AWS Public Sector Blog
How CGI Federal and AWS delivered 50% performance gains and 6-month ATO for GSA’s financial management system
The United States General Services Administration (GSA) Pegasys Financial Management program plays a vital role in managing the agency’s financial operations, processing hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions annually for GSA and 40 partner agencies, boards, and commissions. When GSA needed to modernize the infrastructure supporting this mission-critical system, the agency faced a significant challenge. It needed to migrate 30 terabytes of production data, over 100 virtual machines, and 70 external system interfaces to the cloud—all within 6 months while maintaining uninterrupted availability.
Working with CGI Federal and Amazon Web Services (AWS), GSA not only met this ambitious timeline but exceeded expectations, achieving a 30% to 50% improvement in system performance, 20% cost reduction, and achieved Authority to Operate (ATO) in 6 months, which is approximately 2x faster than the benchmark for enterprise application ATOs across Federal Government agencies including GSA.
CGI Federal’s Momentum platform modernizes federal financial management
GSA implemented CGI Federal’s Momentum Enterprise Resource Planning system as the foundation for Pegasys. This U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Management Quality Service Management Office (FM QSMO) approved solution provides federally tailored capabilities that help agencies maintain accountability, comply with regulations and standards, and provide financial transparency to the American people. By integrating and streamlining budgeting, acquisition, and financial processes, Momentum facilitates data integrity, transparency, and auditability while enhancing compliance with federal standards.
GSA’s Cloud Smart strategy and broader federal modernization goals drove the decision to migrate Pegasys to a public cloud environment. The objectives were to achieve cost savings, improve operational efficiency, and position the system for future innovation. However, the scope presented significant technical and operational challenges in terms of migration complexity and timeline constraints.
The timeline was constrained by other critical Pegasys program initiatives. GSA scheduled the migration within a focused 6-month window to accommodate them. The team needed to achieve ATO within this compressed timeframe while maintaining uninterrupted availability for critical financial operations.
Proven migration methodology with AWS migration program
AWS offered compelling advantages for this migration, including cost efficiency, scalability, rapid innovation, and comprehensive security. AWS adheres to over 143 security standards and compliance certifications, including Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and provided the foundation for achieving the compressed ATO timeline.
CGI Federal, an AWS Migration Competency Partner, accessed the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) to accelerate the timeline and reduce costs. MAP provided:
- Proven three-phase methodology – The assess, mobilize, and migrate and modernize framework guided the migration from planning through execution
- Cost reduction mechanisms – Financial support meant that CGI Federal to add resources that reduced risk in the project and accelerated the schedule
- AWS expertise and tooling – Automated tools and AWS technical guidance streamlined execution
- Pre-vetted partnership – GSA gained confidence through CGI Federal’s certified migration capabilities and proven track record
Migration approach
The migration began with a comprehensive assessment. The team evaluated system architecture, configurations, performance metrics, networking infrastructure, data requirements, and licensing needs. This assessment helped GSA understand cost projections for the target cloud architecture and identified optimization opportunities.
The mobilize phase included evaluating migration strategies using the 7 Rs framework, which consists of the common migration strategies of retire, retain, rehost, relocate, repurchase, replatform, and refactor. They then established a secure landing zone on AWS and conducted rigorous testing to validate migration readiness.
Based on this analysis, CGI Federal selected a lift and shift rehosting strategy—moving applications to AWS with minimal changes—to meet the accelerated timeline while maintaining system stability. This approach, which involves migrating applications to the cloud without redesigning their architecture, meant that GSA realized immediate cloud benefits while planning future enhancements and optimizations.
Immediate measurable impact
The migration delivered significant benefits across multiple dimensions:
- Dramatic performance improvements – The Pegasys system achieved a range of 30% to 50% improvement in both online response times and batch job performance immediately after migration—without any application tuning. The modern AWS infrastructure provided immediate performance gains that enhanced user experience across all GSA users and the more than 40 partner agencies using the system.
- Cost savings – The migration resulted in a 20% reduction in steady state hosting costs, and the accelerated timeline meant GSA realized savings earlier than anticipated. The move to AWS provided immediate access to modernized tools and cloud-based capabilities.
- Enhanced reliability and operational agility – AWS Multi-AZ deployment increased system reliability to up to 99.99%—beyond what was available in the on-premises data center. The cloud environment enabled rapid provisioning, reducing wait times for new test environments from 1 week to 2 hours—a 97% reduction that significantly improved operational agility.
- Continuous operations maintained – Despite the scale and complexity, the system maintained continuous operations across all 70 system interfaces throughout the migration, providing uninterrupted financial management services for GSA and partner agencies.
- Rapid security authorization – The team achieved ATO on an aggressive timeline by leveraging AWS FedRAMP controls and comprehensive documentation. CGI Federal was able to quickly develop the required security plan and meet assessment milestones, demonstrating how cloud-based compliance and security capabilities can dramatically accelerate federal security authorization processes.
Foundation for continuous modernization
The successful migration establishes the foundation for GSA’s next phase of modernization. With Pegasys operating on AWS, the agency can use cloud-based services, including AI-enabled capabilities with Amazon Bedrock, advanced analytics for deeper operational insights, continued optimization through re-architecting, and robust disaster recovery with AWS Backup integration.
By using this two-phase approach—immediate migration benefits followed by ongoing modernization—GSA can continuously enhance system capabilities while maintaining operational stability at reduced cost.
Key takeaways for federal agencies
CGI Federal’s partnership with AWS demonstrates how federal agencies can accelerate cloud adoption while reducing risk:
- Structured frameworks accelerate delivery – AWS MAP provides proven three phase framework (Assess, Mobilize, Migrate & Modernize) with tools and investments to reduce risk and compress migration timelines.
- Cloud-based security speeds authorization – Using existing AWS compliance controls and comprehensive documentation can significantly reduce ATO timelines. AWS follows more than 143 security standards and compliance certifications, including FedRAMP, which provides a strong foundation for federal security requirements.
- Migration competency matters – Partnering with AWS certified migration experts such as CGI Federal provides agencies with pre-vetted capabilities and proven execution. Migration Competency Partners have demonstrated success in helping customers migrate to AWS at scale.
- Immediate value justifies investment – Performance improvements and cost savings materialize quickly, validating the business case for cloud migration.
- Strategic approach enables continuous improvement – By using a phased migration strategy, agencies can realize immediate benefits while positioning systems for ongoing modernization. The lift and shift rehosting approach provided quick wins, and the cloud foundation enables future optimization.
Federal agencies evaluating cloud migration can apply these lessons to accelerate their own modernization journeys, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiency while maintaining mission-critical service delivery.
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To learn how AWS can help your agency accelerate cloud migration and modernization, contact the AWS Public Sector team.