SHI helps petroleum services company turn cloud infrastructure dreams into reality.

SHI partners with Microsoft for cloud infrastructure modernization project on a budget.

Challenge:

An international petroleum services company was facing a challenging economic climate. Despite tightening budgets, they had to continue to introduce new services and products to their partners and customers to stay relevant in a highly competitive market. Their forward-thinking leadership team knew a strategic technology investment could give them the operational efficiency and competitive differentiation they needed to meet their challenges head on.

Despite the innovative vision, they didn’t have the staff or in-house expertise for the infrastructure modernization project they envisioned. After working with SHI for over ten years, they turned to us to see how we could help them do more with less.

Solution:

Knowing budgets were tight, and after meeting with the customer to better understand their desired outcomes, we ran our multicloud assessment to compare the cost of workloads running on premise vs. in the cloud. Together, we were able to evaluate cost and performance benefits and make an informed decision about how to best move forward.

The cost, familiarity, and depth of offerings of Microsoft Azure made it the clear front runner. As a strategic Microsoft partner, SHI designed a cloud migration and modernization plan and leveraged applicable partner funding programs, like Fast Track, to lower the cost of the project for the customer by 50%.

SHI’s Azure Cloud Migration services included:

• End-state server architecture and dependency mapping diagram.
• Azure Landing Zones that included built-in access, network, and data security controls.
• Successful migration of three large on-premises data centers
• A custom governance baseline using Azure Policy, Monitor, and Log Analytics to provide drift monitoring and self-healing policies.
• SHI’s database architecture services to refactor SQL Databases in Azure – enabling more responsive apps and removing bottlenecks.
• A disaster recovery strategy and regular backups for servers and databases.
• Precursors for Azure Virtual Desktop deployment.

Outcome:

The customer’s new Microsoft Azure platform improved overall cash flow. With SHI’s help, they didn’t simply outlast economic hardship but significantly expanded their capabilities. Their cloud environment allowed them to achieve two additional compliance certifications and expand their global client base, all while improving overall service reliability and customer experience. They were able to leverage new cloud-based analytics platforms to confidently pioneer sustainable energy practices and establish one of the industry’s first joint Carbon Capture and Sequestration Consortiums.

SHI continues to help this customer leverage innovative new technology and optimize their Microsoft investments.

Following the initial project, we worked with the customer to:

• Enhance their security posture with Windows Defender.
• Streamline their employee onboarding, offboarding, and device management through the deployment of Intune and Autopilot.
• Reduce the cost of their Microsoft EA renewal by 18% through license consolidation and additional funding programs.

Investing in cloud technology is an effective way to create economic flexibility in a down market. However, it is critical to work with a trusted partner who has the experience and proven methodology to help you realize the competitive potential of the cloud without the complexity.