Single cloud strategy delivers immediate results
This case study highlights how iOCO facilitated one of the largest cloud migrations in Africa for a prominent financial services provider, leveraging AWS to transform their IT infrastructure. The migration involved transferring 960 servers and 1 867 databases, enhancing operational efficiency and opening new avenues for innovation.
Context
One of South Africa’s oldest – and largest financial services providers employs over 30 000 people and operates in 14 countries, including South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and China.
As the company’s operations have grown, so has it’s IT footprint. The financial services provider ended up with hundreds of servers and databases – all requiring ongoing investment and maintenance.
The company made the strategic decision to become a technology-led financial services organisation in order to remain relevant and stay ahead of its competition. The organisation decided it needed to partner with the best to achieve this, and to adopt a cloud strategy in order to leverage the services/innovation, efficiencies and flexibility cloud offers. Choosing AWS for the breadth of its cloud offering and the ease with which governance requirements could be met, the financial services provider has embarked on an ambitious organisation-wide cloud migration.
Fast implementation, fast results
The financial services provider had the task of moving 960 servers and 1 867 databases across 240 applications and the decommissioning of 1 825 on-premise servers. This would be the largest financial services migration on the African continent.
Through its understanding of Amazon Managed Services (AMS) and the AWS migration and advisory work iOCO had done in other divisions in the company, the specialist technology provider was called in to assist the organisation and AWS Proserve with the production migration. This included more than 250 servers and 600 databases. iOCO, AWS Proserve and the financial services provider achieved this over just four and a half months, and with iOCO’s involvement, the company saw an increase in migration/cut-over velocity of 37%. This has allowed it to not only service its customers faster and more effectively, but has opened new avenues for innovation.
The results of the migration were so impactful that the company’s Group CEO specifically congratulated the migration team on the success of the project, commending AWS and iOCO at a company function for the improvements the business was seeing.
Partnerships to drive success
iOCO is one of very few AWS partners in South Africa with the experience needed to ensure the success of the financial services organisation’s migration, boasting a full team of certified specialists and a comprehensive track record of excellence. The fact that iOCO and the financial services organisation have worked together on other projects over many years, leaving iOCO with an in-depth understanding of the company’s culture and processes, made iOCO the ideal choice as partner for this project.
Working closely with the AWS ProServe team at every stage, iOCO provided the company with a dedicated project manager whose responsibility was to ensure the execution of the migration was seamless. 19 engineers were allocated to the project to ensure that the rights skills were available whenever they were needed.
While the migration was a resounding success, this was only because iOCO and AWS ProServe’s combined expertise allowed them to easily overcome any challenges encountered during the project. The partners have taken these learnings into the ongoing migrations within other divisions at the company, ensuring these projects achieve the same level of success even faster.
Key benefits
The cloud migration strategy delivered notable improvements for the financial services provider:
- Enhanced efficiency: Streamlined IT operations by consolidating servers and databases into AWS.
- Cost reduction: Lowered ongoing infrastructure costs by decommissioning 1,825 on-premise servers.
- Improved service delivery: Boosted customer service speed and effectiveness.
- Innovation enablement: Created a platform for continuous innovation to maintain competitive edge.
- Increased migration speed: Cut-over velocity improved by 37%, reducing time to market.
About the client
The client is a leading international financial services group providing a broad spectrum of financial solutions to retail and corporate customers across several markets. Established over a century ago, the company prides itself on its deep heritage of financial expertise and commitment to helping its customers achieve their financial goals. With a robust presence in Africa, as well as operations in Asia, the company focuses on delivering innovative insurance, investment, savings, and banking services, adhering to the highest standards of integrity and sustainability.Key expertise
This project showcased iOCO's expertise in several key areas:
- Strategic Cloud Migration: Demonstrated ability to plan and execute large-scale migrations to AWS.
- Expertise in AMS: Utilized Amazon Managed Services to ensure seamless transitions.
- Collaborative Execution: Partnered effectively with AWS ProServe and the client, ensuring project success.
- Adaptive Project Management: Managed complex project demands with a dedicated team, aligning closely with the client's culture and processes.
