Seamless Azure Migration Transforms Technical College’s Cloud Strategy

A nationally top-ranked technical college partnered with CDW to transition select on-premises infrastructure to Azure. By leveraging CDW's expertise, the college achieved a seamless migration of 85 servers, improved scalability and bolstered its cloud capabilities.

The customer is a leading technical college with over 4,000 students and 850 staff members. Known for innovative programming and teaching excellence, the institution relies on state-of-the-art technology to support its mission of delivering high-quality education.

The college sought a reliable partner to assist in migrating its existing on-premises servers and resources to a new Azure Tenant. The goal was to enhance operational efficiency, scalability and cloud adoption while minimizing risks and disruptions during the transition.

CDW lead this project using the following strategies:

Comprehensive Azure Migration Planning and Discovery
CDW commenced the project by conducting an in-depth discovery phase. This involved gathering technical and business requirements, defining success benchmarks and crafting a tailored migration strategy.

Server and Application Dependencies Analysis
Before the migration, CDW evaluated the college's servers and applications to understand dependencies and ensure a seamless transition.

Azure Migration Roadmap Development
A step-by-step migration roadmap was developed, specifying critical resources, actions and timelines to achieve the desired outcomes.

Robust Azure Landing Zone Configuration
CDW built a customized Azure environment to support the migration. This included the configuration of network, storage, compute, identity and monitoring services.

Accelerated Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Server Migration Strategy
Using an efficient migration strategy, CDW moved 76 virtual servers and nine physical servers to Azure with minimal disruption to the college's operations.

Cloud Integration with Microsoft Partner Admin Link
CDW linked the college’s Azure environment with Microsoft Partner Admin Link to streamline service integration and enhance ongoing management capabilities.

Improved Operational Efficiency for Educators

• Seamless server migration: Successfully transitioned 85 servers with negligible disruptions to educational services.
• Enhanced scalability: Improved capacity and operational decision-making with comprehensive application dependency analysis.
• Streamlined costs: Delivered actionable cost forecasts and service recommendations to maximize ROI.

Strengthened Disaster Recovery and Cloud Resilience
CDW’s integration of disaster recovery planning bolstered data protection and business continuity, ensuring critical processes remain resilient.

Customized Azure Infrastructure for Long-Term Goals
The migration established the foundation for scalable, reliable and secure cloud operations, enabling the college to advance its mission of delivering cutting-edge education.

This project highlights CDW's capacity to execute complex Azure migrations with precision and efficiency. By tailoring solutions to meet specific challenges, CDW empowers clients to unlock the full potential of cloud technology.

Accelerate your organization's cloud adoption with CDW’s proven expertise. Discover how we can optimize your infrastructure and drive results tailored to your goals.