BTEX 2025: How to Move to the Public Cloud with CDW and AWS
In this session from CDW’s Business Technology Expo, experts from CDW and AWS discuss some of the challenges and solutions around public cloud infrastructure.
“More than 60 percent of enterprise customers today say that moving forward, hybrid cloud will be their operating model,” said David Ahmann, Cloud SA Leader, CDW Canada, speaking at CDW’s 2025 Business Technology Expo.
In our experience, companies that are operating in highly regulated industries like healthcare, finance and government have very sensitive data sets and workloads that are destined to stay on-premises. But at the same time, they have some workloads where they want to leverage the capabilities and agility that public cloud offers.
– David Ahmann, Cloud SA Leader, CDW Canada
“But there are challenges, because customers want unified experiences across hybrid cloud and public cloud. They want the same reliable, secure, high-performance infrastructure, the same operational consistency and the same services. It makes no sense from an economic, operational or technical perspective to have different operating models and tooling to manage different environments.”
Security and governance in the hybrid cloud
“How do we make sure that these environments are secure, and they operate on a unified pane of glass in terms of networking, governance, security and visibility?” asked Ahmann.
“In engagements with our customers, unified networking is extremely important. They basically expect the same networking experience that they have today on-premises.”
And it’s the same with compliance. “For example, today on-premises I’m running Ansible. What’s going to happen when I move to the cloud?” asked Ahmann. “We have to present something broader than configuration management. How do you make sure that you have full visibility into your estate on public cloud and how do you manage those resources?”
AWS offers the same unified experience across locations
“In my experience working with multiple customers, usually they will keep their Active Directory on-premises,” said Gerardo Vazquez, Sr. Partner Solutions Architect, AWS. “And that Active Directory will now need to be compatible with the AWS environment.
“That’s why we want to unify the experience; we call this the AWS continuum. You can start from the AWS region and go on-premises or even to the far edge, using multiple different services.
“You can use many different container services on-premises or in the far edge. And you are going to have the same experience. So you won’t have to worry about whether something is running in the region or the far edge.”
AWS infrastructure in Canada
“We have two different availability zones, one in Calgary and one in Montreal, to accommodate low latency workloads,” said Vazquez. “You don’t need to send information from Calgary to another part of the country, and you can keep your information here in Canada.”
Vazquez also pointed out that AWS has edge locations in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg. “Knowing how we can help you locally allows us to think about the operating model and provide a unified experience.”
With this knowledge, AWS can help you set up your foundation in the hybrid cloud. “Usually this foundation will be around networking and security,” Vazquez said. “Connectivity can be through AWS Direct Connect, or a VPN to add encryption and give you visibility across your environment.”
How CDW can help you in your cloud journey
CDW can help customers assess, deploy and manage their cloud environments, whether public, private or hybrid cloud.
We work with customers and we assess the existing environments. We estimate the actual infrastructure usage, and we help customers right-size those environments. We create a business case with total cost of ownership, and help customers define clear ROI for the public cloud.
– David Ahmann, Cloud SA Leader, CDW Canada
“Based on what I’ve seen, and I’ve advised many dozens of customers over the last five years in public cloud, the move to the cloud usually starts with shadow IT,” said Ahmann. “Someone spins up a bunch of accounts and there’s no unified view into what’s happening in those environments. Setting up proper foundations is extremely important for future success."
When it comes to deployment, CDW can support all types of cloud migrations, whether lift and shift, rehosting or refactoring.
“And last but not least, when customers are already in the cloud, CDW offers managed services for public cloud environments, if you need some assistance or don’t want to handle that environment internally,” said Ahmann, before mentioning CDW’s LEADS (licencing, evaluation and discovery service) as a good first step.