Migrating to AWS: A Manager's Guide

Preface

Sam sits at her desk. It is late, but she doesn’t know how late. The clock on the wall clicks away behind her. No reason to look at it; she has not gotten around to changing the battery for days. The second hand sits there one step forward, one step back. Sam feels the same way; how did she get here? She scans around the office. The only thing she sees is her reflection in the dark glass of her window. Pressing her palms against her eyes, she tries to relieve the stabbing pressure behind them. She saw this migration project as a way to boost her career, stand out as an innovator and leader, and clear a path from IT director to VP. Instead of receiving praise for the company’s success, fear of termination sinks in.

Sam’s company started its migration project four months ago, and it is now consuming her life. Project delays are driving up costs, and outages are affecting their customers’ experience. The CIO is growing impatient with the issues and has begun to question Sam’s capabilities. I have worked hard to become the director of IT; I need this migration to go smoothly, she thinks. Sam saw migrating to AWS as a catalyst to improve her company’s agility and drive more ambitious changes. In the past couple of years, the competition from startups has become fierce, and as an enterprise company, they cannot keep up with their competitors’ release cycles. By moving to AWS, they could gain agility and become competitive again. If this project were successful, it would gave ...