How Interactive and Hollard Insurance completed a rapid data centre migration in a single weekend
The insurer turned to its long-time partner to carry out a high-stakes migration, overcoming legacy challenges and a tight deadline.
MSP Interactive has partnered with Hollard Insurance to deliver a complex data centre migration.
The project involved migrating hundreds of virtual machines over a single weekend after the existing MSP decided to close its private cloud.
Larry Neimann, head of technology operations at Hollard said, “Hollard has a longstanding relationship with Interactive, and so we approached them to complete a review in preparation for the data centre move.”
Interactive’s cloud team identified opportunities for consolidation, migration and remediation across its platforms. However, the engagement quickly expanded in complexity, with a mix of generations of IT systems and platforms, including legacy systems running on Microsoft platforms.
“The planning and open communication between Hollard and Interactive was key to success,” Brad Wells, director of enterprise sales at Interactive said.
Interactive and Hollard applied a framework of rigorous testing and scenario planning to help expedite the migration with minimal business disruption. Hollard was responsible for decisions around timing and, following the weekend migration, all core operations were functioning on the Monday.
“With Hollard, we shifted from a staggered pace to a fast-moving approach, thanks to Hollard’s decisiveness to move forward,” Wells said.
Managing a time-constrained switchover
The preparation for the migration was extensive, with each system owner engaged as well as the impacted business units. The future architecture was defined, systems mapped against this and impacts to partner networks addressed. Security requirements were identified and implemented, and a test environment was established for dry-runs.
“There was a focus on migrating as much as possible prior to the cut-over date, to limit unexpected outcomes during the cut-over weekend,” said Neimann.
Interactive’s Microsoft Azure VMware Services (AVS) experts worked with Hollard’s technology team and guided Hollard through the framework. The major technical challenges involved network and security architecture and design, while ensuring it connected into the existing infrastructure.
Comprehensive test plans were developed and the business engaged to assist with testing and sign-off during the cut-over. A new backup environment was needed, with a high-availability environment.
“We worked closely with Interactive on these initiatives and opted for a managed backup service with Interactive to reduce the complexity of implementing it ourselves,” said Neimann.
Despite concerns at the outset, Hollard gave the go-ahead because all the preparation and testing was already completed. By Saturday afternoon, it was going well and operational by Monday.
The only issue was isolated to a particular application, which had been identified during the cut-over activities. A target team was stood up consisting of Interactive, Hollard and Microsoft technical resources to address the issue and mitigate the impact.
“The team collaborated well, put in a huge amount of effort, and the issue was resolved effectively,” Neimann told CRN Australia.
For Hollard, it demonstrates that a strategic partnership is key to a complex migration under tight deadlines.
“When no one notices that anything has changed, we know it means the migration was a success,” he ended.