A consulting firm transitions to Azure to reduce costs and exit its data center on time

Facing rising costs and limited visibility, the customer partnered with SHI to make a timely and controlled move to the cloud.

Challenge:

A U.S.-based technology consulting firm was under pressure to modernize its infrastructure and support an ambitious growth plan. The organization had already committed to moving fully into the cloud, but its existing environment made that goal difficult to execute.

The customer’s on-premises support agreement had expired, forcing them into a costly month-to-month arrangement while they worked toward vacating their data center. At the same time, a strict 60-day notice requirement meant there was little room for delays. The new environment needed to be fully operational before they could exit their facility, leaving little margin for error.

Compounding the situation was a lack of internal documentation and limited visibility into their own systems. Years of reliance on third-party vendors had left gaps in knowledge, making it difficult to answer even basic technical questions or confidently plan next steps. With multiple vendors involved and dependencies spread across different systems, coordination quickly became as critical as the technology itself.

Solution:

SHI stepped in to bring clarity and structure to a project that had both technical and operational complexity. The engagement began with a set of workshops based on Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework, helping the customer better understand Azure and how it could support their long-term strategy.

SHI designed and deployed an Azure Landing Zone to establish a stable and secure foundation for the migration. This provided the necessary framework for governance, workload placement, and future scalability. Rather than treating the migration as a lift-and-shift exercise, SHI focused on creating an environment the customer could continue to build on.

With that groundwork in place, SHI developed and executed a migration plan that moved more than 25 Windows Server workloads, along with SQL workloads, into Azure infrastructure-as-a-service. Throughout the process, SHI configured a secure cloud network and implemented infrastructure as code using Azure DevOps and Terraform, ensuring consistency across deployments.

Beyond the technical work, SHI played a central role in coordinating across the customer’s internal team and third-party vendors. By sequencing activities and identifying dependencies early, SHI helped keep the project on track despite the tight timeline. The team also provided documentation and guidance along the way, giving the customer a clearer understanding of their new environment.

Outcome:

The customer successfully migrated its workloads into Azure and was able to exit its data center without disrupting business operations. The transition eliminated the need for aging infrastructure and removed the financial strain of extended support contracts.

Cost savings were immediate and measurable. By moving to Azure and optimizing workloads, the customer reduced operational costs by approximately 25 percent and avoided an estimated $150,000 in data center expenses. Additional savings were achieved through more disciplined cost management practices, including the use of savings plans and proactive measures such as powering down nonessential resources during periods of inactivity.

Operationally, the organization is now in a stronger position. Automated monitoring and alerting have reduced the need for constant manual oversight, and the new environment provides greater visibility into performance and usage. Just as importantly, the customer now has documentation and a clearer understanding of how its systems are structured, which will make future changes easier to manage.

The engagement also opened the door to what comes next. The customer is exploring opportunities to further develop internal expertise through training and is considering additional support to help manage and expand its Azure environment. What began as a time-sensitive migration has evolved into a more sustainable approach to cloud operations.