Introduction

Cloud services play an important role in an organization's business-critical events, product launches, migrations, and modernizations. There are a variety of challenges that organizations face when they prepare for cloud-based events or projects:

• They might lack the in-house expertise to fully leverage the latest cloud advancements, especially for high-stakes occasions.

• They must efficiently scale infrastructure to meet sudden demand spikes while optimizing costs and maintaining performance.

• They must address security risks, such as how to handle sensitive data during events like elections and product launches.

• They must monitor and troubleshoot issues in real-time while maintaining compliance and data integrity across multiple AWS accounts and third-party platforms.

The complexities of cloud migrations and modernizations add another layer of difficulty, as organizations race against time to implement necessary changes before critical deadlines. These challenges often require specialized knowledge and dedicated support that goes beyond standard cloud services.

AWS Countdown Premium offers organizations a comprehensive solution to seamlessly navigate their cloud journey. With this service, you gain access to designated expertise and guidance from AWS, which empowers you to excel across a wide range of cloud initiatives. From the ability to establish secure landing zones and migrate applications to the modernization of workloads and launch of new services, AWS Countdown Premium provides the expertise to succeed. AWS Countdown Premium also facilitates live streaming events, supports high-traffic campaigns, and optimizes performance during peak demand periods.

What makes AWS Support different

To deliver expertise however you need it, AWS offers several complementary services to support the growth of your team's cloud skills. AWS Countdown Premium can help organizations maintain operational readiness and accelerate recovery efforts during business-critical events that can affect cloud workloads.

AWS Countdown Premium is available to Business Support, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise Support customers, and provides proactive guidance and troubleshooting steps. AWS Countdown Premium provides the following tools to navigate difficulties:

• Tailored assistance for business-critical events

• Customized runbooks

• Engagements designed to help you succeed

With this service, a designated support engineer works closely with you throughout the event lifecycle: from design and build to test, launch, and post-launch retrospective. The designated engineer provides expert guidance and is ready to help you minimize potential disruptions, restore operations, and deploy your cloud infrastructure and applications successfully.

Key features of AWS Countdown Premium

Support across every phase

AWS Countdown Premium provides comprehensive support throughout the entire cloud journey. During the design phase, AWS works with your team to create scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions tailored to your needs. During the build phase, AWS guides your infrastructure creation to follow AWS Well-Architected principles. During the test phase, AWS helps you verify your applications and systems for performance, security, and compliance before you deploy. When it's time for the launch phase, AWS helps with deployment, migration, and go-live activities to minimize risks. Lastly, during the post-launch phase, AWS continues to support performance optimization, cost management, and incident resolution to make sure that your cloud environment delivers maximum value.

Prepare for high-value events

Designated engineers participate in critical event calls, such as new application launches, new product launches, retail sales events, migrations, modernization, and more, to provide rapid issue triage and resolutions. When you use AWS Countdown Premium, you can significantly increase your infrastructure investment return, deliver high-impact events, and achieve organizational goals.

Common use cases for AWS Countdown Premium

Migrations and modernization

AWS Countdown Premium offers support for organizations that undertake complex cloud migrations or modernization initiatives. The designated support engineer closely collaborates throughout the process, from initial planning to post-migration optimization, to support smooth cloud adoption and modernization. For example, LegalZoom successfully migrated 450 servers and continues to use the service to streamline SaaS launches.

AWS Countdown Premium provides comprehensive assistance across various migration scenarios:

• For migrations from on-premises to AWS in the cloud, it helps plan application dependencies, data replication strategies (AWS DataSync and AWS Snowball), and network connectivity (AWS Direct Connect and AWS Virtual Private Network (AWS VPN)). It also helps implement security controls (Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) and AWS WAF).

• For contact center migrations to Amazon Connect, it helps integrate existing systems (CRM, workforce management), configure call routes and queues, and ensure compliance (PCI DSS, HIPAA).

• For database migrations, it helps plan data transfer methods (AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS), DataSync), schema conversions, and promotes high availability and disaster recovery (multiple availability zones (AZs) and DMS replication instances).

• For VMware workload migrations to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), it considers VM compatibility (VM Import/Export, CloudEndure), data replication (DataSync, AWS Backup), and cutover strategies (AWS Application Migration Service, CloudEndure) to minimize downtime.

• For mainframe migrations, it uses emulation (Migration Hub for Mainframes, third-party tools) or re-platforming, along with data migration (DataSync, Snowball) to address performance and compliance needs (Nitro Enclaves).

• For migrations from SAP to AWS, it plans for high availability (Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS), Amazon FSx for Windows File Server), disaster recovery (AWS Regions, AZs), and performance optimization for SAP workloads.

• For virtual machine migrations, it helps with compatibility tests (App Discovery Service, third-party tools), data transfer (DataSync, Snowball, Migration Hub Replication), and license compliancy (License Manager, BYOL).

