• Hardware refresh coming up and the capital expenditure hard to justify for infrastructure that is already limiting what you can build?

  • AWS bill arrived post-migration and it is higher than expected because the environment was never tuned for cloud economics?

AWS Migration Services

Moving to AWS is a decision most organisations get to eventually. On-premises hardware ages, software licences compound, and the team maintaining it grows without adding product value. AWS gives you elastic compute, managed databases, serverless execution, and global distribution -- but only if the migration is planned and executed without disrupting the business that depends on those systems today.
We migrate businesses to AWS: EC2, RDS, Aurora, S3, Lambda, ECS, and EKS. From a cloud readiness assessment that maps every dependency, through phased migration and cutover, to post-migration cost optimisation that prevents your AWS bill from exceeding what you spent on-prem.

  • Cloud readiness assessment that maps every application dependency and identifies what migrates as-is versus what needs re-platforming first

  • Phased migration execution that keeps your business running during the transition -- no extended maintenance windows

  • Infrastructure-as-code with Terraform so your AWS environment is reproducible, auditable, and not a black box

  • Post-migration cost optimisation including right-sizing, reserved instances, and auto-scaling to keep AWS spend lower than your on-prem equivalent

RaftLabs migrates businesses to Amazon Web Services -- including lift-and-shift migrations to EC2, application re-platforming to ECS and Lambda, database migrations to RDS and Aurora, and infrastructure-as-code delivery with Terraform. Migrations include a cloud readiness assessment, phased execution to minimise downtime, and post-migration cost optimisation. AWS migration projects typically cost $20,000 to $80,000 for focused environments and $80,000 or more for complex multi-application migrations.

Vodafone
Aldi
Nike
Microsoft
Heineken
Cisco
Calorgas
Energia Rewards
GE
Bank of America
T-Mobile
Valero
Techstars
East Ventures

AWS is not a destination you reach and stop thinking about. It is an environment you design, migrate into, and then optimise continuously as you understand your real usage patterns. The first bill after migration often surprises teams who mapped their on-prem capacity directly to cloud instance sizes without adjusting for the different cost model.

Getting the migration right means getting the assessment right first. Application dependency mapping, database sizing, network architecture, security requirements, and cost modelling -- all of this before a single resource is provisioned. The migration that avoids mid-project surprises is the one that already knows where they would have come from.

What we build

AWS lift-and-shift migration

Lift-and-shift migration from on-premises servers to AWS EC2. Application dependency mapping to understand what connects to what and what order migration must follow. AMI creation from existing server images where possible. EC2 instance type selection based on actual CPU and memory utilisation, not peak theoretical load. Auto-scaling group configuration for variable workloads. Load balancer setup with health checks. Security group configuration with least-privilege network access. DNS cutover planning with rollback steps. The migration that gets you off physical hardware without requiring an application rewrite first.

Application re-platforming to ECS and Lambda

Re-platforming applications from EC2 to container-based and serverless infrastructure where the cost-benefit of re-architecture is clear. Containerisation of applications with Docker and deployment to ECS Fargate for workloads that benefit from managed container infrastructure. Lambda migration for stateless, event-driven workloads -- scheduled jobs, API handlers, and file processing pipelines -- that run more cheaply without persistent compute. API Gateway configuration for Lambda-backed APIs. ECR for container image management. The re-platforming that reduces operational overhead and ongoing cost without a full application rewrite.

Database migration to RDS and Aurora

Managed database migration from on-premises MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL to RDS and Aurora. AWS DMS for continuous replication during the migration window to minimise downtime. Schema validation and data integrity checks before and after cutover. Multi-AZ configuration for high availability. Automated backup and point-in-time recovery configuration. Read replica setup for read-heavy workloads. Parameter group tuning for performance. The database migration that arrives in AWS with the same data, better availability, and lower operational overhead than the on-prem equivalent it replaced.

Infrastructure-as-code with Terraform

All AWS infrastructure defined and deployed using Terraform -- never manual console clicks that cannot be reviewed, versioned, or reproduced. Every resource -- VPC, subnets, security groups, EC2 instances, RDS clusters, IAM roles, S3 buckets, CloudFront distributions -- declared in version-controlled code. Environments (development, staging, production) created from the same codebase with environment-specific variable files. Remote state management with S3 backend and DynamoDB locking. Modular structure so the infrastructure can be extended without unintended side effects. Your team inherits an AWS environment they can read, modify, and recreate rather than a manually configured system only one person understands.

