AWS to GCP Migration: AI-Optimized Technical Reference
Executive Summary
Real-world AWS to GCP migration requires 3x estimated time and cost. Expect 3+ months of post-migration firefighting. Success rate improves significantly with proper assessment tools and realistic timeline expectations.
Critical Assessment Tools
Effective Discovery Methods
Manual SSH Assessment (2 hours vs 50k consultant fees):
df -h- actual storage usage vs AWS billingfree -m- memory allocation reality checknetstat -tulpnorss- service dependency mappingsystemctl list-units --type=service --state=running- active services inventory
AWS Discovery Service: Unreliable - misses 50% of services, provides false dependency mapping
Common Infrastructure Findings
- 50% of EC2 instances over-provisioned from historical traffic spikes
- Security groups with 0.0.0.0/0 SSH access (port 22)
- S3 buckets with public read permissions from testing
- Orphaned EBS volumes costing $200+/month
- Undocumented DynamoDB tables with outdated provisioned capacity
Service Migration Reality Matrix
| AWS Service | GCP Equivalent | Success Rate | Critical Failure Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| RDS PostgreSQL | Cloud SQL | 90% | Custom extensions missing |
| RDS MySQL | Cloud SQL | 70% | Stored procedures break DMS |
| EC2 Linux | Compute Engine | 80% | Standard distributions only |
| EC2 Windows | Compute Engine | 30% | Custom drivers, licensing issues |
| Lambda | Cloud Functions | 0% | Complete rewrite required (15min vs 9min timeout) |
| Lambda | Cloud Run | 60% | Requires containerization knowledge |
| DynamoDB | Firestore | 0% | No migration path exists |
| DynamoDB | Cloud Spanner | 10% | 10x cost increase, different query model |
| S3 | Cloud Storage | 80% | 5TB/day transfer limit, metadata corruption |
| EKS | GKE | 40% | 60% of YAML configs need recreation |
Data Migration Constraints
Storage Transfer Service Limitations
- Rate Limit: 5TB/day maximum with QUOTA_EXCEEDED errors
- Failure Mode: Silent failures with versioned S3 buckets
- Cost Reality: 3x quoted pricing (egress + ingress charges)
- Timeline: Multi-TB migrations require 30+ days, not hours
Database Migration Service Performance
- PostgreSQL: 90% success rate, fails on custom extensions
- MySQL: Breaks on stored procedures, requires SUPER privileges
- Oracle: Manual rebuild recommended over migration tools
Network Migration Critical Failures
DNS Migration Timeline
- NS record propagation: 24-48 hours minimum
- A record changes: 2-6 hours
- CNAME updates: 1-2 hours
- Risk: Mobile apps with hardcoded IP addresses cause user lockouts
SSL Certificate Provisioning Issues
- Google-managed certificates: 24-72 hour provisioning, frequent FAILED_NOT_VISIBLE errors
- Mitigation: Use Let's Encrypt with cert-manager (2-minute provisioning)
- Downtime: Budget for HTTPS service interruption during migration
Team Resource Requirements
Essential Team Composition
- Senior migration engineer: Worth 5 consultants, prevents architectural mistakes
- Application domain expert: Critical for database connection troubleshooting
- Network specialist: DNS issues cause 80% of migration delays
- GCP IAM expert: GCP IAM complexity exceeds AWS by 3x
Timeline Reality Check
- Marketing estimate: 2 weeks
- Actual duration: 3+ months
- Hidden dependencies: Mobile apps, payment processors, email services with hardcoded endpoints
Post-Migration Performance Issues
Compute Performance Degradation
- Custom machine types cost 20% more than predefined instances
- Cross-zone latency higher than AWS cross-AZ traffic
- Auto-scaling instances lose sustained use discounts
Database Performance Unpredictability
- Cloud SQL query performance varies 100ms to 2+ seconds for identical queries
- Enable Query Insights immediately for debugging phantom issues
Storage Cost Surprises
- Lifecycle policies move critical files to Coldline storage without warning
- Retrieval fees apply immediately when applications access moved data
Cost Management Critical Warnings
Hidden Cost Multipliers
- Network egress: $0.12/GB accumulates rapidly
- Cloud NAT: $45/gateway/month + data processing fees
