Case Study

A large UK building materials manufacturer used our Cloud Viability Assessment to evaluate its options as part of a time-sensitive data centre exit initiative. By analysing more than 250 virtual machines across segregated environments, the organisation gained a clearer understanding of infrastructure dependencies, migration considerations and future hosting options before committing to a long-term direction.

The Challenge

A large UK building materials manufacturer needed to make informed decisions about the future of its infrastructure estate.

The organisation was approaching a data centre exit scenario with defined timelines and needed to understand the implications of its available hosting options. Stakeholders wanted to compare the potential cost and suitability of migrating workloads to AWS against moving to a third-party hosted data centre environment.

However, the estate spanned two segregated environments, adding complexity. Before deciding on the next step, the organisation needed a clearer understanding of how systems interacted, where dependencies existed, and what to consider during any future migration or hosting transition.

To support this decision, Perform Partners conducted a Cloud Viability Assessment through the AWS Optimisation and Licensing Assessment program, providing stakeholders with evidence about their estate, its dependencies and the considerations likely to influence future hosting decisions.

Our Approach

The organisation needed a clearer understanding of its estate before making any decisions about migration or future hosting arrangements.

• Understanding a complex infrastructure landscape
  Perform Partners worked with the client to gather the infrastructure data required to assess the estate and support future decision-making. Particular attention focused on dependencies and relationships across two separate environments.
• Collecting evidence through an agentless approach
  Because the environment was segregated, the assessment used an agentless collection model supported by two virtual machines, with each collection point gathering information from a separate environment. This avoided the need to install software across every virtual machine in scope.
• Supporting a client-controlled deployment
  The client completed installation and configuration activities internally, with Perform Partners providing guidance and support where required throughout the process.
• Turning infrastructure data into actionable insight
  Once data collection was complete, Perform Partners analysed the information gathered across the estate and presented findings relating to infrastructure utilisation, dependencies, move groups and future hosting considerations.

Supporting People Through Change

Migration and hosting decisions often depend on understanding more than infrastructure alone. Teams need confidence that the information they are using reflects the reality of their environment.

The Cloud Viability Assessment provided stakeholders with a clearer understanding of how systems interacted across segregated environments and the considerations likely to influence future migration planning. Rather than relying on assumptions, the organisation could review options using evidence gathered directly from its estate.

• Creating confidence through visibility
  The assessment brought together information about infrastructure utilisation, dependencies and environment structure, enabling stakeholders to build a clearer picture of their current position.
• Reducing uncertainty in future planning
  Move group analysis and dependency mapping provided greater understanding of how future migration activities could be approached, helping reduce uncertainty before any commitments were made.
• Supporting evidence-based decision making
  Most importantly, the organisation gained a more practical basis for evaluating future hosting, migration and transformation decisions without being required to proceed beyond the assessment itself.