Blog
Cloud Migration
Heroku
AWS
AI
3
minutes

How AI Helped To Migrate 37 Apps From Heroku To AWS Under 2 Hours

Startups relying on Heroku often hit roadblocks as they scale. Rising costs, technical limitations, and lack of control over infrastructure force many to explore alternatives. One such startup recently migrated 37 applications from Heroku to AWS using Qovery’s DevOps AI Migration Agent. Here’s how they accomplished this migration in less than two hours, saving days of manual work.
Romaric Philogène
CEO & Co-founder
Summary
Twitter icon
linkedin icon

Why Migrate from Heroku?

While Heroku excels in simplicity, it falls short in scaling businesses:

  • Cost: Hosting multiple applications becomes expensive as usage grows.
  • Technical Limitations: Heroku lacks microservices support and advanced configuration flexibility.
  • Infrastructure Control: Limited options prevent teams from optimizing for performance, compliance, and custom workflows.

This startup needed more flexibility and scalability, making AWS the clear choice. However, manually migrating 37 applications would have been a time-consuming and error-prone process. That’s where Qovery’s DevOps AI Migration Agent played a crucial role.

The Migration Process in Four Steps

Step 1: Application Discovery

The process began with migrate.qovery.com. The DevOps AI Migration Agent connected to the startup’s Heroku account in read-only mode, automatically fetching configurations for all 37 applications, including environment variables and build settings.

Step 2: Configuration Transformation with AI

Next, the Migration Agent utilized Claude AI via AWS Bedrock API to convert Heroku configurations into Qovery Terraform Provider configurations optimized for AWS.

DevOps AI Agent Migrating Heroku Apps To AWS via Qovery

Key tasks included:

  • Translating Heroku application settings and addons (databases and external services) to AWS equivalents via Qovery.
  • Structuring secrets in a secure variables.tf file, separating them from the main Terraform configuration.

All of that can be easily reviewable and editable before getting executed.

Step 3: Validation and Auto-Remediation

After generating the Terraform files, the Migration Agent validated them using terraform validate --json. If errors were detected, the system entered an auto-remediation loop:

  1. Error messages were analyzed, and the configuration was updated automatically.
  2. Validation was retried.
Auto-remediation loop to make sure the Terraform configuration is valid

This loop could run up to 10 times, ensuring most errors were resolved without manual intervention. If a specific application couldn’t be fixed automatically, it was flagged for further review while the migration process continued.

Step 4: Delivery of Ready-to-Deploy Configurations

Once validated, the Migration Agent organized the Terraform configurations into separate folders for each application. Each folder included a README file with deployment instructions. Although optional, the startup’s team reviewed the configurations and found them deployment-ready with minimal adjustments.

$ tree
.
├── README.md
├── cost_estimation_report.md
├── app_1
│ ├── Dockerfile
│ ├── main.tf
│ └── variables.tf
├── app_2
│ ├── Dockerfile
│ ├── main.tf
│ └── variables.tf
├── app_3
│ ├── Dockerfile
│ ├── main.tf
│ └── variables.tf

So you can get into each folder and run the following commands to start the migration:

$ terraform init
$ terraform apply

Migration Time: Under 2 Hours

By automating the discovery, transformation, validation, and delivery steps, the startup completed their migration in less than two hours. What could have taken several days or weeks of manual effort was condensed into an efficient, streamlined process.

Database Migration: A Hybrid Approach

While the Migration Agent creates database instances on AWS, it doesn’t handle data transfer. In this case, Qovery’s Technical Account Managers provided expert support to help the startup migrate their database content, ensuring a smooth transition.

Results and Impact

Using Qovery’s DevOps AI Migration Agent, the startup achieved a rapid and risk-free migration. Key benefits included:

  • Lower Costs: AWS provided more predictable pricing and better resource allocation.
  • Greater Flexibility: Full control over infrastructure to support microservices and custom configurations.
  • Improved Scalability: AWS offers a robust platform for future growth and optimization.