Landing Zone setup and compliance

To set up your Landing Zone is an important step in the early part of designing your compliant cloud architecture. AWS Control Tower provides pre-defined, customizable guardrails that you can use to map your compliance needs, such as to enforce AWS Organizations service control policies (SCPs) for account provisioning and resource management. With the Landing Zone Accelerator, built on top of AWS Control Tower, you can quickly set up a multi-account AWS environment and follow AWS best practices. AWS Config and AWS Security Hub can continuously monitor, audit, and remediate resource configurations and security posture. AWS Artifact provides access to compliance reports and agreements, while AWS Certificate Manager and AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) support encryption and data protection compliance needs. Additionally, AWS offers compliance tools and dedicated services tailored to industry standards like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and FedRAMP to help you achieve and maintain compliance in the cloud.

Critical events and launches

AWS Countdown Premium provides dedicated engineering support that's tailored to an organization's needs during critical cloud events, such as major product launches and high-traffic scenarios that demand optimal performance and scalability. These engineers offer expertise in cloud architecture, deployment strategies, scalability, and issue resolution. They collaborate closely with customer teams to provide guidance through all phases to make sure that outcomes are successful with minimal disruptions. Use cases can include elections, sporting events, retail peaks, product rollouts, and application modernization initiatives. AWS Countdown Premium has helped launch seamless, high-volume operations for organizations like Red Oak Strategic during the 2024 Iowa Caucus. Red Oak Strategic leveraged AWS Countdown Premium to support thousands of voting locations and have real-time vote reporting with zero downtime.

Live event support

AWS Countdown Premium offers critical live event support to help you scale and handle sudden traffic spikes. AWS Countdown Premium is vital to launch major events such as elections at the local, county, and national levels. It can also help launch high-profile applications for events such as the Lunar New Year. AWS Countdown Premium is designed to support organizations through high-stakes events, such as elections, major sporting events, peak retail periods, and product launches. For example, DoorDash used AWS Countdown Premium to power an interactive ad during a prominent sporting event. They successfully processed over 10 million sweepstakes entries with no service disruptions.

Scaling and performance optimization

AWS Countdown Premium can help you prepare your infrastructure for extreme scaling demands. AWS engineers work with your team to evaluate readiness, conduct stress tests, and implement auto-scaling solutions. For example, during 2023 Prime Day, AWS services processed hundreds of billions of transactions and transferred petabytes of data. AWS Countdown Premium brings this expertise to your critical events and makes sure that your systems can handle sudden traffic spikes without a compromise in your performance.

Security and compliance

With cyber threats constantly evolving, AWS Countdown Premium emphasizes high security and compliance standards. This service includes comprehensive security assessments, implementation of AWS best practices, and guidance on compliance with multiple international standards. Engineers help set up robust monitoring and threat detection systems to make sure that your critical workloads are protected against potential DDoS attacks and other security risks.

Operational support

AWS Countdown Premium provides end-to-end operational support for your critical events. This support includes creation of customized runbooks and playbooks, configuration of comprehensive monitoring dashboards, and real-time support during the critical event. To identify lessons learned and areas for future improvement post-event, AWS Countdown Premium can create detailed retrospectives. With this support, you can continuously refine your operational processes.

AWS Countdown Premium example journey

Organizations in financial services and various industries use AWS services to optimize their business transformation. Critical workloads in financial services encompass a wide range of operations. They can include trade applications, exchanges and matching engines, risk management and margin calculations, claims management and document processing, customer service and delivery models, digital customer experiences, clearing and settlement, data and analytics, global payment processing, lending and deposits, and more. Financial services organizations face distinct internal and regulatory requirements that affect both their operations and reputations. Because of this, financial institutions seek tailored engagement solutions that address the onboarding of new workloads and the preparation and support needed for successful go-live and launch during critical events.

Here's a use case of how a customer used AWS Countdown Premium to In a recent AWS Well-Architected Review for a critical global trading and analytics platform, AWS recommended that the customer use AWS Countdown Premium to overcome these challenges. Here's a use case of how AWS Countdown Premium to facilitate modernization of the application and provided end-to-end support under strict deadlines for the customer.

Design

During the design phase, an AWS Countdown Premium engineer worked with the organization's team and provided valuable education on the engagement process. The engineer gathered essential project details (the success criteria, business outcomes, and timelines) and seamlessly integrated into the team as valuable resource. The engineer also actively participated in sprint planning, technical workshops, and working sessions, and made sure that were aligned. This support helped set the foundation for a successful project.

Build

In the build phase, the engineer assessed the application's architecture and evaluated it against design principles and best practices for cloud workloads. This review identified key shortcomings and anti-patterns that led to the creation of a comprehensive plan and optimization strategy. The engineer then worked with the organization on application performance testing and revision of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to align with the new architecture.

