3 ways to migrate and deploy IBM Maximo on AWS Cloud

A latest IDC report — The Business Value of IBM Maximo — that surveyed 9 corporations with a mean of 8,500 staff, discovered that after these corporations adopted IBM Maximo, it resulted in: a enterprise profit of roughly USD 14.6 million, on common, per yr per group; 43% much less unplanned downtime per yr; and USD 8.6 million in whole gear value avoidances yearly. 

IBM Maximo® Application Suite (MAS) is a single, built-in, cloud-based utility platform for asset monitoring, administration, predictive upkeep and reliability planning. Maximo maintains high-value property with AI and analytics to optimize efficiency, prolong asset lifecycles and cut back downtime and prices. To reap one of the best advantages with most efficiency, it’s important to host the identical on a scalable infrastructure, thereby the present pattern is emigrate Maximo to cloud. On this journey, we’re seeing an elevated curiosity in migrating and deploying MAS on AWS Cloud.

The rising want for Maximo migration to AWS Cloud

Migrating to cloud helps organizations to drive the operational resiliency and reliability, on the similar time protecting software program updated with minimal improve effort and infrastructure constraint. As a consequence of elevated demand of data-driven asset administration, it’s important to mix knowledge from completely different areas of a corporation, which in flip helps organizations uncover tendencies, make predictions and take higher knowledgeable asset administration choices.

In step with this pattern, final April IBM introduced end of support for all Maximo 7.6 and add-ons by September 2025. Because of this, the trail ahead for all Maximo EAM clients is to maneuver to the newest cloud-based MAS. Due to this fact, Maximo migration and modernization has change into much more essential for purchasers.

To additional help Maximo migration to AWS, IBM has now made accessible newer containerized variations of Maximo Utility Suite as a Service (MAS SaaS) on AWS Market with Deliver Your Personal License (BYOL) on AWS. MAS SaaS on AWS represents one more essential step in Maximo’s journey to combine its standalone purposes — like Monitor, Well being and Visible Inspection — right into a cohesive single suite of purposes.

Read more: IBM announces IBM MAS Saas

Why MAS SaaS is exclusive

MAS SaaS, a subscription-based service supplied on the AWS, supplies an operational setting deployed on AWS and operated and managed on a steady foundation by IBM Web site Reliability Engineering (SRE) specialists utilizing finest practices. This collaboration equips clients with an industry-leading asset administration system from IBM, supported by the size, agility and cost-efficiency of AWS.

Shifting to MAS 8 is each an improve and migration when utilizing MAS SaaS. The improve is much like earlier upgrades as regards to the info, however the underlying structure modifications must be performed involving ROSA and different dependencies. The migration is much like how purchasers moved from on-premise to our earlier Maximo EAM SaaS Flex providing, however making an allowance for the variations with MAS. With a purpose to migrate to MAS SaaS, perpetual on-premises clients would cease paying Service & Help (S&S) and buy a SaaS subscription; on premises Subscription License clients would start a brand new SaaS subscription; and current MAS Flex and MAS Managed Service clients would start a brand new MAS SaaS subscription.

To jumpstart the migration journey, companies can design completely different migration and modernization paths beforehand, laying out potential modernization applications earlier than making the funding utilizing our proprietary IBM Consulting Cloud Accelerator (ICCA) platform.

A world vitality firm’s method to Maximo migration

Allow us to have a look at an instance the place IBM labored intently with an vitality firm that was going through the next challenges:

• Longer instances to obtain infrastructure required to help newest model of Maximo
• WebSphere being the core to Maximo had excessive availability and high-performance points 
• Knowledge sharing challenges throughout a number of purposes on account of lack of information cloth and integration layer
• Handbook end-to-end deployment resulting in advanced setup, errors and safety

The consumer selected the most recent model — Maximo Utility Suite 8 (MAS8) — because it addresses {industry} challenges corresponding to danger of failure, rising upkeep value and sustainability and compliance rules. AWS Cloud was the popular alternative for the consumer to benefit from higher deployment flexibility, scalability, excessive availability and safe structure.  

Answer method

IBM adopted the next method to speed up the vitality firm’s Maximo migration to AWS:

• Upgraded current Maximo utility from model 7.6.0.9 to model 7.6.1.2 utilizing Infra as a code (IaC)
• Deployed utilizing IaC supplied the flexibleness of spin-up the occasion required for auto scaling. This automation helps to scale back the lead time to spin and run the brand new setting, additionally addressing latency points on account of multi-AWS availability zone deployment
• Used AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for knowledge migration and schema conversion
• To attenuate the database replication (DR) infra provision and preserve the DR value decrease, IaC was used to spin the DR setting based mostly on demand. DR capabilities used to maintain knowledge updated inside availability zone and DR area
• Addressed knowledge sharing throughout purposes utilizing IBM Cloud Pak for Data and uniform integration layer utilizing IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Answer parts

• Maximo Enterprise Utility Administration (EAM) is predicated on a 3-tier structure with the next parts:
  • HTTP/Net Tier and Utility Tier utilizing the IBM WebSphere and HIS deployed EC2 occasion beneath non-public subnet, to maintain utility safe.
  • Database Tier is utilizing the AWS Oracle RDS with replication allow to handle the DR scenario, operating beneath non-public subnet.
• Digital Personal Cloud (VPC) was configured based mostly on AWS finest practices with private and non-private subnets
• Utility servers and deployment supervisor have been setup for autoscaling utilizing the Auto Scaling Group  
• Maximo web-based UI decision for exterior entry utilizing the AWS Route 53 service
• Net utility firewall (WAF) was used as a primary line of protection in opposition to net exploits
• IaC scripts on Terraform and CFT have been built-in to provision autoscaling structure

Reference Structure on AWS  

How Maximo on RedHat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) helps purchasers

MAS 8.0 has now been containerized and accessible to run particularly on RedHat OpenShift. To ease this transition for patrons unfamiliar with operating containers in manufacturing, AWS has partnered with IBM and RedHat to develop an IBM MAS on ROSA reference structure. ROSA is a fully-managed, turnkey application platform that permits corporations to deal with deploying purposes and speed up innovation by off-loading the cluster lifecycle administration to RedHat and AWS, and has now supported configuration for IBM MAS. Because of this clients don’t should create, handle and preserve their very own RedHat OpenShift clusters for IBM MAS.

Maximo Migration and Working Mannequin

High 3 methods to speed up Maximo migration to AWS

With a purpose to migrate to the cloud, there are three deployment fashions accessible to purchasers for operating IBM MAS on AWS Cloud:

1. MAS SaaS on AWS powered by ROSA
2. MAS devoted on AWS powered by ROSA
3. Buyer-hosted ROSA