CloudZen’s Microsoft on AWS Cost Optimization (MACO) recommendation guide is an essential resource that equips you with strategies to optimize both new and existing Microsoft workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This comprehensive guide provides foundational training, effective cost optimization techniques, and reference architectures to help you build and automate high-performing, cost-effective solutions aligned with your business objectives. Developed by a team of 42 industry experts, the MACO guide includes real-world examples showcasing how to successfully implement cost optimization for Microsoft workloads on AWS.
Why choose the MACO guide? In today’s competitive landscape, finding ways to reduce costs is crucial. At AWS, cost optimization is a fundamental pillar of our Well-Architected Framework. It’s vital to ensure that your Microsoft-based applications on AWS leverage the most cost-effective cloud-centric design patterns. Often, initial cloud migration strategies involve a lift-and-shift approach, minimizing changes to preserve existing features and functionality. However, conducting a thorough cost analysis and implementing necessary changes can be challenging without a consistent framework.
The MACO guide offers that much-needed framework, providing you with a reliable reference for achieving your cost optimization goals.
How can you cost optimize Microsoft workloads while migrating to AWS?
Cost optimization is a continuous, iterative process that can be applied whether you’re in a steady state or actively migrating your workloads. One valuable tool you can utilize is the AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA), which aids in identifying opportunities to optimize your workloads as they transition from on-premises to AWS. This no-cost program empowers both new and existing customers to evaluate and enhance their on-premises and cloud environments by rightsizing workloads for improved resource efficiency.
The OLA offers a comprehensive analysis of your actual resource usage—including compute, memory, and disk—along with insights into third-party licensing and application dependencies. By leveraging the data collected through the OLA, you can make informed, strategic decisions that will enhance your cloud journey and drive greater cost efficiency.
There are several effective options for conducting an OLA. You can either utilize the output from your existing monitoring tools to provide a flat file of your data for AWS analysis, or you can opt for a more thorough approach using a tool like Migration Evaluator. This tool employs operating system agents to gather usage data over a period of 14 to 30 days, ensuring a comprehensive analysis of your workloads.
With the data collected, AWS can provide informed instance sizing recommendations tailored to your application usage patterns. After the analysis is complete, you will receive a detailed report outlining findings and actionable recommendations for optimizing your environment before you initiate your migration. This ensures you’re well-equipped to make strategic decisions that enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Typical 3 tier On-premise Architecture:
AWS – Cloud-Centric Architecture:
CloudZen Innovation’s team leveraged tools such as Migration Evaluator and the AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA) to facilitate our migration to AWS. These tools provided invaluable visibility into our current on-premises environment, identifying opportunities to optimize licensing, minimize downtime, and reduce compute costs through effective workload right-sizing in the cloud.
After successfully migrating our Windows Server and SQL Server workloads to AWS, we achieved a remarkable 35% reduction in annual operating costs. This migration not only increased system uptime but also enabled us to manage costs more effectively. Additionally, it accelerated the development of new services, reducing timelines from months to just days, thereby fostering a culture of innovation within our team.
How can you cost optimize existing Microsoft workloads running on AWS?
The AWS MACO recommendation guide features over 40 cost optimization strategies specifically designed for existing Microsoft workloads running on AWS. If you’re seeking effective ways to start optimizing costs, right-sizing your resources and reducing compute expenses are often the most impactful approaches.
Enhance cost efficiency in your AWS environments with the AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA). This tool not only assesses existing AWS environments but also provides insights based on actual resource utilization, third-party licensing, and application dependencies. By analyzing your current deployments, application performance, and licensing agreements, AWS can deliver tailored recommendations for optimizing resource allocation. This creates a clear roadmap for reducing costs by aligning your existing licensing investments with the demands of your applications, ensuring you only pay for what you truly need.
Rightsize your compute workloads using AWS Compute Optimizer.
