Helvetia.
Setting the perfect example of a seamless journey to managed cloud.
- Fast migration
A fast & effective bulk migration using Nordcloud’s unique approach - Quick handover
Quick & efficient handover to operations within 24 hours - Regulatory compliance
Demonstrated successful cloud migration in a strongly regulated industry
Project Summary.
The challenge.
Helvetia, a leading Swiss-based global insurance group, faced a critical decision when their data centre (DC) contract came up for renewal. Instead of continuing with a traditional provider, they opted to transition to the public cloud, specifically AWS.
This strategic decision underpinned the cloud first strategy with the intention to mainly set the baseline for future cost savings on the infrastructure side and secondly enable faster time to market and innovation.
Helvetia decided to partner with IBM and Nordcloud, highlighting the importance of genuine, technical cloud proficiency. The team of cloud-native experts at Nordcloud, with their customised approach, resonated with Helvetia’s requirements and demonstrated a dedicated effort towards accomplishing their objectives effectively.
We needed a cloud-native partner to help us get the best out of the cloud, and deliver the benefits we were looking for. Nordcloud is that partner.
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The approach.
Nordcloud’s flexible, collaborative and expertise based approach matched Helvetia’s methodologies. And, in contrast to traditional providers, this played a pivotal role in the successful outcome in executing their DC exit strategy.
Assessment
The DC exit project started with a deep 3-month assessment phase to understand Helvetia’s needs and set the stage for a clear and seamless migration. This comprehensive approach ensured a smooth transition, addressing both technical and strategic considerations.
Migration
Following the assessment phase, Nordcloud’s experts worked closely with Helvetia through migration preparations, planning and test-case building to ensure a seamless transition. And then the team executed the migration and onboarding to operations, and ongoing management of the environment.
Migration factory: Accelerating cloud onboarding.
Nordcloud’s distinctive strategy for migration, employing its validated migration factory, facilitated a swift and smooth transition. This approach not only speeds up the migration process but also guarantees uniformity and adherence to regulations, while significantly reducing the risk of human errors.
Large-scale cloud migrations like this can often face costly delays in onboarding to the managed cloud service – usually 3-5 weeks per server. It’s especially suited for bulk migrations of any size, be it a dozen, hundreds, or thousands of servers and their applications.
Nordcloud’s migration factory concept was introduced to remove this delay, automating onboarding for lift-and-shift cases like Helvetia. Moreover, thanks to automations and a proven migration process it enabled queuing / lining up a larger number of servers and therefore reducing the overall time required for the DC exit.
Helvetia needed a partner with experience in bulk migrations to achieve a comprehensive approach – from preparation, planning and test-case building, through to the migration, onboarding to operations, and hyper-care. And onboarding the workloads to operations during the migration meant a seamless transition.
Benefits.
Efficiency through automation
Reduced managed cloud onboarding from weeks to minutes for effortless transitions.
Compliance and data consistency
Ensured compliance, provided data consistency proof, and eliminated human errors by utilising advanced automation tools and technologies to systematically validate data integrity and adherence to regulatory standards.
Unified runbook creation
Shifted from per-server to per-OS runbook creation, facilitating quick support post-migration.
The factory was tailored to Helvetia’s unique needs. This flexible approach meant removing the burden on project teams and ensuring ongoing operational support. The automations support efficient bulk migrations of VMs and applications.
The migration factory’s efficiency surpassed Helvetia’s expectations, allowing swift onboarding and integration into a fully managed cloud.
With the successful transformation of our IT operations and the decommissioning of our data centres, our employees now have the resources available to implement future optimisations and improvements, in alignment with Helvetia’s IT strategy.
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Results.
Ultimately, for a bulk-migration such as this, exiting the DC and executing a quick and efficient handover to operations within 24 hours was the key outcome.
Helvetia’s migration, managed by Nordcloud, stands out as a role model for efficient and effective migration and onboarding to a managed service in Switzerland’s financial landscape. It not only demonstrates successful cloud migration in a strongly regulated industry but also serves as a reference for transformation in similar organisations.
Helvetia can now execute their cloud journey effectively with Nordcloud’s highly effective operational support, while focusing on continuously optimising their cloud-based IT infrastructure to meet their business goals.
The operational excellence we now perform is much better than we could have achieved internally. Reaction time to alerts has been a notable game changer compared to the on-prem DC operations.
Key numbers.
30% savings
Estimated 30% run costs savings (compared to DC like-for-like) after decommissioning the DCs over a period of 3 years. And cloud optimisation efforts are anticipated to bring down the run costs even more.
Weeks to seconds
Reduced time for onboarding to managed service from weeks to seconds
Provisioning in minutes
New server provisioned (and added) fully automated to the managed cloud service and delivered within minutes using the service portal in place.
4x faster migrations
Number of servers migrated per week quadrupled using the migration factory approach compared to standard approach
Day 2 operation ready
From day 2, all automations are essential for smoother operations, near real-time inventory updates and will be key for future cloud journey optimisation
With the successful completion of lift-and-shift migrations and the implementation of IT service management integration, during the project, we now have a robust foundation for stable and streamlined operation of our IT infrastructure.
Your guide to a smooth Data Centre exit.
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