Cloud

The Challenge

A Financial Services client had undertaken a digital transformation, moving a number of line-of-business applications to cloud. Having been in service for a number of years, the applications themselves resided on legacy infrastructure and had evolved over the years from traditional client-server mainframe applications, towards a self-service mobile and web app stack.  
 
One particular critical application had been built as one large monolith, making dev/test and releases cumbersome, and constraining the number of production changes that could be made in any release cycle. Furthermore, clear lines of demarcation between the infrastructure and application support and development teams made change hard to manage, with multiple service lines required at varying points of the release journey. 

The Solution

SPG evaluated the architecture of the existing platform, documenting the as-is setup to identify any in-life changes that had been made in “Business As Usual” operation. Once clearly understood, we assessed the major cloud platforms to determine feasibility prior to recommending the most appropriate vendor and services to migrate to. Of key consideration was cost – a move to cloud would be deemed unfeasible if the costs to do so exceeded the as-is run expenditure. To mitigate, we produced a Total Cost of Ownership estimate in comparison to the current on-prem costs for inclusion in the business case. 

The Difference

Speed and independence were the big differentiators in SPG being awarded the project. We used our Lightning Insight methodology to produce feedback and findings quickly and iteratively, reducing the lead-time to value. Being vendor independent was also a plus – like many organisations, there were multiple cloud platforms in-play, with some preferred more than others depending on function/department. It was essential for the client to obtain an unbiased view of the best-fit platform on which to migrate and the costs associated with doing so, something that was entrusted upon SPG to deliver. 

The Change

A transformative approach to legacy technology rather than “lift and shift”. A clear and unambiguous forward plan despite prior uncertainty. Selection of a cloud technology vendor with assured confidence of suitability and cost.