Migrating engineering workloads to AWS for an industrial organisation.
Legacy application environments running on VMware and OpenStack were costly and inflexible.
Nordcloud helped a global industrial organisation migrate engineering and simulation workloads to AWS and adopt an on‑demand cloud operating model.
Project Summary.
Overview.
A global industrial organisation needed to modernise how it ran selected engineering workloads. These workloads supported simulation and customer support activities and were heavily used by development teams. The existing environments ran on legacy on‑premises platforms, including VMware and OpenStack, which had become costly, inflexible and increasingly difficult to maintain.
The customer engaged Nordcloud to migrate these engineering workloads to AWS and, at the same time, rethink how they provisioned and used infrastructure. The goal was to shift from static, always‑on environments to a more on‑demand, cloud‑based operating model.
The challenge.
The customer was significantly behind its cloud adoption ambitions. Budget constraints limited the ability to invest in large‑scale transformation, while internal teams had limited experience with cloud technologies and execution at scale. At the same time, there was an urgent need to change the underlying hosting technology.
The workloads added complexity. The environments supported two core application platforms used for engineering and simulation, with high performance and storage requirements. These systems had traditionally relied on large, permanently running server estates sized for peak demand. As a result, capacity was often underutilised but still incurred ongoing infrastructure and licensing costs.
The customer needed a solution that would:
- Reduce dependency on legacy platforms
- Improve scalability
- Introduce a more cost‑efficient way of working
All that without disrupting teams who depended on these environments daily.
Our approach.
Nordcloud proposed a migration approach that addressed both financial and operational constraints. By leveraging AWS funding mechanisms, the project could be executed with near‑zero upfront migration costs, which was a critical factor given the customer’s budget limitations.
Beyond funding, Nordcloud demonstrated an understanding of how these workloads were actually used. Rather than treating the project as a pure lift‑and‑shift, we positioned the migration as an opportunity to change how development and simulation environments were provisioned and consumed.
The customer also valued Nordcloud’s team’s ability to take the lead on technical decisions while supporting internal teams through the transition. We built trust through close collaboration, advisory discussions and practical guidance during both design and execution.
The solution.
Migration from legacy platforms to AWS.
Nordcloud migrated engineering workload environments from on‑premises VMware and OpenStack to AWS. The scope included more than 300 virtual machines and over 250 TB of storage. The migration was delivered in structured phases, using AWS migration tooling, replication and validation to ensure a controlled and reliable cutover.
On demand infrastructure for simulation workloads.
A key shift was moving away from permanently running capacity. For simulation workloads, Nordcloud introduced an on‑demand model using cloud‑native and high‑performance compute instances. Resources could be spun up when simulations and software builds were needed and removed afterwards, with backups retained as required.
Rightsizing and cost aware design.
During migration, environments were rightsized to reduce licensing and infrastructure costs. Instead of sizing for peak demand, capacity was aligned more closely with actual usage, helping eliminate long‑standing overprovisioning.
Secure and compliant cloud foundations.
Infrastructure‑as‑code was applied to ensure environments met security and compliance requirements from the start. Nordcloud also provided support services during and after the migration, helping maintain stability as teams adapted to the new cloud‑based setup.
The results.
Successful migration of engineering workloads
The engineering workloads were migrated to AWS with minimal disruption. Legacy platforms were replaced with scalable cloud infrastructure that better supported engineering and simulation use cases.
Greater flexibility through on demand capacity
Simulation environments could now scale dynamically based on need. Teams were no longer constrained by fixed infrastructure or long provisioning cycles, making it easier to run compute‑intensive workloads when required.
Reduced cost and complexity
By moving away from always‑on servers and consolidating environments, the customer reduced operational complexity and ongoing costs. Licensing dependency on legacy platforms was removed, and infrastructure usage became more efficient.
A practical cloud model for engineering teams
Cloud became a viable, trusted option for engineering‑related workloads. The project shifted how teams approached development environments, balancing flexibility with the reliability required for engineering and production‑adjacent activities.
