Migration from GCP to AWS
Opportunity
The acquisition of Over, a Canva competitor, by GoDaddy created an opportunity to consolidate the acquired company’s infrastructure with GoDaddy’s AWS-based ecosystem. Over, rebranded as GoDaddy Studio, was running on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with a complex setup consisting of around 20 microservices. The primary objective was to migrate all services and databases to AWS while ensuring compliance with GoDaddy’s stringent security and operational best practices. The migration required seamless transition, minimum downtime, robust security, and adherence to scalability and monitoring standards.
Solution
To achieve the migration with minimal disruption, we adopted a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach that prioritized security, reliability, and minimal downtime.
Database Migration Strategy: The cornerstone of our migration was the seamless transition of Over's CloudSQL (MySQL) database to AWS Aurora. We utilized AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to establish continuous replication from CloudSQL to Aurora, ensuring minimal downtime during the cutover process. Aurora was carefully configured to maintain real-time synchronization with CloudSQL throughout the migration phase, allowing for a smooth and reliable database transition.
Network Architecture Redesign: We designed a robust AWS network architecture following industry best practices, implementing public and private subnets to ensure proper security segmentation. The network incorporated comprehensive security measures including network ACLs, security groups, and VPC flow logs to maintain GoDaddy's stringent security requirements and provide complete visibility into network traffic.
Service Transition and Modernization: The migration involved carefully transitioning from GCP services to their AWS counterparts. We replaced Google Pub/Sub with AWS SNS/SQS for messaging, migrated from Google Cloud Storage (GCS) to Amazon S3 for object storage, and moved containerized applications from Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). Each transition was planned and executed with thorough testing to ensure functionality remained intact.
Enhanced Security Implementation: Security was paramount throughout the migration. We implemented automated secret rotation every 90 days using AWS Secrets Manager, ensuring credentials remained secure and regularly updated. Mutual TLS communication between services was established using Linkerd as the service mesh, providing encrypted inter-service communication. We also established secure communication with Elastic Cloud for Elasticsearch and Kibana monitoring using VPC endpoints, ensuring no sensitive data traversed the public internet.
Comprehensive Monitoring and Logging: We configured Elasticsearch and Kibana for centralized monitoring and logging, providing the operations team with complete visibility into system performance and health. The integration with Elastic Cloud through VPC endpoints maintained secure data flows while enabling powerful analytics and monitoring capabilities.
CI/CD Pipeline Standardization: To improve deployment consistency and efficiency, we built centralized CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, consolidating pipeline management across multiple repositories. We developed standardized Helm charts for service deployment and adopted GitOps practices with Flux to manage Kubernetes workloads effectively, ensuring repeatable and reliable deployments.
Incremental Migration Strategy: To minimize risk and ensure system stability, we transitioned services incrementally, one at a time, from GCP to AWS. We used AWS CloudFormation to define and deploy infrastructure as code, ensuring consistency and repeatability. During the transition period, we established forwarders using Google Cloud Functions to bridge Google Pub/Sub and AWS SNS/SQS, enabling seamless inter-service event handling while services were being migrated.
Results
The migration was successfully completed with exceptional outcomes that exceeded expectations and delivered significant business value.
Complete Service Migration: All 20 microservices were seamlessly migrated to AWS and fully integrated with GoDaddy's existing ecosystem. The transition was executed with precision, ensuring that every service maintained its functionality while benefiting from AWS's robust infrastructure and GoDaddy's operational standards.
Minimal Downtime Database Transition: The database transition from CloudSQL to AWS Aurora was achieved with minimal downtime using DMS replication. This critical component of the migration ensured business continuity while providing the performance and reliability benefits of AWS's managed database service.
Enhanced Security and Compliance: We implemented a robust and secure network architecture that fully met GoDaddy's stringent security requirements. The automated secret management system and mutual TLS implementation significantly bolstered service-to-service communication security, exceeding industry standards for enterprise-grade infrastructure.
Operational Excellence: Services were successfully standardized on AWS, leveraging native tools like S3, SNS/SQS, and EKS for optimal performance and cost-efficiency. Monitoring and logging capabilities were enhanced through Elastic Cloud and Kibana integration, providing the operations team with unprecedented visibility into system health and performance.
Streamlined Development Processes: The implementation of centralized CI/CD pipelines and standardized Helm charts facilitated consistent and efficient deployment across all services. This standardization significantly reduced deployment complexity and improved development team productivity.
This comprehensive migration not only aligned GoDaddy Studio's infrastructure with corporate standards but also delivered improvements in scalability, security, and manageability. The project established a strong foundation for future growth and innovation, positioning the platform for continued success in the competitive creative tools market.
Client Testimonial
Our experience working with Sagar was exceptional. I can highly recommend him, especially for his devops related skills. He is a knowledge and dedicated engineer who is highly productive. He helped us tremendously on a large cloud migration project which had global scope. He integrated with our existing engineering team very well and performed above our expectations. If the rating system here was 10 star based, I would rate him at 10.
Euan Mapham Software Engineering Director at GoDaddy