Netflix migrated its infrastructure from on-premise data centers to the cloud starting in 2008 due to issues with its monolithic architecture. It moved services gradually to AWS using microservices. This provided agility through continuous delivery, elasticity to dynamically scale, and resiliency through redundancy. Netflix also moved corporate systems like email to SaaS. The cloud transformation required changes to its operations model and culture to become more decentralized and cloud-native. While Netflix's size enabled this transformation, the document argues that any organization can make this shift to gain competitive advantages.

1. NETFLIX’S CLOUD MIGRATION
Ariel Tseitlin
Partner, Scale Venture Partners
July 10, 2016

2. It all started in 2008…
A TALE OF A CLOUD TRANSFORMATION

3. ABOUT NETFLIX
Netflix is the world’s leading
Internet television network
with over 81 million
members in more than 190
countries enjoying more
than 125 million hours of TV
shows and movies per day,
including original series[1]
[1] http://ir.netflix.com/

4. A TROUBLED STATE OF AFFAIRS
• Single monolithic Java app
• 2 Data Centers, running 100% of production and test
• Centralized release process, train left every two weeks
• 6-8 weeks to provision new hardware

5. THE DAY THE SHELL CRACKED
• Oracle database corruption rendered site unavailable
• It took 3 days to recover
• Unable to ship any DVDs during downtime

6. A JOURNEY TO THE SKY
• Combined cloud migration with micro-services re-architecture
• Started small, tunneling back to data center
• Shifted more and more services to cloud over time
• A difficult period of “roman-riding”
• 2010 iPhone launch done entirely from the cloud

7. CORPORATE SYSTEMS TOO
It wasn’t just the Product

8. CORPORATE SYSTEM MOVED TO SAAS
• Email (Exchange->Google Apps)
• Expense Management (Concur->Workday)
• Document sharing (File Servers->Box)
• And many more…
• Goal: 100% SaaS, no data centers

9. MADE POSSIBLE IN THE CLOUD
Agility, APIs, Elasticity, Efficiency, Resiliency

10. AGILITY
• Removed separation between dev and ops
• Resources at the click of a button
• Decentralized continuous delivery

11. APIS
• Software-controlled infrastructure (start, terminate, scale)
• Inject failure
• Monitor & audit
• Automate operations

12. ELASTICITY
• Capacity planning replaced with forecasting
• Dynamic load-based auto-scaling
• New data centers at the click of a button

13. EFFICIENCY
• ~10x trough to peak ratio.
• Optimize machine class for each service
• Highly available red/black deployments

14. RESILIENCY
• Failure injection
• Redundancy (multiple AZs, multiple regions)
• Automated remediation
• Decentralized operations
• Improved performance and reliability

15. ORGANIZATION HAD TO CHANGE
• BEFORE: Centralized NOC & IT Ops reporting to CIO
• AFTER: Centralized platform, reporting to CPO, with service teams
for
• Performance
• Availability
• Security
• Delivery

16. SPECIAL CASE OR A BLUEPRINT FOR
SUCCESS?
• Was there anything unique about Netflix that enabled it to make the
cloud & DevOps transformation? YES & NO
• No, any organization / enterprise can (& will) transform itself to
become cloud-native
• Yes, you need the right culture, talent, and desire (but you will be
out-competed if you don’t!)