Multi-region and high availability architecture

AWS architecture designed for the availability requirements your business actually needs -- not over-engineered for theoretical scenarios. Multi-AZ deployment for RDS, ElastiCache, and ALB to eliminate single points of failure within a region. Multi-region active-passive or active-active architecture for workloads with strict uptime requirements or geographic latency constraints. Route 53 health checks and failover routing for automatic traffic redirection when a region has an availability event. RDS cross-region read replicas with promotion capability. S3 cross-region replication for object storage. The architecture that matches your actual SLA requirements with the AWS infrastructure that delivers them reliably.

AWS cost optimisation post-migration

Post-migration cost analysis and optimisation that prevents the AWS bill from exceeding what you spent on-prem. CloudWatch metrics analysis to identify right-sizing opportunities -- instances running at 15% CPU do not need the same instance type as production peak capacity. Reserved instance and savings plan purchasing for stable workloads where a 1- or 3-year commitment delivers 30-60% savings over on-demand pricing. S3 storage class lifecycle policies to move infrequently accessed data to cheaper tiers automatically. Idle resource identification and cleanup. Cost anomaly detection alerts so unexpected spend is caught in hours, not at month-end. Cloud cost typically lands 20-40% below equivalent on-prem spend within 12 months of optimisation.

When is your next hardware refresh due, and what does it cost compared to the AWS equivalent?

Bring us your current infrastructure details. We will assess the migration scope, map the dependencies, and give you an honest cost and timeline before you commit.

Talk about your AWS migration

  • DevOps -- CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation on AWS post-migration

  • Compliance Automation -- automated compliance evidence collection for AWS environments

Frequently asked questions

Lift-and-shift (rehosting) is the right approach when your goal is to get off on-premises infrastructure quickly, the application is stable and not cloud-optimised, and the operational benefits of cloud -- no hardware to manage, easier backups, faster provisioning -- are the primary driver. It is lower cost and lower risk than re-platforming. The application runs on EC2 instead of a physical server. Re-platforming makes sense when the application is a good fit for managed services: a stateless web application that would run more cheaply on ECS or Lambda, a database that benefits from Aurora over self-managed MySQL, or a scheduled job that should be a Lambda function rather than a cron on an EC2 instance. For most migrations, we recommend a phased approach: lift-and-shift first to exit on-prem, then re-platform specific components where the cost-benefit is clear and the risk of re-architecture is manageable.

Data migration is the highest-risk part of any AWS migration. Our approach: assessment first -- we document every database, its size, schema, relationships, and data quality issues before any migration work begins. We select the migration method based on the database type and acceptable downtime: dump-and-restore for databases that can tolerate a maintenance window, CDC replication (using AWS DMS or native replication) for databases that need near-zero downtime cutover. All migrations are tested in a staging environment that mirrors production before the live cutover. Automated validation compares row counts, checksums, and data samples between source and destination. The production cutover follows a documented runbook with defined rollback steps. We do not declare migration complete until automated validation passes.

The most common AWS services in our migration work: EC2 for lift-and-shift compute, ECS or EKS for containerised application workloads, RDS for managed relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL), Aurora for higher-throughput relational workloads, S3 for object storage and static assets, Lambda for scheduled jobs and event-driven workloads that fit the serverless execution model, CloudFront for CDN and edge delivery, ALB for load balancing, VPC with public and private subnets for network isolation, IAM for access control, Secrets Manager for credential management, and CloudWatch for monitoring and alerting. Terraform is the infrastructure-as-code tool we use to define and deploy all AWS resources so your environment is reproducible and version-controlled from day one.

Focused AWS migrations -- a single application or a small cluster of related services -- typically run $20,000 to $80,000. This covers the assessment, migration execution, infrastructure-as-code delivery, and post-migration validation. Complex environments with multiple applications, legacy dependencies, large database migrations, and multi-region architecture requirements typically run $80,000 or more. The assessment engagement that precedes the migration quote is what makes a fixed price possible -- we price based on what we find, not what we assume. Post-migration cost optimisation is scoped separately and typically delivers a 20-40% reduction in AWS spend within the first three months.