Cloud Infrastructure saves $400k and Helps to Avert Malware Attacks
Our healthcare client was left reeling after a 20 hour systems outage despite a huge investment in their IT infrastructure. They considered further investments in Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity infrastructure before consulting with OTB Solutions. We were quickly able to reframe them by recommending a cloud solution both for their infrastructure and Exchange which will not only saved them $400K in three years but also secured them against malware attacks.
The Challenge
Healthcare has historically been slow to move to the cloud citing concerns about ensuring the security of their patient data. Many healthcare organizations believe they are better off to double down and beef up their on premise infrastructure and wait to adopt a cloud strategy
What Was At Stake
Our client, a leading provider of kidney dialysis services and kidney research, found themselves reeling from an unplanned 20-hour systems outage. The organization’s existing disaster recovery plan, which consisted of back-up tapes stored off site, proved not only to be slow, but also inconsistent in capturing the data needed to restore all systems. Our client quickly changed focus on developing a robust Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. Their initial plan was to develop a secondary data center at one of its locations across the state. However, this quickly penciled out to be prohibitively expensive. The estimated cost of this additional data center amounted to OTB Case Study Revised 11/15/2016 $750K in one-time hardware and supporting infrastructure over a 3 year life-cycle, not including the associated labor costs nor the cost of a necessary hardware refresh in their existing data center. Faced with this, their CIO asked OTB Solutions to investigate alternatives.
The Solution
OTB’s initial evaluation of our client’s existing environment pointed to an overly complex and expensive technology portfolio relative to their business needs. Furthermore, we noticed they were already stretched (both in cost and skill level) to maintain their environment. Adding additional infrastructure to include a second data center for disaster recovery was the last thing our client needed.
Instead, OTB recommended “cloud” hosting alternatives. We proposed a 3 to 5 year “roadmap” that included moving their environment to the Microsoft cloud. Highlights of our recommendation included:
Move email hosting and encryption services to Exchange online;
Move over 85% data center services to Azure IAAS or PAAS;
Replace multiple point solutions for security with Intune.
The OTB’s proposed solution will produce a net savings of $400,000 over the same 3-year period! And this does not even include the additional savings associated with maintaining a much simpler environment not to mention a skillset that is easier to staff.
The Results
In phase one of the engagement, OTB worked with the client to develop aStrategic Information Systems Plan (Project Portfolio), a Roadmap (ROM time and effort estimates for each project) and Technology Findings and Recommendations. These documents were discussed and evaluated and approved by the client. In phase two of the project, OTB provided project management and technical resources to accomplish the physical move of all applications and services to the Azure cloud. The client’s technical infrastructure is now fully migrated and implemented in the cloud.
