Optimize Software Licensing to Accelerate Cloud Migration ROI

A cloud migration can be accomplished in many ways with varying results. Many customers initially focus solely on the infrastructure and operational cost savings as the financial justification for migrating to the cloud. Becoming “cloud native” goes beyond modernizing workloads and how you provision and consume infrastructure. It means taking a hard look at your enterprise software licensing and deployment strategies, as well as how you provision and consume the cloud infrastructure that supports them.

Often overlooked as part of the migration strategy are additional potential savings organizations can realize by adjusting how they license, deploy and procure software. This is where CDW’s License Evaluation and Discovery Service (LEADS) engagement can help.

For many, licensing is often overlooked in their cloud migration planning… which can be complex and requires in-depth knowledge and expertise to be done correctly; this is where CDW LEADS can help you overcome this obstacle head on and enable a smoother migration while helping you get back to your modernization and innovation efforts. One thing to keep in mind is CDW LEADS isn’t only for those beginning their modernization efforts, it’s also for those who are looking to best utilize their resources, minimize expensive licensing, and extinguish inflexible licensing software agreements — in short, are you looking to have better control over your licensing costs?

So let’s get into it… How can CDW LEADS help you optimize your cloud costs…

To begin with, it’s all about right-sizing your software, workload, and application resources. Gone are the days of guessing what you’ll need years down the road and paying for it today. To optimize your licensing costs on AWS Cloud you have options. You can utilize AWS-native services, leverage their bring-your-own-license (BYOL) model, explore reserved instances or savings plans, and even choose open-source alternatives — I told you it could be complex. That’s the beauty of the CDW LEADS engagement, we’ll be there with you to assist in figuring out what licensing can be utilized, what AWS services can be leveraged, and when to deploy open-source alternatives to help reduce costs.

Right now I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “Gee whiz, that’s great… but what about some real numbers?” — A recent analysis of 300 AWS Optimization Licensing Assessments¹ shows just how significant the TCO of third-party licenses are after migrating to the AWS Cloud.

• Customers can save an average of 45% in Microsoft SQL Server licensing cost compared to the same on-premises IT infrastructure.
• An average of 77% savings on Windows Server licensing is achieved by rightsizing and optimizing of on-premise infrastructure.
• By optimizing and rightsizing, 98% of AWS customers can migrate without investments in new licenses.
• The average savings for AWS customers on licensing is 3x the savings obtained by rightsizing the infrastructure in the cloud.

And the best part is the CDW LEADS engagement is fully funded by AWS.

We begin with data discovery. Using the AWS Migration Evaluator and other tools our Digital Velocity AWS Solution Architects collect relevant data and utilization information about existing assets located within your environment(s), on-prem and in the cloud. After gathering the required data our Solution Architects will review and discuss the results with our Software Solution Advisor teams. This extra step allows CDW Engineers and Architects to fully understand and evaluate the assessment output. Which brings us to the final stage, the Executive Readout. Here we outline our recommendations around licensing cost savings, provide an outlook of your future spend when migrating to the cloud, and ways optimizing and right-sizing streamline your costs and migration efforts. 

So what are you waiting for, start optimizing licensing cost on your AWS Migration with CDW LEADS.

¹ Enterprise Strategy Group, Reduce Licensing and Infrastructure Cost