Conclusion

Manually migrating 37 applications would have been a time-consuming process. Qovery’s DevOps AI Migration Agent proved how automation can transform a complex migration into a quick and seamless experience. For startups looking to scale beyond Heroku, Qovery offers an efficient and reliable pathway to AWS.

Resources

Share on :
Twitter icon
linkedin icon
Ready to rethink the way you do DevOps?
Qovery is a DevOps automation platform that enables organizations to deliver faster and focus on creating great products.
Book a demo

Suggested articles

AI
Infrastructure Management
Product
5
 minutes
GPU workloads on EKS just got way simpler with Qovery

Running GPU workloads on EKS has never been easy, until now. With Qovery’s latest update, you can enable GPU nodes, configure GPU access, and optimize costs automatically, all without writing a single line of YAML or touching Helm charts. Qovery now handles everything behind the scenes so you can focus entirely on your applications.

Alessandro Carrano
Lead Product Manager
Kubernetes
 minutes
Kubernetes Deployment Strategies: Pros, Cons & Use Cases

Master Kubernetes deployment strategies: Rolling Update, Recreate, Blue/Green, and Canary. Learn the pros, cons, and use cases to choose the right strategy based on your uptime, risk tolerance, and resources. Simplify complex rollouts with automation.

Mélanie Dallé
Senior Marketing Manager
DevOps
Developer Experience
 minutes
AWS ECS vs. EKS vs. Elastic Beanstalk: A Comprehensive Guide

Confused about which AWS container service to use? This comprehensive guide compares the trade-offs between simplicity, control, and complexity for ECS, EKS, and Elastic Beanstalk to help you choose the right platform for your application.

Mélanie Dallé
Senior Marketing Manager
DevOps
AWS
7
 minutes
Migrating from ECS to EKS: A Complete Guide

Planning your ECS to EKS migration? Learn the strategic business case (portability, ecosystem access), navigate the step-by-step roadmap, and avoid common pitfalls (networking, resource allocation). Discover how Qovery automates EKS complexity for a seamless transition.

Morgan Perry
Co-founder
DevOps
 minutes
Fargate Simplicity vs. Kubernetes Power: Where Does Your Scaling Company Land?

Is Fargate too simple or Kubernetes too complex for your scale-up? Compare AWS Fargate vs. EKS on cost, control, and complexity. Then, see how Qovery automates Kubernetes, giving you its power without the operational headache or steep learning curve.

Mélanie Dallé
Senior Marketing Manager
DevOps
Cloud Migration
 minutes
FluxCD vs. ArgoCD: Why Qovery is the Better Way to Do GitOps

Dive into the ultimate FluxCD vs. ArgoCD debate! Learn the differences between these top GitOps tools (CLI vs. UI, toolkit vs. platform) and discover a third path: Qovery, the DevOps automation platform that abstracts away Kubernetes complexity, handles infrastructure, and lets you ship code faster.

Mélanie Dallé
Senior Marketing Manager
Qovery
 minutes
Our rebrand: setting a new standard for DevOps automation

Qovery unveils its new brand identity, reinforcing its mission to make DevOps simple, intuitive, and powerful. Discover how our DevOps automation platform simplifies infrastructure, scaling, security, and innovation across the full DevOps lifecycle.

Romaric Philogène
CEO & Co-founder
Qovery
3
 minutes
We've raised $13M Series A to make DevOps so simple, it feels unfair

I'm excited to announce our $13M Series A, led by IRIS and Crane Venture Partners with support from Datadog founders and Speedinvest. This investment will fuel our mission to make DevOps simple and scalable, expand in the US and Europe, and accelerate product innovation.

Romaric Philogène
CEO & Co-founder

It’s time to rethink
the way you do DevOps

Say goodbye to DevOps overhead. Qovery makes infrastructure effortless, giving you full control without the trouble.