Creating a Scalable Cloud Migration Strategy for a Medical Equipment Supplier: Leveraging Domain-Driven Design to Ensure Future Growth
This case study details how SingleStone partnered with a medical equipment supplier to address challenges with their business-critical infrastructure and create a comprehensive Cloud Migration Roadmap. The strategy focused on creating a scalable and reliable technical foundation in Azure to address their immediate resiliency challenges while also supporting future business growth and customer experiences.
THE CHALLENGE
Client Background:
A medical equipment supplier faced challenges due to outdated on-premise infrastructure for running business-critical applications. The tipping point came when a critical failure in an on-premises server room nearly resulted in a catastrophic outage for the business. They wanted to explore a cloud-alternative to replacing their outdated hardware with a new environment that provided higher resiliency, availability and scalability.
Challenge Overview:
- Outdated Infrastructure: The existing hardware was not only an imminent business risk, it also limited the company's ability to scale.
- Critical Failure: The failure in an on-premise environment highlighted the urgent need for modernization with an alternative to buying expensive new hardware.
- Need for Scalability: The client wanted to think strategically beyond the imminent risks and create a robust cloud architecture that met their needs today and as their business grew in the future.
Key Pain Points:
- Risk of Catastrophic Failure: The on-premises server room failure underscored the need for a more reliable and scalable solution.
- Complex Migration Requirements: Transitioning to the cloud required a comprehensive understanding of their software architecture to migrate in phases over time.
- Lack of Knowledge: Our client was new to the cloud and despite some hands-on sandboxes, had never designed and built production-grade environments before.
THE SOLUTION
Comprehensive Cloud Migration Roadmap:
SingleStone began by conducting multiple stakeholder interviews to identify the best use cases for cloud migration within the client’s business structure. The resulting business case was twofold: the need for a reliable technical foundation and the improvement of data infrastructure to enhance employee and customer experiences.
Key Actions Taken:
- Stakeholder Engagement: Conducted interviews across the organization to understand needs and priorities.
- Roadmap Development: Compiled a Cloud Migration Roadmap that considered the client’s server structure, application landscape, and financial constraints.
- Custom Application Hosting: Ensured that the migration strategy accommodated the custom applications that needed to be hosted in the cloud in multiple migration phases over time.
Solution Details:
- Cloud Architecture: Azure was identified as the ideal cloud provider for the client, with recommendations supported by future state architectural diagrams, a repeatable migration process, and a list of key Azure services in their future state.
- Education: Part of our value was in helping our client learn about Azure specifically and cloud architecture more generally. We spent time ensuring they understood the “why” behind the key design recommendations.
- Domain-Driven Cloud: We aligned Azure’s architecture to the key contexts in their business, including Order Management, Distribution, Revenue Management and others. This was the starting point for their future state software architecture with domain-aligned API’s.
Implementation Strategy:
- Phased Approach: The migration was planned in phases to minimize disruption and allow for ongoing adjustments as needed.
- Stakeholder Buy-In: Detailed documentation and clear communication helped secure stakeholder buy-in throughout the process.
THE OUTCOME
Key Achievements:
- Cloud Migration Roadmap: Developed with action items separated by phase (now, next, later) and by organizational workstream.
- Process Documentation: Created a clearly defined, repeatable process document to guide the client through successful cloud migration post-engagement.
- Application Migration Summary: Provided a summary of applications to be migrated, including migration strategy, resiliency tier, and proposed phase.
- Current State Strategic View: Developed a document that included the new order fulfillment journey, bounded contexts and corresponding classifications, a list of servers to be migrated, and a detailed view of the client’s migration requirements.
- Future State Architecture: Created Context and Container disgrams showing their future state software architecture deployed in Azure
- Cost Estimates: Provided cost estimates for current and future cloud migration approaches, allowing the client to plan and budget effectively.
Long-Term Impact:
- Accelerated Cloud Adoption: The detailed architecture and migration plan jump-started their cloud adoption efforts and made them confident about a future migration to Azure.
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