Microsoft Azure Cloud Server Migration
Challenge
This insurance company, based in Baltimore, Maryland, may only have 15 employees, but its technology footprint is huge. As a provider of insurance, this company relies heavily on its IT infrastructure, as any downtime would result in significant costs, not only in lost revenue but also in lost productivity and lost client satisfaction.
Back in 2019, the company was looking to upgrade its current system. It was a large system, with 4 physical servers, 16 virtual machines, and a sophisticated MBDR solution. The company had several applications that used a SQL database backend, which meant resource-hungry servers that required significant infrastructure and hardware investments locally. One of those servers was an Exchange server, which relied on MBDR for high availability in case of a failure, as uptime was critical to the company’s operations.
The original system was designed for speed and redundancy, but it was expensive to maintain, equipment was aging, and the system configuration needed to be modernized. The business faced numerous management and maintenance issues that were challenging to manage, including several power outages and Internet connectivity issues. They knew that the system needed to be replaced, and it was their top priority to move the technology out of the office.
Solution Overview
Tech Smart Solutions worked with the client to create a strategic plan for consolidating and migrating the system to the ‘Cloud’. Several concept designs were discussed with the client to visualize what their future system would look like. With a more institutional understanding of workflow, challenges, and goals, these conceptual designs were refined and finalized, and implementation of the strategic plan started.
At the start, we migrated the Exchange solution to Office 365 and replaced several Windows 7 computers with Windows 10. Since we’re an Insurance provider that handles sensitive information, we have strict compliance requirements. The solution was designed to meet those requirements. To further enhance security, Tech Smart Solutions put in place specific access controls to prevent unauthorized access to the Office 365 platform. We also worked with a third-party security consultant to ensure that as we made system changes, they were made in a way that prioritized security and risk management across the organization.
As Tech Smart Solutions migrated to a modern platform, we recommended the Client explore various Cloud SaaS solutions to host some of its applications. However, given the very specific requirements, moving to a cloud SaaS platform proved to be out of the question. To meet both the security and hosting objectives, Tech Smart Solutions developed an Azure WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop) Solution that will containerize all the user desktops to simplify management and compliance. All the LOB applications that were hosted on local servers will migrate to the Azure environment.
Tech Smart Solutions worked with each of the Software Vendors to build the virtual machines correctly to host the application and to make it easy to install and migrate the applications without any major implementation problems. There was minimal impact on the employees since the SaaS was tested before the switchover and the Cloud-based system only started to run once the solution was validated.
At the same time as we migrated the application, we also built and deployed an environment on the Azure Cloud to host the Client’s Domain, Print, and File servers. Although this solution was hosted on Azure, we still designed it with appropriate backup and disaster recovery capabilities in mind. Moving to the Azure Cloud was also easy because we built and tested the Azure environment while the staff were using our on-premises system.
Tech Smart Solutions made a few upgrades to the client’s core infrastructure and WAN to make sure that the client’s network would be strong enough to support their Cloud system. They also deployed point-to-site (P2S) VPNs to make it easy and consistent to connect to their Cloud environments.
Results
Now that the migration is complete, the employee experience has been enhanced by the company’s cloud migration. Employees now have the ability to work remotely and productivity has increased significantly.
Employees are more satisfied with technology because they now have a positive tech experience. They have been able to transition to remote working more easily because of current events where employees are working from home more than they used to.
If they had stayed with their locally hosted solution, they would have spent about $200,000 on hardware replacement, configuration, and deployment. By migrating to the Cloud, they saved money by not having to buy hardware and software.
From the CEO’s feedback, it’s clear that Tech Smart Solutions is valued and excited to be part of the solution to enhance their environment to meet the needs of the modern business.