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Migration of RDS Instances to Graviton Architecture

Discover how production Amazon RDS MySQL workloads were migrated to AWS Graviton architecture, improving efficiency and reducing database infrastructure costs with a controlled, low-risk approach.

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Client Overview

Humanoo (Acquired by Telus) operating in the healthcare industry, has developed an innovative platform that caters to employee retention and corporate wellness. The platform is designed to provide comprehensive wellness solutions to insurance companies and employers.

By implementing these wellness programs, companies can improve employee satisfaction, reduce absenteeism, and enhance productivity. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and customised wellness programs, the start-up helps companies create a healthier and more supportive work environment that benefits both employees and employers.

The platform operates on AWS and relies on managed cloud services to support scalable, production-grade workloads.

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Challenge

The client’s microservices architecture was deployed on AWS ECS Fargate, with each service relying on its own Amazon RDS MySQL instance. Operating production-grade AWS workloads and using managed database services to support business-critical applications meant that any infrastructure or architectural changes needed to carefully balance performance, availability, and cost efficiency.

As the platform scaled, the client encountered the following key challenges:

Performance Optimisation

The client needed to improve the performance efficiency of their RDS MySQL instances, with a particular focus on optimising MySQL query execution and maintaining consistent database responsiveness across services.

Cost Efficiency

Running multiple Amazon RDS instances introduced increasing operational costs. The client aimed to reduce infrastructure spend while continuing to operate stable, production-grade database workloads without service disruption.

Solution

To enable AWS Graviton for Amazon RDS MySQL workloads, the migration required both a database engine upgrade and a carefully controlled cutover strategy. Since Graviton-based RDS MySQL instances require MySQL version 8, the solution was designed as a phased migration that prioritised compatibility, stability, and minimal service disruption.

The implementation followed these key steps:

  • MySQL Version Upgrade: The existing RDS MySQL instances were upgraded from MySQL 5 to MySQL 8 to ensure compatibility with Graviton-based instance types and align with AWS-supported database engine requirements.
  • Low-Downtime Migration Using RDS Blue/Green Deployments: To minimise operational impact during the transition, the migration leveraged Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments. This approach allowed the team to prepare and validate changes in parallel before switching production traffic.
  • Graviton Instance Adoption: A Green environment was created from the existing RDS instances, including associated read replicas. The RDS instance types in the Green environment were then updated to their Graviton equivalents.
  • Controlled Cutover: Once validation was complete, traffic was switched from the Blue environment to the Green environment, completing the migration with minimal downtime and maintaining application availability throughout the process.

This approach aligns with AWS best practices for database modernisation and Graviton adoption.

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Results

This migration delivered measurable improvements across performance efficiency, resource utilisation, and infrastructure cost optimisation for Amazon RDS workloads on AWS.

Migration to Graviton

All Amazon RDS MySQL instances were successfully migrated to AWS Graviton-based instance types. This transition aligned the database platform with AWS-native ARM architecture, enabling improved price-performance characteristics while maintaining compatibility with managed RDS services.

Improved Resource Utilisation

Post-migration observations showed more efficient utilisation of CPU and memory resources across RDS instances. Improved workload efficiency enabled the platform to deliver consistent or improved performance while consuming fewer infrastructure resources.

Cost Savings

Following the migration to AWS Graviton-based RDS instances and subsequent rightsizing, the client achieved approximately 30% reduction in RDS-related infrastructure costs. Improved performance efficiency enabled the use of smaller instance types without compromising stability, resulting in lower ongoing operational spend while maintaining production-grade database performance.

Together, these results demonstrate how Graviton-based RDS migrations can deliver measurable efficiency and cost benefits for production database workloads.

Technology Stack

To support the migration of Amazon RDS MySQL workloads to AWS Graviton architecture, the solution was built using AWS-native services designed for performance, stability, and operational visibility in production environments.
  • Database Service: Amazon RDS MySQL on AWS Graviton-based instance types
  • Migration & Deployment: Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments
  • Monitoring and Performance Tracking: Amazon CloudWatch

By leveraging this technology stack, the migration to Graviton architecture was executed in a controlled and low-risk manner, enabling improved efficiency and reduced operational costs while maintaining stable, production-grade database workloads.

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