Over the past few months, I’ve been working on one of the most exciting and challenging cloud migration projects of my career, a large-scale transformation initiative between xyz (a global technology consulting firm) and abc (a major telecommunications company).
The goal of this project is simple but powerful: to move dozens of critical enterprise applications from on-premises data centers into a secure, scalable, and automated AWS environment without disrupting existing business operations. This is part of a broader modernization program that will allow abc to run its workloads faster, more securely, and more efficiently in the cloud.
What We’re Doing
The migration involves a mix of rehosting, redeploying, and refactoring applications using AWS native tools, Terraform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and automated CI/CD pipelines.
Our scope includes:
Designing and deploying AWS environments for multiple business units.
Setting up VPCs, subnets, IAM roles, security groups, load balancers, and monitoring tools.
Implementing cross-account role assumption for secure access and governance.
Coordinating closely with both the cloud engineering and application teams to ensure smooth transitions.
As of now, we’re working through a pipeline of over 30 applications scheduled for migration to AWS. Several have already been successfully redeployed and tested in non-production and production environments.
My Role
As a Cloud Engineer on this project, my role cuts across technical execution, documentation, and coordination. I’ve been directly involved in:
Designing AWS architectures for multiple applications; defining network layout, IAM roles, and access controls.
Collaborating on Terraform automation, including maintaining GitHub repositories and building modular scripts for consistent infrastructure deployment.
Managing environment readiness, which includes server provisioning, IAM access configuration, and validating connectivity between on-prem databases and cloud servers.
Supporting MGN setup, ensuring source servers are correctly configured for migration replication.
Contributing to migration design documents, including the logical architecture, deployment models, dependencies, and database connections.
Coordinating with the application and security teams to manage firewall requests, DNS cutovers, and access provisioning.
What I’ve Achieved So Far
Successfully supported the AWS environment setup for multiple application migrations.
Created and refined design documentation that clearly outlines migration strategy, deployment processes, and technical architecture.
Validated IAM roles and cross-account access, ensuring secure provisioning in multi-account AWS setups.
Helped establish a Terraform-based deployment workflow, integrating version control and infrastructure automation.
Worked closely with the project leads to align AWS provisioning with organizational compliance standards.
Gained practical experience in AWS MGN (Migration Hub), Terraform automation, and enterprise migration governance.
Where We Are Now
Our team has completed the foundation setup AWS accounts, networking, IAM, and automation frameworks are now in place. We’re currently focused on:
- Accelerating AWS application deployments through Terraform automation.
- Coordinating with database and app owners for production cutovers.
- Streamlining server provisioning and post-deployment checks.
- Ensuring security compliance and monitoring with AWS CloudWatch and Config.
What Makes This Experience Stand Out
This project is more than just moving workloads to AWS; it’s a complete cloud enablement initiative. I’ve learned the value of collaboration between cloud engineers, app owners, database administrators, and project managers, all working toward a shared goal of modernization.
Every day comes with new learning: understanding enterprise migration frameworks, managing IAM at scale, troubleshooting deployment issues, and optimizing Terraform code for real-world production environments.
My Reflection
This experience has strengthened my skills not only as a Cloud Engineer but as a problem solver and collaborator. From designing secure AWS architectures to supporting production rollouts, I’ve seen firsthand how cloud migration works at scale the challenges, the coordination, and the satisfaction that comes when an application successfully goes live in the cloud.
We’re still moving forward, with many more applications to migrate in the coming weeks. And as we continue to build, automate, and refine, I’m proud to be part of a team that’s shaping the future of cloud transformation for one of the biggest enterprises in the industry.
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