Earlier this year, Netflix announced that after seven long years, they had finally switched off their last physical data centre and completed their migration to the AWS Cloud. So, what were some of the key reasons behind this move from the world’s largest online movie rental service?
Netflix has long been a user of various AWS services, primarily in the customer-facing services side of the business. However, the completion of this full migration to the Cloud using Amazon Web Services has been a much lengthier process.
In February this year, Vice President of Cloud and Platform Engineering, Yury Izrailevsky, announced in a blog post that Netflix had finally completed the move. In this post, Izrailevsky sheds light on some of the key reasons why Netflix made the move to the AWS Cloud.
Historic major database corruption
Izrailevsky states that Netflix’s journey to this point started back in 2008 when they experienced a major database corruption. Back then, Netflix was still predominantly a DVD-by-mail service and this corruption hit them hard, causing a three-day disruption to DVD shipping.
At this point, the team recognised they needed to move away from relational databases in their data centre, away from vertically scaled single points of failure which could be so disruptive to their business.
A new approach was necessary, and this led the Netflix team to Amazon Web Services and the AWS Cloud. For them, it was the perfect fit for their business. The AWS Cloud not only offered the greatest ability to scale, – something which was critical for a business growing at their pace – but also the greatest portfolio of services.
Scaling to meet increasing data volumes
Like many other businesses these days, Netflix’s decision to move to the Cloud was largely down to the ever-increasing volumes of data they were handling.
As you can see from the figure below, Netflix witnessed an astonishing rise in streaming hours from 2008 onwards.
Netflix monthly streaming hours
Netflix now have eight times as many members as they had in 2008 and the data volumes resulting from this growth are incomparable.
With physical data warehousing, scalability can be a big issue. Izrailevsky admits that they ‘simply could not have racked the servers fast enough’ if they were to try and support this rapid growth.
With the AWS Cloud on the other hand, it’s possible to quickly and easily scale your data warehouse up or down to meet demand. In a few simple clicks you can provision thousands of virtual servers, equating to petabytes worth of additional storage.
Check out this video case study, in which Netflix’s Director of Big Data Platforms, Eva Tse highlights just how easy it has become to deliver billions of hours of content via the AWS Cloud.
Cost-saving benefits
Whilst Izrailevsky admits that the cost-saving benefits were not the main reason for moving to the AWS Cloud, it was still a massive factor in this success story.
Migrating to the Cloud means that the costs associated with physical infrastructure and its ongoing maintenance are massively reduced, if not wiped out altogether. Instead you pay for what you want, when you want it, and can scale up and down as you wish. This often works out to be much more economical, particularly for larger businesses that can exploit economies of scale as they scale up their data volumes.
When Netflix analysed the costs per stream on the AWS Cloud, they found them to be a fraction of the cost compared with what they were paying before.
Making the move to the Cloud
It might have taken Netflix seven years to complete their full migration to the Cloud, but it certainly doesn’t have to take that long.
The AWS Cloud offers a whole host of different Cloud services across categories such as storage, networking and data warehousing. Integrating these services into your existing processes can help ease your move to the Cloud.
One of AWS’s most popular services, and up until recently its fastest-growing, is Amazon Redshift.
Redshift has revolutionised data warehousing, allowing users to handle petabyte-scale data volumes, quickly, easily and more cost effectively.
To find out more about Amazon Redshift, and how to get the best out of it, download our free guide below.
FAQs
It began its transition to the cloud back in 2008, shifting from traditional physical data centers to Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leading cloud services provider. By moving its vast infrastructure to the cloud, Netflix aimed to streamline its operations, improve scalability, and enhance the customer experience.
Why did Netflix move to AWS? ›
"We chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) as our cloud provider because it provided us with the greatest scale and the broadest set of services and features. The majority of our systems, including all customer-facing services, had been migrated to the cloud prior to 2015.
When did Netflix join AWS? ›
Netflix would rather concentrate on getting better at delivering video rather than getting better at building data centres. In August 2008, Netflix experienced major database corruption for three days. This is when Netflix decided to go to Amazon Web Services (AWS), even though Amazon is its biggest competitor.
