SQL Server into AWS, without the rewrite
Lift enterprise SQL Server estates onto EC2 with licensing, HA and performance parity intact. Cutover plans that assume the maintenance window is shorter than anyone wants it to be.
Database platform engineer · SQL Server · Minneapolis
Jim Carter
builds the floor
things run on.
Since 2014 inside a Fortune 500 retailer’s SQL Server estate — first running the servers, now engineering the platform they run on, on-prem and in AWS. Corp-to-corp the whole time.
- Practice
- Carter Consulting, LLC
- Client
- Fortune 500 retail, since 2014
- Focus
- SQL Server on AWS
- Based
- Minneapolis · Remote
Practice
Three things I get called for.
The common thread is databases that can't go down and companies that need them somewhere else by a date that's already been promised.
Running it after the migration
Availability groups, backup and restore strategy that's actually been restore-tested, patching, capacity, and the unglamorous instrumentation that turns 3 a.m. pages into Tuesday tickets.
PowerShell, and now agents
Build-out and cutover automated end to end in PowerShell and Terraform, because doing it by hand sixty times is how estates drift. In the lab, I’m wrapping MCP servers and LLM tooling around the same operational surface.
Track
SQL Server since 1997. One client since 2014.
Staying put this long is unusual for a contractor. It's also why the architecture decisions land — I've had to live with every one of them.
1997 →
SQL developer and DBA
SQL Server since 6.5, on contract across telecom, energy, healthcare, government and finance. SSIS, warehouse loads, reporting, and data-center migrations.
2014 →
Senior SQL Server DBA
At a Fortune 500 retailer: the databases behind the returns operation, then the enterprise platform. Moved a service-tracking system from a SQL Server 2005 cluster to 2017 Availability Groups, and migrated the first on-prem systems to AWS and Azure.
2023 →
Database Platform Engineer (L3)
Same client, supporting several hundred SQL Server instances and thousands of vCPUs across on-prem and AWS. Availability Group and Distributed AG engineering, migration and decommission automation in PowerShell and Terraform. After the team split in July 2023, became the team’s go-to SQL Server DBA for decisions and delivery; formally named its lead SQL Server DBA in August 2025.
Selected work
What the last few years actually looked like.
Reversing an RDS decision
The program was committed to RDS. I built the cost case for EC2 with bring-your-own-license enterprise licensing, took it to leadership, and the direction changed.
- Cost modelling over a multi-year horizon
- BYOL vs. license-included analysis
- Decision reversed at the leadership level
Backup failures, 25% to 1.6%
SQL Server snapshot backups on AWS were failing across accounts. I drove the remediation with the AWS and infrastructure teams: the production failure rate fell from 25% to 1.6%, non-production to 3%.
- VSS snapshot backups on EC2
- Cross-team with AWS and infrastructure
- Production 25% → 1.6%
A migrated procedure, faster than on-prem
Performance triage for a point-of-sale migration to AWS. I validated the database configuration and drove instance right-sizing; the key stored procedure's p95 went from 1.95 s to 28.3 ms, faster than the 71.7 ms on-prem baseline.
- Configuration validation and right-sizing
- p95 1.95 s → 28.3 ms
- Beat the on-prem baseline
Migration, automated
SQL Server estate moved to EC2 with the build, configuration and cutover scripted rather than hand-run — so the last instance looks exactly like the first.
- PowerShell and Terraform build and cutover
- Repeatable, auditable instance standard
- Drift closed off by construction
Operations, with agents attached
In my own lab: custom MCP servers over infrastructure, monitoring and network telemetry — so incident questions get answered by asking, not by opening nine dashboards.
- MCP servers over live ops surfaces
- Infrastructure, network and monitoring tools
- Built to keep the skills current
Finishing ETL work already in flight
At a Minneapolis investment management firm, I picked up SSIS work the existing development team had been on for a while, and finished it.
- SSIS work picked up mid-stream
- Completed what the team had in progress
- The kind of rescue work I like best
The lab
carter-home.com is a real environment.
The domain isn't decoration. Clustering, backup strategy, reverse proxying, identity, 10-gig optics and agent tooling all got tried here before they went anywhere that matters. It's cheaper to be wrong at home.
| Layer | What's running | Notes | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute | Proxmox VE across small-form-factor nodes | Mixed Ryzen / Intel micro hosts | Online |
| Storage | NAS + Proxmox Backup Server | Dedicated backup target, ~30% used | Online |
| Network | UniFi gateway, managed 2.5G switching | 3 Gbps fiber WAN | Online |
| Backbone | Single-mode fiber run between floors | 10G BiDi optics, 40 m invisible-fiber pull | Online |
| Edge | Traefik, OIDC proxy, ACME wildcard certs | Nothing internal published unauthenticated | Online |
| Automation | Home Assistant + custom MCP servers | Infra, network and telemetry tooling | Online |
| Rack | 10-inch rack, printed in-house | 5U + 3U, PETG, M6 bolt-together | In build |
Off the clock
Mostly the same instinct, different materials.
Print fleet
Three FDM printers, open firmware only
A CoreXY on Klipper, a multicolour machine, and a well-worn workhorse with a repaired board. Open firmware is a hard requirement — a printer I can't read the source of is a printer I can't fix.
Garage
Audi diagnostics, done properly
A tuned S6 and an SQ5, both diagnosed on VCDS rather than guessed at. Module addressing, adaptation channels, factory documentation. Same method as a production incident, smaller blast radius.
Bench
Board-level repair
If it's a solder joint, it gets a solder joint. Replacing a working machine over one failed component is how landfills get filled.
Sim
A rig being specified far too carefully
Direct drive, active pedals, proper VR. Currently in the phase where the spreadsheet is more advanced than the purchase.
Contact
Get in touch.
SQL Server on AWS, something on this page, or something in the lab.