Simplifying Cloud Migration with US Signal and Zerto

The benefits of cloud migration have been proven time and time again, including the switch from CapEx to OpEx, reduced manpower requirements, the ability to scale resources on demand, greater security, better performance, and more. So, why are many organizations still hesitant to make the move?

Some may be in a situation comparable to the one Morrison Industrial Equipment, where not everything could move to the cloud. In Morrison’s case, it was a critical piece of hardware that was essential to running its mission-critical applications. The company didn’t need to own the hardware, but it did require it for its crucial business operations. As the Morrison case study shows, that didn’t mean the company couldn’t still reap the benefits of a cloud migration.

The Cloud Obstacle

Morrison knew that a multi-tenant cloud environment could deliver the necessary compute, storage, and network resources it required, provide a much-needed disaster recovery solution, and offer benefits such as security, scalability and cost savings. Moving to a cloud environment could also free up staff time for more strategic endeavors. But, there was the issue of hardware.

Morrison’s IBM P series server ran its main business applications, and communicated with all its virtual machines.  It could be housed in an off-site data center, but it wasn’t moving to the cloud. That meant a hybrid IT solution that combined colocation and cloud services was in order. That’s what US Signal delivered.

The Solution

Since Morrison no longer wanted to own its own hardware but still required an IBM P series server, US Signal invested in one and installed it in one of its data centers that would also power Morrison’s new cloud environment. This freed up Morrison from the responsibility and costs of maintaining in-house hardware while allowing it to still rely on an IBM P series server to interact with its key applications.

The US Signal team then worked with Morrison to migrate its workloads to US Signal’s multi-tenant enterprise cloud. The use of Zerto’s Virtual Replication software helped to facilitate the migration by synchronizing the servers to the new environment with no snapshots or performance impact.

As illustrated in the case study, the migration entailed much more than simply flipping a few switches to transport applications from one environment to another. A well thought out, mutually agreed upon project plan with meticulously detailed processes was employed to ensure success.

Mission Accomplished

Morrison’s migration to the cloud was completed on time and under budget, and left the company extremely satisfied with the results. It also yielded some important ‘lessons learned’ that can help other companies achieve their own successful migration. You can learn about them in the Morrison Industrial Equipment case study, or by viewing “Ready. Set. Migrate,” a webinar featuring two of the key individuals involved in Morrison’s cloud migration.

By Matt VanderZwaag in Data Migration on June 19, 2017