Client
The client is a technology company offering innovative, user-friendly software to healthcare organizations across the United States, including emergency services, hospitals, and related agencies. Their portfolio includes electronic health records, data exchange for healthcare interoperability, and other workflow management tools.
Challenge
The client faced technical and operational challenges due to legacy infrastructure, fragmented deployment processes, and limited scalability.
Key challenges included:
The client needed a streamlined, secure, and future-ready cloud platform to modernize their healthcare infrastructure.
Solution
DataArt partnered with the client on strategic cloud migration initiatives focused on automation, security, and best practices.
Migration & Modernization: The client’s deployment and configuration processes, along with several core workloads and legacy applications, were migrated from on-premises and older cloud environments to Microsoft Azure landing zones.
- Legacy CI/CD flows were replaced by automated and reusable Azure DevOps pipelines using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform and YAML templates.
- Azure Key Vault was adopted for secure management of secrets, and Azure Backup and Azure Monitor were enabled to improve reliability and observability.
Execution: Several operational databases and web applications were rehosted to Azure Virtual Machines in a phased migration to minimize downtime.
- Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery enabled orchestrated migration and resilient disaster recovery processes.
- A roadmap was documented for future modernization, including potential integration with native Azure platform services.
Deployment Automation: Infrastructure as Code and Azure DevOps pipelines assured reliable, repeatable deployments across environments.
Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) Alignment
Migrations were planned and implemented according to the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework, covering design, governance, operations, and management.
Benefits realized:
Key Advantages & Outcomes
Operational & Cost Efficiency
- Decommissioned Legacy Systems: Unsupported servers were retired, eliminating technical debt, reducing support and licensing costs, and minimizing security risk.
- Cost Savings: Resource consolidation and right-sizing in Azure led to an estimated 15–20% cost optimization.
- Automation-Driven Efficiency: Adoption of Infrastructure as Code and automated DevOps pipelines reduced operational effort by up to 40% and halved environment provisioning time.
Resilience, Security & Compliance
- Enhanced Security: Adoption of modern security standards, integration of Azure Key Vault, Defender for Cloud, and automated policies raised the secure score by 25–35 points. All sensitive data is now encrypted and managed centrally.
- Improved Disaster Recovery: Orchestrated failover rehearsals, RPO ≤ 15 minutes, and RTO < 2 hours; 99.9% uptime through availability zones and WAF protection.
- Audit & Policy Compliance: Centralized governance achieved >90% policy compliance at go-live, meeting HIPAA and PHIPA requirements.
- Modernized Governance: Full traceability, version control, and consistent policy enforcement improved operational oversight.
Performance, Scalability & Future Readiness
- Performance Gains: API latency (p95) improved by 10–15% after storage and sizing optimizations.
- Scalable Infrastructure: Multi-VM app tiers, Azure SQL, and flexible networking supported current and peak loads.
- Future-Ready Platform: Standardized modernization strategies and observability tools support ongoing improvements with minimal disruption.
- Business Agility: Faster provisioning and upgrades support rapid response to evolving business and operational needs.
Organizational Impact
- Reduced Operational Risk: Updated, supported infrastructure significantly minimized vulnerabilities and exposure.
- Continuous Improvement: Ongoing optimization and governance are ensured through CAF and cloud engineering best practices.
Technology
Conclusion
By strategically migrating its core healthcare workloads and critical applications to Microsoft Azure, the client successfully overcame legacy infrastructure challenges and operational limitations. This resulted in a secure, scalable, and resilient cloud environment that reduced costs, streamlined governance, and improved operational efficiency.
