Long Island Financial Services Firm Migrates to AWS for Cost & Security
A mid-sized financial services firm worked with TierPoint to migrate to AWS for costs, security, and scalability.
Introduction
A mid-sized financial services company specializing in payment processing faced increasing demands for security, compliance, and performance while serving small and medium-sized businesses across the U.S.
Operating in a highly regulated industry, they needed to ensure their IT infrastructure could support growth, maintain reliability, and meet stringent security requirements. As their business expanded, they began evaluating ways to optimize their technology environment to keep pace with evolving industry standards and customer expectations.
Challenges
As the financial services company grew, so did the complexity and cost of managing their IT infrastructure. They needed a solution that could scale efficiently while maintaining the high security and compliance standards required for processing financial transactions. Their existing environment was becoming increasingly costly to maintain, and they sought to optimize their resources without compromising performance or reliability. Additionally, they required a secure and seamless way to integrate with their existing authentication and storage systems while ensuring minimal disruption to daily operations.
Solution
To address their challenges, the finance firm collaborated with TierPoint on a cloud migration strategy aligned with AWS Well-Architected Framework best practices. TierPoint conducted a thorough assessment of their existing environment, identifying opportunities to optimize workloads, enhance security, and improve operational efficiency. The migration was executed in phases to minimize disruption, ensuring a seamless transition. Key AWS services utilized in the solution included:
AWS Application Migration Service: Simplified assessment and migration of Windows virtual machines
Amazon EC2: Provided scalable, on-demand compute resources for workloads
Amazon FSx: Delivered cost-effective, high-performance storage for Windows applications
Amazon Managed AD: Integrated seamless authentication with existing systems
AWS IAM & AWS KMS: Enhanced security through identity management and encryption
AWS Migration Hub: Centralized tracking and management of the migration process
By implementing this solution, the finance company successfully modernized its IT infrastructure while maintaining security and compliance with industry regulations. The phased approach ensured a smooth transition, minimizing disruptions, while the optimized architecture offered greater scalability, improved resource efficiency, and enhanced security controls. With a flexible and resilient cloud foundation, the company can now better align its infrastructure with business demands and support future growth.
Results
The company successfully migrated from their prior location to the AWS public cloud within the planned timeline, achieving significant improvements in cost efficiency, scalability, security, and performance. By transitioning to a cloud-based infrastructure, they eliminated the overhead associated with maintaining legacy systems and gained the flexibility to scale resources according to business needs.
The strategic implementation of Amazon FSx for optimized storage and right-sized EC2 instances for compute costs further enhanced cost efficiency. Additionally, Amazon Managed AD ensured seamless authentication without disrupting existing workflows.
Key Benefits of the Migration:
- Business Continuity: Conducting the migration in phases was crucial to minimizing disruptions to the company's operations. This phased approach allowed for thorough testing and validation at each stage, ensuring a smooth and successful transition.
- Resource and Cost Savings: A comprehensive analysis and right-sizing of resources post-migration significantly contributed to cost savings. The company leveraged TierPoint’s Essential plan, which provided continuous monitoring and insights into cloud spend. This enabled proactive cost management, identification of efficiency opportunities, and alignment of cloud usage with business objectives.
- Enhanced Security and Compliance: Leveraging AWS’s built-in security features simplified compliance with industry regulations, reducing the burden on the organization’s internal IT team. The modernized cloud environment better positions the company to maintain compliance and focus on delivering secure, high-performance financial services.
The successful migration from colocation to AWS public cloud demonstrates the effectiveness of cloud adoption in reducing costs and improving operational efficiency. TierPoint’s expertise in cloud migration ensured a seamless transition, delivering long-term value to the financial services company while meeting their strategic business objectives. With a modernized cloud environment, the company is now better positioned to support future growth and deliver secure, high-performance services to its customers.
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