Reimagining university libraries with AWS: University of Maryland's six-month cloud migration | Amazon Web Services
Higher education institutions are modernizing critical systems to better support students, faculty, and researchers. This customer story blog details how the University of Maryland completed a six-month cloud migration to reimagine its library services using AWS. Read the blog to see how a structured, time-bound migration supported modernization goals, then reach out to Coastal Computer Systems Inc. to explore how similar approaches could apply to your organization.
Why did the University of Maryland Libraries migrate to AWS?
The University of Maryland Libraries faced several challenges, including deteriorating hardware, rising licensing costs, and staffing constraints that threatened their operations. With a small IT team managing an aging on-premises infrastructure, the decision to migrate to AWS was strategic. It allowed them to retire their data center entirely, reduce costs, enhance reliability and security, and focus on innovation rather than hardware maintenance.
How long did the migration process take?
The migration process was completed in under six months. The team began the transition in December, with a firm deadline to finish before their VMware licensing expired in June. They initially planned a lift-and-shift approach but later decided to transition to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) for greater efficiency, which required careful management of scope and timelines.
What benefits did the libraries experience post-migration?
Post-migration, the University of Maryland Libraries experienced enhanced security controls, improved application performance, and better cost transparency. They reported that applications were running much faster and gained access to new AWS services that addressed previous operational challenges. The migration also allowed staff to focus on innovation rather than hardware maintenance, aligning with their strategic goals.

Reimagining university libraries with AWS: University of Maryland's six-month cloud migration | Amazon Web Services
published by Coastal Computer Systems Inc.
Coastal Computer Systems, Inc. began in 1995 to provide IT services to local businesses in the Fort Lauderdale area. We provide IT services and support to small and medium sized businesses in every industry. Our mission at Coastal Computer Systems, Inc. is to build long-term relationships with our customers by effectively applying the latest information technology (IT) services and equipment to improve their daily business operations. We're known for helping our customers by providing fast, value added professional IT services and support to help our customers businesses run smoothly.
We have helped many companies achieve this for the last 25 years by offering a wide variety of IT Services from Managed Services, Cloud Computing, and Network Services. Let our experienced IT team solve all of your IT needs.
We understand the importance of a reliable IT infrastructure and our IT services are customizable to meet the needs of any size organization in any industry.