AWS Compute Optimizer recommends more efficient compute resources for your workloads, helping you reduce costs and enhance performance. By analyzing your existing Amazon EC2 instance configurations and utilization metrics, it provides tailored recommendations for the most suitable EC2 instance types for your workloads.
The AWS MACO guide offers valuable insights on how to enhance the results of AWS Compute Optimizer. In particular, the EC2 rightsizing section illustrates that customers can achieve an average cost savings of 327% by leveraging AWS Compute Optimizer recommendations. This is accomplished by installing the Amazon CloudWatch agent on EC2 instances to gather memory utilization metrics.
In addition to rightsizing, AWS Compute Optimizer can help you cut Microsoft SQL Server licensing costs by up to 74% by automating the identification of opportunities to downgrade SQL Server editions for both license-included and bring-your-own-license (BYOL) EC2 instances.
To further reduce steady-state compute costs, consider using Savings Plans. Once your workloads have been properly rightsized, Savings Plans can help you save on the steady-state usage of Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, AWS Fargate, and Amazon SageMaker. This flexible pricing model provides discounts compared to On-Demand pricing when you commit to a consistent amount of hourly compute spending over one or three years.
For a streamlined optimization process, explore the AWS Cost Optimization Hub. This hub simplifies the management of Savings Plans recommendations and AWS Compute Optimizer right-sizing opportunities, allowing you to easily identify, filter, and consolidate cost optimization recommendations across your AWS accounts and regions through a single dashboard.
For technology-specific optimization techniques, refer to the MACO recommendation guide. If you’ve maximized rightsizing opportunities and are seeking additional cost reduction strategies, the guide offers insights for .NET applications, Windows containers, SQL Server, Active Directory, and storage.
What’s Next After Optimization?
Once you’ve optimized your application as much as possible within its current structure, the next step is often modernization. Modernization encompasses application code, infrastructure, and databases. AWS provides a variety of tools and services to assist in modernizing your applications, and the MACO recommendation guide covers these topics in depth.
For .NET workloads, transitioning to cross-platform .NET enables applications to run on Linux, significantly reducing Windows Server licensing costs—often lowering the total cost of ownership per server by 25% or more. Additionally, .NET applications on Linux can benefit from AWS Graviton ARM processors, offering 45% better price-performance compared to x86 processors. The AWS Toolkit for .NET Refactoring is a helpful resource that expedites the transition of .NET Framework applications to cloud-native solutions on AWS.
A leading manufacturing client of CloudZen successfully modernized their legacy .NET Framework monolithic application to a .NET microservices architecture on AWS, achieving an impressive 65% cost savings. With support from the CloudZen team, they reduced Windows licensing expenses, increased agility, and eliminated scalability bottlenecks inherent in their previous architecture.
For SQL Server workloads, significant licensing costs can often be avoided by migrating to open-source or purpose-built databases. AWS offers Babelfish for Aurora PostgreSQL, enabling customers to transition from SQL Server to an open-source relational database while minimizing necessary changes to the front-end application. As highlighted in the MACO recommendation guide, switching from SQL Server Enterprise edition on Amazon EC2 to Aurora PostgreSQL can yield savings of up to 70%.
BMC Software successfully modernized their database workloads by migrating from Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Aurora, resulting in a 42% reduction in AWS infrastructure costs, elimination of SQL Server licensing fees, and a productivity increase of over 60% for their database team.
If you’re ready to explore the benefits of modernizing your workloads, we invite you to connect with the CloudZen team for expert guidance.
Conclusion
A cost-optimized workload maximizes resource utilization, delivers results at the lowest possible cost, and fulfills your functional requirements. The CloudZen Innovation team has subject matter experts ready to engage in detailed discussions about optimizing your workloads for cost efficiency. Reach out to your AWS account team today to kickstart your cost optimization journey.
Empower your Microsoft applications with the infrastructure they need to achieve your desired business outcomes. Connect with our AWS experts for tailored guidance and solutions for your Microsoft workloads. Contact us now to begin your migration and modernization journey!