- BigQuery: Analysts can trigger $500+ queries accidentally
- Committed use discounts only apply to identical 24/7 instances
Billing Alert Configuration
Set alerts at 25%, 50%, 75%, 90% thresholds - not just 100%
Export billing to BigQuery for granular cost analysis
Security Configuration Complexity
GCP IAM Complexity Factors
- 3 distinct access denial mechanisms per resource
- Service accounts require manual JSON key management
- Workload Identity setup requires 17 configuration steps
- Organization policies can override project-level permissions
Monitoring Migration Requirements
Tool Conflicts
- Ops Agent conflicts with existing monitoring (Datadog, New Relic)
- Custom metrics use different namespace and pricing model
- CloudWatch alarm conditions don't map to GCP alerting policies
Essential Monitoring Setup
- Keep existing monitoring active for 3+ months minimum
- Cloud Trace provides superior distributed tracing
- Cloud Profiler requires application code modifications
Disaster Recovery Considerations
Backup Timing Issues
- Cloud SQL automated backups default to peak usage hours
- Multi-region deployments introduce data replication delays
- Cross-region firewall complexity increases failure points
Support and Documentation Reality
Google Cloud Support Tiers
- Basic: Documentation links only, no human contact
- Production: Humans read documentation to customers
- Premium: Potential ticket escalation capability
Effective Support Alternatives
- Stack Overflow GCP tag: Often superior to official support
- Reddit r/googlecloud: Community-driven solutions
- HackerNews migration threads: Real engineer war stories
Success Criteria and Timeline
Migration Completion Definition
Migration complete when:
- Zero surprise AWS charges for 6+ months
- All applications perform within acceptable parameters
- Team stops discovering "forgotten" AWS dependencies
- Monitoring and alerting function reliably in GCP environment
Optimization Phase Duration
Expect 3+ months of post-migration optimization and firefighting
Monthly cleanup tasks required to prevent resource drift and cost inflation
Critical Success Factors
- Use manual assessment tools over automated discovery services
- Budget 3x marketing timeline estimates for realistic planning
- Maintain AWS services for 30+ days after GCP cutover
- Test SSL certificate provisioning in staging before production
- Set up comprehensive cost monitoring before migration begins
- Keep existing monitoring active for 3+ months post-migration
Useful Links for Further Investigation
Migration Resources - What Actually Helps vs Marketing Bullshit
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Google Cloud Migration Framework | Classic four-phase approach that sounds great in PowerPoint, works terribly in practice. The "assess" phase will take forever - like 3x longer than they estimate. |
| AWS to Google Cloud Migration Guides | Service mappings are decent. Timeline estimates? Pure fantasy - ignore them completely. |
| Database Migration Service | Actually decent. PostgreSQL migrations work well. MySQL breaks on stored procedures. Oracle migrations - just rebuild everything. |
| Stack Overflow GCP Tag | Where you'll find actual solutions to problems Google support can't solve. Search here BEFORE opening support tickets. |
| HackerNews Cloud Migration Threads | War stories from engineers who've survived migrations. Better insights than any consultant can provide. |
| Google Cloud Pricing Calculator | Conservative estimates that ignore network egress, Cloud NAT, and BigQuery query costs. Add 50% to any estimate. |
| DoiT International | One of the few consultants knowing both AWS and GCP well. Expensive, but they actually know what they're doing and won't disappear after retainer. |
| GCP Status Page | Where you'll discover the outage you're debugging is actually Google's fault. Check this FIRST during incidents. |
| Terraform Google Provider Issues | Where you'll find that the Terraform resource you need has been broken for 8 months with no fix planned. |
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