Ensono Flex® Cloud Engineering Accelerates Renowned Medical Institution’s Multi-Cloud Innovation

This US client is a ne of the largest and most respected medical institutions in the world. With major campuses in multiple states, the institution provides comprehensive medical care, pioneering research, and advanced education. It is known for its collaborative, patient-centered approach, which has earned it top rankings for quality care and innovation.

The client’s aim was to adopt a multi-cloud strategy, with a heavier focus on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). To achieve this, it needed to reallocate cloud-centric technical resources towards GDP initiatives while maintaining operational support for Azure App Services across 22 business units. Due to limited internal resources, it needed a pool of temporary cloud-native skillsets to help manage various smaller projects and research spikes, and to make necessary improvements.

The client also wanted to phase out Cisco Cloud Center, which was reaching end-of-life, and transition to mainstream infrastructure-as-code technologies like Terraform. This transition aimed to enhance the deployment and reprovisioning of App Services across Azure. Terraform not only served as a modern replacement but also enabled timely updates to existing environments to meet a Microsoft deadline.

This organization has been a valued client of Ensono’s for more than a decade. Over the years, we have managed and eventually retired the client’s mainframe, paving the way for a transition to public cloud services. Now that the client has made the transition, it relies on the Ensono’s Flex Engineering service for on-demand access to a team of highly skilled cloud engineers to deliver:

1. Cloud engineering support: Ensono took over Azure App Service support, including resource management, disaster recovery, and network security.
2. ITSM governance and transparency:  Ensono identified opportunities to enhance ITSM governance, metrics, and accountability. To address this and enhance transparency, accountability, and maturity over time, Ensono:
   • Designed and implemented an ITSM framework to manage incidents, changes, and performance metrics
   • Ensured structured workflows and transparency across teams
   • Developed ServiceNow dashboards for governance within Ensono’s Flex Engineering efforts and extended them to the client’s broader IT operations
     
3. Code migration: Ensono migrated infrastructure-as-code templates and integrations into Terraform to decouple and decommission Cisco Cloud Center. This improved infrastructure management by using Terraform and maturing infrastructure-as-code practices.
   We also modernized the Azure App platform by improving deployment using pipelines, Terraform’s workspaces, and the latest release of Azure App Service Environments, enhancing security, performance, and reliability.
4. Strategic resource reallocation: By managing Azure operations and the lengthy provisioning project, Ensono enabled the client to redirect internal resources towards GCP initiatives, aligning with its broader digital transformation goals.
   

Ensono’s engineers have contributed significantly to the client’s modernized, scalable multi-cloud environment. They successfully tested and cutover 22 business units comprising 45 environments and over a thousand applications.

As a result:

• The client’s internal teams are now free to concentrate on strategic innovation in GCP
• Governance and accountability have been enhanced
• Azure performance and stability has been enhanced through proactive monitoring and best-practice implementations.
• Request and incident resolution times have been accelerated by 50% while handling a 24% growth in annual workload.
• The client has successfully transitioned to Terraform-based deployments

These outcomes highlight the significant improvements and efficiencies, ultimately supporting the client’s broader digital transformation goals.