the underlying cause of the error. This allowed us to successfully migrate the EC2 instances and the SQL database to Compute Engine and SQL Database in GCP, respectively, in both the Production and Staging environments.

Previous Architecture

Current Architecture

Our Impact

Added Performance Monitoring

Implementation of robust performance monitoring tools in GCP provided Travel Creators deeper insights and real-time metrics for proactive issue identification and resolution

Helped Them Use Google Credits

Leveraging Google credits enabled Travel Creators to reduce expenses, expand resources, and experiment with new GCP features, fostering innovation without incurring additional costs.

Lessons Learned

Throughout the project, we gained valuable insights and lessons learned, which can benefit future migration endeavors. It is crucial to thoroughly plan and test the migration process to anticipate and address any potential issues that may arise. Additionally, effective communication and collaboration with the support teams provided by the cloud provider can help expedite issue resolution.

In their words

Chanti Loraine-Grews