What are the benefits of Netflix using AWS? ›
AWS enables Netflix to quickly deploy thousands of servers and terabytes of storage within minutes. Users can stream Netflix shows and movies from anywhere in the world, including on the web, on tablets, or on mobile devices such as iPhones. Learn more about how Netflix continues to innovate on AWS.
What event caused Netflix to switch to a cloud based service? ›
Our journey to the cloud at Netflix began in August of 2008, when we experienced a major database corruption and for three days could not ship DVDs to our members.
Why companies are switching to AWS? ›
With AWS, companies pay for what they use. There's no upfront cost to build a storage system and no need to estimate usage. AWS customers use what they need, and their costs are scaled automatically and accordingly.
How much does Netflix pay to AWS? ›
Back then, Netflix revealed it would spend over $1 billion on “streaming services and cloud computing costs” through 2023. Netflix would spend $27.78 million per month on AWS cloud services, according to that plan.
Is Netflix 100% on AWS? ›
Netflix uses AWS for nearly all its computing and storage needs, including databases, analytics, recommendation engines, video transcoding, and more—hundreds of functions that in total use more than 100,000 server instances on AWS.
What is the AWS strategy of Netflix? ›
Netflix relies on AWS to help it innovate with speed and consistently deliver best-in-class entertainment. AWS provides Netflix with compute, storage, and infrastructure that allow the company to scale quickly, operate securely, and meet capacity needs anywhere in the world.
When did Netflix switch to cloud? ›
It began its transition to the cloud back in 2008, shifting from traditional physical data centers to Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leading cloud services provider. By moving its vast infrastructure to the cloud, Netflix aimed to streamline its operations, improve scalability, and enhance the customer experience.
According to Intricately, the top ten AWS users based on EC2 monthly spend are:
- Netflix: $19 million.
- Twitch: $15 million.
- LinkedIn: $13 million.
- Facebook: $11 million.
- Turner Broadcasting: $10 million.
- BBC: $9 million.
- Baidu: $9 million.
- ESPN: $8 million.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally.
Does Disney use AWS? ›
Disney's vast content library, including movies, TV shows, and streaming services, requires a scalable and flexible infrastructure to handle the ever increasing demand. By leveraging AWS cloud services, Disney can dynamically scale its resources based on traffic patterns, ensuring a seamless experience for its users.
Why Netflix switched to AWS? ›
Netflix's decision to migrate to AWS was driven by several key factors. Initially, the need for a more scalable, reliable, and globally distributed infrastructure was paramount. AWS offered a solution that could not only meet these requirements but also provide the agility and innovation pace Netflix sought.
When did Netflix start AWS? ›
Netflix has a fabulous team working on cloud and containers. Netflix started its migration towards AWS around in 2008 and it was a really long process.
How did Netflix prepare for the AWS outage? ›
As it became clear that AWS was unlikely to resolve the issues before Netflix reached peak traffic in the early evening, we decided to manually re-assign our traffic to avoid the problematic zone. Thankfully, Netflix engineering teams were able to quickly coordinate to get this done.
Why did Netflix change to a streaming service? ›
Netflix started out with the idea to make it easier and less expensive for people to watch movies. But they didn't want to stay in the DVD game forever. They had the foresight to predict that consumer behaviors would continue to shift. And, they wanted to stay ahead of the competition.
Why did Netflix move to Microservices? ›
The rapid growth and popularity of its video streaming services put immense pressure on the infrastructure, leading to performance bottlenecks and scalability challenges. Recognizing the need for a more agile and scalable architecture, Netflix embarked on the transition to microservices.
Why is everyone moving to AWS? ›
For years, companies of all sizes have chosen to migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud with AWS because of the significant cost savings they can achieve compared to maintaining on-premises environments.
Why didn t Amazon buy Netflix? ›
The decision not to acquire Netflix could have been a result of prioritizing other areas or focusing on expanding Amazon Prime Video organically.
