Monday, November 24, 2025

On-Premise Strategy with AWS | Deep Dive.


A deep-dive into building an On-Premise Strategy with AWS.

Scope:

  •        Architectures,
  •        Networking, hybrid services,
  •         Migration patterns,
  •        Security,
  •        Governance,
  •        Tooling,
  •        Real-world blueprints.

Breakdown:

  •        Benefits of Hybrid,
  •        Hybrid Architecture Models,
  •        Connectivity Options,
  •        Hybrid Compute,
  •        Hybrid Storage + Data Strategy,
  •        Identity + Access Integration,
  •        Operations, Observability & Automation,
  •        Security & Governance,
  •        Migration Patterns (Rehost Refactor),
  •        Common Use-Case Blueprints,
  •        Reference Architectures.

Intro:

  •        Modern enterprises rarely choose only cloud or only on-premise.
  •        Instead, Modern enterprises design hybrid architectures that unify both (the cloud and on-premise.)
  •        AWS offers a full hybrid ecosystem for extending, integrating, modernizing, and sometimes completely transforming on-premise workloads.

1. Benefits of Hybrid

Organizations go hybrid with AWS because:

 Regulatory or data residency requirements

  • Certain workloads must remain on-prem.

 Legacy systems not cloud-ready

  • Mainframes, monolithic ERP systems, specialized hardware.

 Latency & edge computing

  • Processing needs to occur close to manufacturing lines, hospitals, or retail sites.

 Gradual migrations

  • Hybrid enables “move when ready” rather than a big bang.

 Modernization without disruption

  • New cloud-native features can be layered on top of existing systems.

2. Hybrid Architecture Models

Model A: On-prem Primary + AWS for Bursting

  • twtech runs core workloads on-prem, burst compute into AWS for peak loads.

Model B: AWS Primary + On-prem Legacy Extensions

  • Main applications run in AWS; on-prem supports legacy DBs, directory services, or proprietary systems.

Model C: Distributed Edge + Regional Cloud

  • Use AWS Outposts, Snowball Edge, or Local Zones to keep compute close to users.

Model D: Multi-site Active/Active

  • Both on-prem and AWS regions are active, using global load balancing + data replication.

3. Connectivity Options (Network Deep Dive)

Connectivity is the backbone of hybrid infrastructure.

A. Layer 3 VPN

  •         Quickest and cheapest.
  •         IPSec tunnels over the internet.
  •         Good for dev/test or light workloads.

B. AWS Direct Connect (DX)

  •         Dedicated private fiber link.
  •         1, 10, 100 Gbps options.
  •         SLA-backed, low latency, highly stable.
  •         Supports public, private, and transit VIFs.

C. DX + VPN (HA Hybrid)

  •         VPN acts as failover for Direct Connect.

D. AWS Transit Gateway Hybrid Mesh

  •         Centralizes routing.
  •         Integrates multiple VPCs and on-prem networks.

E. SD-WAN + AWS Cloud WAN

  •         Allows global WAN orchestration between branches and AWS.

4. Hybrid Compute Strategy

Option A: AWS Outposts

  • AWS-managed hardware in twtech datacenter.
  • twtech runs EC2, ECS, EKS, RDS locally, managed from AWS console.

Option B: AWS Snow Family

Edge compute + storage for disconnected environments.
Use cases:

  •         Tactical edge
  •         Industrial sites
  •         Large-scale data migrations

Option C: VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC)

Extend vSphere into AWS with native integration:

  •         vMotion from on-prem
  •         Shared operational model
  •         Tight integration with native AWS services

Option D: Containers

Hybrid Kubernetes:

  •         EKS Anywhere (EKS-A)
  •         EKS Hybrid Nodes
  •         ECS Anywhere

Option E: Serverless Access to On-Prem

AWS Lambda calling on-prem services via:

  •         Direct Connect
  •         API Gateway + VPC Link

5. Hybrid Storage + Data Strategy

A. Direct Data Extension

  •         Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP integrates with on-prem NetApp clusters.
  •         FSx File Gateway for Windows file shares.

B. Storage Gateway (File, Tape, Volume)

Allows on-prem applications to use cloud-based storage seamlessly:

  •         Backup to AWS
  •         Archival to Amazon S3 Glacier
  •         NFS/SMB caching with cloud backing

C. Database Hybrid Approaches

  •         RDS + on-prem DBs using DMS for replication.
  •         Aurora Global Database with near-zero RPO failover to AWS.
  •         Babelfish for SQL Server migrations.

D. Data Lakes + Analytics

twtech can keep operational DBs on-prem while analytic pipelines run in AWS:

  •         S3 as central lake
  •         AWS Glue for ETL
  •         Amazon Athena for query

6. Identity & Access Integration

A. Active Directory Integration

  •         AWS Managed Microsoft AD + Trust relationships
  •         AD Connector (proxy)

B. Single Sign-On

  •         IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO)
  •         Federation via SAML/ADFS/Okta

C. Secrets & Key Management

  •         AWS KMS with on-prem HSM integration via CloudHSM

7. Operations, Observability & Automation

Unified Monitoring

  •         CloudWatch metric aggregation from on-prem
  •         CloudWatch Agent or Prometheus exporters
  •         AWS Systems Manager (SSM) for hybrid fleet management

Unified Logging

  •         CloudWatch Logs
  •         Amazon OpenSearch Service
  •         On-prem SIEM integration (Splunk, QRadar)

Automation

  •         Systems Manager Run Command
  •         Patch Manager for hybrid nodes
  •         IaC: Terraform, CloudFormation, CDK

8. Security & Governance

Zero Trust Hybrid Models

  •         PrivateLink to expose services securely
  •         Firewall Manager + Security Hub
  •         Inspector for EC2 + EKS + on-prem agents

Encryption Strategy

  •         KMS multi-region keys
  •         On-prem HSM integration

Network Security

  •         VPC endpoints, NACLs, security groups
  •         Microsegmentation via AWS Network Firewall

9. Migration Patterns

1. Rehost (“Lift & Shift”)

  • VMware Cloud on AWS
  • AWS Application Migration Service (MGN)

2. Replatform

Move databases to:

  •         RDS
  •         Aurora
  •         DynamoDB

3. Repurchase

  • Move to SaaS alternatives.

4. Refactor / Modernize

Break monolith into:

  •         Lambda
  •         Fargate
  •         Microservices

5. Retire / Retain

  • Hybrid allows selective migration.

10. Common Use-Case Blueprints

A. Hybrid App Development

Apps use:

  •         API Gateway in AWS
  •         On-prem DB through Direct Connect

B. Disaster Recovery to AWS

Warm standby:

  •         Continuous replication using DMS/MGN
  •         Route 53 failover

C. Cloud Bursting for Compute

On-prem HPC clusters overflow to:

  •         EC2 Spot Fleets
  •         EKS clusters

D. Edge Manufacturing

Outposts or Snowball for:

  •         Local SCADA/PLC processing
  •         Batch upload to AWS analytics tools

11. twtech Sample Reference Architectures

A. Hybrid Network Core

B. Hybrid Kubernetes

C. Hybrid Active Directory

On-Prem AD ←→ AWS Managed AD (trust)
IAM Identity Center (SSO)

D. Hybrid Storage Gateway

Local NFS/SMB Apps File Gateway  S3 / Glacier

 

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