A Leading Australian Higher-Education Institution

Challenges

A large Australian university operated a diverse IT estate of 256 servers, with a strong base of Windows workloads supporting academic, research, and administrative functions. Alongside this, the environment included a broad mix of databases across SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, each critical to the institution’s operations.

Planning for migration required clear insight into how these workloads could be modernized and aligned to AWS services in a cost-efficient and low-risk way.

Solution

CloudHound delivered a MAP-aligned migration assessment that provided comprehensive visibility across the estate:

• Windows analysis: Identified 146 Windows servers across versions (2019, 2022, early 2025 builds), highlighting clear modernization pathways for migration.
• Database introspection: Delivered detailed insights into SQL Server workloads (version, edition, and usage patterns), as well as Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL instances.
• RDS analysis: Supported planning for modernization to Amazon RDS, including opportunities to consolidate workloads, optimize licensing, and adopt managed database services for greater resilience.
• Dependency mapping: Leveraging advanced network analysis with AWS Bedrock integration, CloudHound isolated discrete workload groupings, ensuring safe and efficient migration sequencing.
• Cost optimization modeling: Applied right-sizing strategies, Compute Savings Plans, and reserved instances to maximize AWS cost efficiency.

Results

• 256 servers analyzed, with Windows workloads clearly categorized by version.
• Comprehensive database discovery: including 45 SQL Server, 19 Oracle, 18 MySQL, and 13 PostgreSQL instances, all mapped for RDS modernization.
• Application and database dependencies surfaced, enabling precise grouping for migration.
• $778K in annual savings identified - a 70% TCO reduction - through right-sizing, license optimization, and AWS pricing constructs.

Conclusion

CloudHound provided deep introspection into both infrastructure and databases, surfacing clear pathways to modernize Windows workloads and migrate databases into Amazon RDS. With advanced dependency mapping and cost optimization, the institution gained a confident, low-risk migration roadmap that delivered significant financial and operational benefits.