AWS Podcast #745: Accelerating Cloud Migration: How Occidental Petroleum Transformed with Terraform and AFT
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Nov 10, 2025 Brian Moore, a Cloud Architect at Occidental Petroleum, shares insights from leading the company’s AWS migration, emphasizing the role of Terraform and AFT in streamlining processes. He discusses challenges faced due to legacy systems and how automation transformed their IT workflows. Chris Spitzenberger, a Senior Solutions Architect at AWS, provides guidance on AFT integration, enhancing networking efficiency. Together, they reveal key lessons learned, including the importance of source-controlled infrastructure and fostering a culture of automation.
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Standardize On Terraform For Scale
- Occidental moved from Azure to AWS and standardized on Terraform to scale cloud adoption across the enterprise.
- Terraform became the central skill and reduced the burden of maintaining custom in-house tooling.
Use Provider-Maintained Account Factory
- Use AWS Account Factory for Terraform (AFT) rather than building custom account vending systems.
- Rely on provider-maintained solutions to offload maintenance and gain new features over time.
Automate Post-Provision Integrations
- Hook AFT lifecycle customizations into your platform tools to notify or provision downstream systems automatically.
- Use step functions or vault integration to wire new accounts into existing CI/CD and secrets flows.