Azure Migration Case Study

At the heart of every business success story lies the ability to identify pain points and find the right tools to address them. Our case study examines the journey of a company struggling with IT infrastructure issues, hampering its ability to scale and meet customer demands. With the help of managed services, however, they were able to completely revamp their technology landscape and take their business to new heights.

Throughout this article, we will explore the company's specific challenges, the comprehensive managed services solution it implemented, and the impressive outcomes it achieved. This case study is a testament to the power of strategic technology partnerships and the critical role managed services can play in driving business growth and success.

The names of the business and people have been changed but this was a real migration - we are able to have a call with this client if you would like a reference before any potential Azure migration work.

Overview

Organisation

XYZ Data, a mid-sized IT data services company that provides mapping services.

Challenge

XYZ Data faced challenges with their on-premises IT infrastructure, including frequent outages, scalability issues during peak business periods, and high maintenance costs. Additionally, their legacy systems struggled to support modern applications and services, creating a bottleneck for innovation within the organisation. They needed to migrate away from a third party hypervisor in a datacentre and wanted to migrate to Azure to align with their current IAM solution.

Solution

To address these challenges, XYZ Data opted for a comprehensive cloud migration to Microsoft Azure. Partnering with a trusted Azure migration consultant, the company aimed to adopt a robust and scalable cloud environment.

The solution involved utilising Azure’s infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings. The migration included core applications, data storage, and disaster recovery systems.

Objective

The primary objectives were to:

Improve service reliability and reduce downtime.
Enable seamless scalability to support business growth.
Lower IT infrastructure costs
Strengthen security and compliance standards.
Leverage modern Azure tools to enhance innovation.

Migration Process

Step 1: Assessment and Planning

The migration process began with a detailed assessment of XYZ Data's existing IT infrastructure. This step identified the applications, workloads, and services to prioritise in the migration. A tailored migration roadmap was created, ensuring minimal disruption to daily operations.

Key activities included:

Identifying dependencies and potential roadblocks.
Conducting an inventory of physical and virtual servers.
Evaluating network connectivity and bandwidth requirements.

Step 2: Design and Architecture

Based on the assessment findings, a comprehensive design was created for XYZ Data's Azure migration. This included infrastructure design, application mapping, data storage and backup solutions, disaster recovery strategies, security configurations, and more. The goal was to ensure a seamless integration of on-premises systems with Azure cloud services while optimising performance and reducing costs.

Step 3: Testing in Azure Environment

A proof-of-concept (PoC) was deployed within Azure to test the most critical applications' performance and compatibility. The PoC reduced risks by identifying potential challenges early and developing mitigation strategies. Step 3: Implementation

Step 4: Implementation

With the design finalised and the POC completed successfully, the migration team began implementing the solution by creating the target environment:

Setting up Azure accounts and subscriptions.
Mapping application dependencies.
Evaluating performance and capacity requirements.
Selecting the most suitable Azure services for specific workloads.

Step 5: Migration

The migration was executed in phases to ensure a seamless transition. Priority workloads were migrated first to safeguard business-critical operations. Automated tools, including Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery, were utilised to streamline data transfer and virtual machine configuration.

Steps undertaken:

Data migration to Azure Blob Storage.
Using Azure migrate to migrate VMs as physical from the 3rd party hypervisor.
Enabling backup and disaster recovery through Azure Backup.
Selecting the most suitable Azure services for specific workloads.

Step 6: Optimisation and Monitoring

Post-migration, the Azure environment was optimised to enhance performance and cost-effectiveness. Continuous monitoring tools like Azure Monitor and Azure Security Centre were implemented to ensure system reliability, performance, and security.

Results

The Azure migration delivered significant improvements across XYZ Data's IT operations:

1. Improved Reliability and Uptime: Azure’s robust infrastructure significantly reduced outages, improving uptime to 99.9%.
2. Scalability: Scalable Azure resources allowed the organisation to handle peak business demands effortlessly, supporting future growth without additional infrastructure investments.
3. Cost Savings: Switching to Azure reduced overall IT infrastructure costs by 30% by eliminating the need for ongoing hardware maintenance and upgrades.
4. Enhanced Security: Azure’s built-in security features ensured compliance with industry regulations. Tools like Azure Security Centre and role-based access controls optimised the security posture.
5. Accelerated Innovation: Azure's cloud-native tools, such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), accelerated the adoption of modern applications and services, driving innovation within the organisation.

Testimonial

"The migration has been a great success. No issues. Very pleased with the way Cloudworks handled everything."

– John Doe, IT Director, XYZ Data

Why Choose Cloudworks for Your Azure Migration?

Microsoft Azure offers a proven platform, rich in solutions tailored to meet the challenges of modern businesses. Its combination of scalability, cost efficiency, and advanced security tools makes it an ideal choice for organisations looking to modernise their IT infrastructure.

If you're considering an Azure migration and want risk-free, expert guidance, contact our team today for a consultation. Let's make your migration seamless and impactful.