Test

During the testing phase, the engineer worked with the customer to define key performance indicators (KPIs) and helped them leverage observability telemetry and monitoring metrics. With the engineer, the customer could then make informed decisions and take prompt action when business outcomes were at stake. Additionally, to improve the application availability and cluster efficiency, the engineer provided the following suggestions:

• Use the right-size compute resources for varying loads

• Provide on-demand resources

• Optimize the compute footprint to reduce costs and improve performance

Launch

During the launch phase, the AWS Countdown Premium engineer led the management of the go-live process, and provided comprehensive support and monitoring to deliver seamless operations and prompt issue resolution. They also coordinated the staffing of engineers for the scheduled cutover and was actively involved throughout the process. The engineer and their team delivered continuous 24/7 support for this critical event for all global users.

Post-launch

After the successful launch, this 2-month AWS Countdown Premium phase focused on continuous optimization, support, and knowledge transfer. The AWS Countdown Premium engineer worked with the customer to fine-tune system performance, address problems efficiently, and enhance auto-scaling, database queries, and workload distribution. Cost optimization efforts, including the use of the right size for instances and automation of scaling, helped the customer improve their cost efficiency. Additionally, the engineer supported the organization's internal teams with hands-on training and best practices to manage the platform autonomously.

To plan for future growth strategically, the engineer and the organization discussed:

• New AWS services to support their growth

• How to optimize processes to support scalability and innovation

This post-launch phase, as described in the preceding example, made sure that the platform remained stable, cost-effective, and ready for future enhancements. The following diagram shows the custom engagement model for an AWS Countdown Premium customer journey:

Check if AWS Countdown Premium is right for you

Do you have any upcoming business-critical events or migration deadlines that require timely solutions?

For a business-critical event in the cloud, such as a major product launch or large-scale migration, you must plan for increased capacity, review application architecture, assess your security, and review for operational readiness. To make necessary remediations and reduce risks, it's a best practice to complete this process in advance.

Do you regularly encounter technical issues that cause frequent support requests?

If your team raises support cases frequently because of recurring technical challenges, then you might need more proactive guidance to address the root causes of these issues effectively.

Is it a priority for your team to minimize the resolution time for these technical challenges?

In situations where downtime or performance degradation can severely affect your business, it's a best practice to have a designated support team with intimate knowledge of your environment to significantly reduce the time to resolution.

Would you benefit from enhanced advisory and consultations to address your technical needs?

As your cloud environment grows in complexity, you might need specialized expertise and guidance to optimize your architecture, implement best practices, and leverage the latest AWS services and features. A designated support engineer that's assigned to your account can provide continuity and deep context awareness. They can also understand your requirements and provide tailored recommendations based on your specific situation.

Are there complex use cases that require escalation to specialized teams?

For complex or niche use cases that require expertise beyond general support, AWS Countdown Premium can facilitate direct collaboration with specialized teams, such as those teams focused on specific services or technologies, to provide the most appropriate guidance.

After you consider these questions, you can better understand if enhanced support, designated resources, and specialized expertise that AWS Countdown Premium offers aligns with your organization's needs.

Conclusion

This article provides information on how to explore the features of AWS Countdown Premium as a custom solution that's designed to help organizations enhance their efficiency and value in the cloud.  

To guide organizations through their cloud journey, AWS Countdown Premium provides expert support and access to AWS engineers and specialists. Organizations can use this service to prepare for critical events, optimize performance, and achieve their strategic goals. The custom engagement model delivers tailored support, promotes business continuity during critical events, mitigates risks, and drives success throughout the process. You can use AWS Countdown Premium to address challenges confidently and unlock opportunities for innovation. For more information, see AWS Countdown Premium.

About the authors

Jatinder Singh is a Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS who specializes in helping customers with their cloud migration and innovation endeavors. He brings his expertise and enthusiasm for technology to help clients efficiently scale their businesses so that they can focus on their core activities. Outside of work, he enjoys spending moments with his family and indulging in hobbies such as reading, culinary arts, and chess.

Michele McFaden is a Principal Product Manager in the AWS Support product team. She helps define the customer outreach strategy so that customers can adopt AWS Support and Managed Service offerings to match their needs. She has many years of experience in IT service management and cloud operations product management, and is dedicated to finding new and more efficient ways to help organizations manage their IT infrastructure and operations to support of their customers. In her free time, she loves spending time with her family, listening to music, writing, and traveling.

Shivanand Misir is a Senior Manager in Enterprise Support at AWS. He leads a team of Technical Account Managers who guide Energy customers at AWS through their transformative cloud journeys. Shivanand's wide range of experiences and diverse professional background spans Oil and Gas operations to Site Reliability Engineering, and shapes his approach to solving customer challenges. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring new destinations and working on new DIY projects.