Requirement
A global insurance client needed to exit a DR datacenter by a fixed date. The client had adopted a cloud-first strategy and this was to be their first migration to cloud. All DR assets were to be moved to a new on-premises DR datacenter with all development and test servers in the datacenter to be migrated to cloud.
As is common with large enterprise IT estates there was an incomplete inventory of the servers in the datacenter and the applications they made up. Therefore upfront discovery work was required to determine the applications in scope for migration to cloud.
Due to the time constraint it was necessary to establish a scope of applications that could be taken to cloud before the exit date. Applications that could not be done in time – e.g. where they weren’t understood, were too complex or politically sensitive – would be lifted-and-shifted to the new DR datacenter and migrated at a later date. Therefore there needed to be certainty that the scope was achievable.
Data due diligence
A three phase approach to the requirement based around AppScore, was adopted:
Data due diligence – 4 weeks
Server and application data was gathered from all available sources including the CMDB, Microsoft Migration Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP tool), applications and service catalogues. No discovery agents needed to be deployed to support data gathering.
Working with the application support and development teams as necessary, a gap analysis was performed to determine how much information was available about each application. This was used to determine a scope of applications for the second phase.
30 Applications |
200 Servers |
£300,000 Budget |
Planning and execution
Application assessment and planning – 8 weeks
The data gathered in the first phase was loaded into AppScore. Each application was algorithmically scored for its cloud suitability against Benefit, Risk and Complexity.
Current State Assessments were produced for each application and signed off by the application support teams, thereby providing a documented baseline to work from.
Migration factory – 12 weeks
Using the Current State Assessments and data held in the AppScore tool, a team from the consultancy and client Solution Architects worked together to prepare Future State Designs for each application on cloud.
These designs were walked through with the application teams and signed off. A Migration Runbook of execution tasks was then prepared for each Future State Design, which was handed over to the client’s outsource provider to perform the migration from on-premises to cloud.
Benefits
Through using a structured approach centred around AppScore, the timelines were significantly reduced on this time critical programme.
The consultancy’s prescribed methodology – built around AppScore – ensured quality and assurance throughout the process resulting in minimal failed migrations.
Overall the client saved considerable money versus the alternative approach of engaging a team of contractors to manually gather application data and execute migrations.
Furthermore, the application data capture into AppScore was handed over to the project team implementing ServiceNow ensuring that the data had long-term value.