AWS to GCP

Migrating from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) requires careful planning, mapping of services, and process adaptation. This guide provides actionable steps, real-life examples, and best practices for a successful migration.

---

Quick Comparison: AWS vs GCP Services

AWS Service	GCP Equivalent	Notes
EC2	Compute Engine	VM types and images differ
S3	Cloud Storage	APIs and access models vary
IAM	Cloud IAM	RBAC and identity federation differ
RDS	Cloud SQL	Migration tools available
Lambda	Cloud Functions	Triggers and bindings differ
CloudFormation	Deployment Manager	Syntax and capabilities differ
CloudWatch	Stackdriver Monitoring	Metrics and logging integration varies
VPC	VPC	Subnet and peering models differ
EKS	GKE (Kubernetes Engine)	Cluster management differs
Route 53	Cloud DNS	Record types and automation differ

Tip: GCP's AWS to GCP service mapping

---

Migration Checklist

• Inventory AWS Resources Use AWS CLI: aws resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources > aws-inventory.json

• Map AWS Services to GCP Equivalents Create a mapping table for all services in use.

• Assess Application Dependencies Identify hardcoded endpoints, region-specific services, and OS dependencies.

• Plan Identity and Access Migration Prepare to migrate IAM users/groups to Cloud IAM.

• Network Planning Design GCP VPCs to match or improve your AWS VPC topology.

• Translate Infrastructure as Code Convert CloudFormation templates to Deployment Manager or Terraform.

• Migrate Data Use gsutil or Storage Transfer Service for storage migration.

• Migrate Identity Set up Cloud IAM, and test user access.

• Refactor Applications Update code/configs to use GCP SDKs and endpoints.

• Test and Validate Use Stackdriver Monitoring and Logging for validation.

• Update DNS Point domains to GCP endpoints (Cloud DNS).

• Monitor and Optimize Use GCP Cost Management and Recommender.

• Decommission AWS Resources Confirm all data is migrated and backups are complete before deleting.

• Update Documentation Revise runbooks and architecture diagrams.

---

Migration Steps (with Examples)

1. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Translation

• Example: Convert CloudFormation templates to Deployment Manager or Terraform.

  • Use Former2 to export AWS resources to Terraform, then adapt to GCP.

  • Example Terraform snippet for GCP VM:

    resource "google_compute_instance" "example" {
      name         = "example-vm"
      machine_type = "e2-medium"
      zone         = "us-central1-a"
      # ...
    }

2. Data Migration

• Example: Migrate S3 buckets to Cloud Storage using gsutil:

  gsutil -m cp -r s3://mybucket gs://my-gcp-bucket

3. Identity Migration

• Example: Sync AWS IAM users to Cloud IAM using Workforce Identity Federation.

4. Application Refactoring

• Update code/configs to use GCP SDKs and endpoints.

• Replace AWS Lambda triggers with Cloud Functions triggers.

5. Testing and Validation

• Use Stackdriver Monitoring and Logging for post-migration validation.

---

Post-Migration Tasks

• Update DNS: Point domains to GCP endpoints (e.g., Cloud DNS).

• Monitor and Optimize: Use GCP Cost Management and Recommender.

• Decommission AWS Resources: Ensure all data is migrated and backups are complete before deleting.

• Documentation: Update runbooks and architecture diagrams.

---

Best Practices & Common Pitfalls

• Start with Non-Production Workloads: Validate migration steps before moving critical systems.

• Automate Everything: Use Terraform/Ansible for repeatable deployments.

• Watch for Service Limits: GCP and AWS have different quotas.

• Security Review: Reassess security groups, firewall rules, and IAM/RBAC policies.

---

Cloud Hopping Humor

Why did the DevOps engineer take a surfboard to the AWS to GCP migration?

Because they heard the best waves are in the Google Cloud!

---

References

• AWS to GCP Service Comparison

• GCP Migration Center

• Terraform GCP Provider Docs

• gsutil Documentation