AWS to GCP Data Migration
Led a multi-petabyte data migration from AWS to Google Cloud Platform for an enterprise client, ensuring zero data loss, minimal downtime, and achieving 30% cost reduction.
🔄 The Challenge: Cross-Cloud Data Migration
An enterprise client needed to migrate their entire data infrastructure from AWS to Google Cloud Platform — including 50+ terabytes of data across S3, Redshift, and RDS — while maintaining business continuity and ensuring zero data loss.
- S3 (40+ TB)
- Redshift (10+ TB)
- RDS PostgreSQL
- Lambda Functions
- Cloud Storage
- BigQuery
- Cloud SQL
- Cloud Functions
📋 Migration Strategy
I designed a phased migration approach to minimize risk and ensure business continuity:
- Data inventory and classification
- Dependency mapping
- Cost analysis (AWS vs GCP)
- Risk assessment
- Timeline and rollback planning
- GCP project and IAM setup
- Network peering (VPN/Interconnect)
- Target infrastructure provisioning
- BigQuery datasets and schemas
- Terraform modules for GCP
- Storage Transfer Service for S3→GCS
- BigQuery Data Transfer for Redshift
- Database Migration Service for RDS
- Incremental sync for changes
- Validation checksums
- Final sync and cutover window
- Application switching
- Data validation and reconciliation
- Performance testing
- AWS decommissioning
🔧 Data Transfer Architecture
✅ Data Validation Strategy
To ensure zero data loss, I implemented multi-layer validation:
Automated comparison of record counts between source and target
MD5/SHA256 checksums for files to verify data integrity
Automated schema diff to ensure table structures match
Random sampling and deep comparison of actual values
Running identical queries on both platforms and comparing results
Complete logging of all transfers, validations, and discrepancies
🤖 Migration Automation
Built Python-based automation to orchestrate the migration:
🏆 Migration Results
BigQuery outperformed Redshift on analytical workloads
No cluster management with BigQuery's serverless model
Column-level security and VPC Service Controls
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