An Azure Migration Case Study
Ongoing IT difficulties at our Client in Dental care services were preventing consistent delivery of reliable services. Without the expected IT speed and reliability, customer complaints increased, and service renewals were in jeopardy. Adopting a new strategy to move from legacy infrastructure to Azure cloud, all servers/applications were to be migrated, largely eliminating physical infrastructure. MAQ Computer Services’ experts were called in to collaborate with the client to design a new cloud architecture and help to migrate the Azure cloud platform. The successful move was made in just five months with significant platform reliability and performance improvements. Most importantly, the change led to significantly improved customer satisfaction and retention.
The Client
The client provides orthodontic and dental practices with professional business services, including consulting, marketing, procurement, financial analysis, collections, accounting, and HR/payroll. With multiple offices in different cities, they are a full-service provider designed to relieve practices of backroom worries and allow them to concentrate on patients and service offerings. They help clients gain a competitive edge, achieve a financial advantage, and assist with strategies.
Challenges
The client faced ongoing difficulties with their internal IT infrastructure. They were unable to consistently deliver reliable services to their customers in managed clinics located in different cities. They couldn’t ensure dependable IT functions or provide clients with the expected speed and reliability required to operate their businesses. Legacy infrastructure, housed in a colocation data center, was old, complicated, unreliable, and suffered from multiple support issues. The infrastructure comprising of virtual machines and on-premises Citrix systems was challenging to manage. Some purchased solutions had never been implemented. Some had no support agreements. Staff was continually reacting, attempting to fix issues as they occurred, with no time to address systemic causes. Frequent unplanned downtime, coupled with customer complaints, had become the norm.
Examining Options
The first step toward an Azure move was understanding the existing environment. Having previous experience with MAQ’s expertise and their strong Microsoft relationship, the Client asked MAQ for a proposal to design and architect the cloud strategy moving forward. MAQ presented a phased plan that began with discovery followed by a CloudBase phase where the team at MAQ would collaborate with the client stakeholders to design the new cloud architecture. They would create a detailed migration plan. And the final Cloud Migrate phase would migrate the servers in a planned sequence designed to meet the goals and timeframe requested by the client.
New IT Infrastructure
Citrix-hosted orthodontic system – moved from on-premises to Azure Storage – 15 TB Users: 600+
Cloud provider: Microsoft/Azure Compute:45 VM hosts consolidated from 200+
The Solution
As the client’s transition to Azure began, MAQ conducted customer workshops to define requirements for the foundational cloud infrastructure. These helped create a requirements traceability matrix and included an asset inventory, licensing, and configuration information. The results became the high-level conceptual design document, resource requirements, test documents, and project plan. Working closely with client staff, MAQ initiated the Cloud Migrate phase creating detailed plans for sequencing, scheduling, and cutover of each workload. As the migrations were executed, 200+ virtual servers were consolidated to fewer than 50. A complete and detailed design document captured all configuration items as built. Integration testing was conducted as all client-facing servers/apps were finally migrated.
Benefits to Client
- Quality and reliability of services assured
- Improved customer satisfaction, confidence, and retention
- Platform transformed from a weakness to a competitive differentiator
- Licensing and support are fully current, with annual operational savings
- Reduced staffing and systems management time
- Critical system issues monthly average reduced
- Performance issues monthly average reduced
About MAQ Computer Services LLC
MAQ Computer Services LLC is a software services company headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Our focus has always been on creating win-win partner relationships, through adopting a proactive approach that involves not just delivering with excellence, but also thinking one step ahead on behalf of our clients.
Through a strong culture, state-of-the-art development centers, and a talented team, we have worked with several clients Enterprise Mobility & Web Solutions, Infrastructure Management Services, Cloud Services, and Testing of desktop and mobile applications.
