Right2Drive - SQL Server Migration to Amazon RDS
Right2Drive has helped over 100,000 drivers get back on the road after their motor vehicle accident. Right2Drive provides a loan car to the not-at-fault party with the costs covered by the at-fault party. They operate from 24 locations across Australia and New Zealand.
Summary
Operating 24/7 from 24 sites across Australia and New Zealand, Right2Drive’s systems support them in ensuring they can get vehicles available where and whenever they are needed.
They had already migrated most of their systems to the AWS Cloud, but now wanted to migrate an OnPrem SQL Server running on a shared platform to Amazon RDS for SQL Server.
PolarSeven used AWS DMS to ensure a smooth migration, and now Right2Drive enjoys the benefits of a highly available and fault tolerant platform, with reduced licencing costs.
Right2Drive's Challenge
As part of its separation from its parent company, Right2Drive had migrated its systems into the AWS Cloud. The remaining SQL Server was running on lightly documented a shared platform. There were a large number of unknowns in the way it had been set up, including tables not having primary keys.
PolarSeven was consulted specifically for the database migration due to their deep experience and ability to solve the configuration problems as they came to light through the course of migration.
PolarSeven Solution
Amazon RDS for SQL Server makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale SQL Server deployments in the AWS Cloud. Amazon RDS supports multiple editions of SQL Server with cost-efficient and resizable compute capacity. Amazon RDS can be configured to manage time-consuming database administration tasks, including provisioning, backups, software patching, monitoring, and hardware scaling.
To ensure a smooth and efficient migration, PolarSeven utilised the AWS native tool AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS DMS delivered the benefits of reducing downtime to an absolute minimum, drastically reducing the time taken for the migration, and hence reducing the cost. To minimise risk, a staged approach was taken: first migrating the Non Production environments, and then proceeding with Production data migration.
Configuration changes were required in the data structure to accommodate the new database type, and extensive testing both during and post implementation was carried out to ensure there was no interruption or degradation of the service.
Amazon RDS for SQL Server is used as the Database server and Amazon EC2 for Windows Server was used to set up reports and other integration services related to RDS..
Results and Benefits
Now, Right2Drive enjoy the benefits of Amazon RDS for SQL Server over their OnPrem SQL Server:
Reduced Licensing: Amazon RDS for SQL Server supports the ‘License Included’ licensing model, so no separate Microsoft SQL Licences are required.
Highly Available and Fault Tolerant: Amazon RDS stores copies of the data across multiple Availability Zones in a single AWS Region.
Smooth migration: AWS Data Migration Service facilitated a rapid, cost-efficient migration with minimal downtime.