MLS PIN Boosts Agility with 100%-Funded Azure Migration
Explore how MLS PIN worked with TierPoint to migrate to Azure at no cost, boosting performance and efficiency with zero downtime.
“Exceptional service planning and seamless execution of the entire project in a timely manner.”
Director of Information Technology Ritul Patel
MLS PIN
About MLS PIN
MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) is New England’s largest multiple listing service, supporting more than 43,000 real estate professionals across Massachusetts and neighboring states. The company provides database services, virtual office tools, and data feeds to major platforms like Zillow, Trulia, and Apartments.com. It serves as the region’s central hub for property data.
MLS PIN’s flagship platform, Pinergy, powers listings, photos, virtual tours, and housing statistics for subscribers who depend on 24/7 availability to serve clients and partners. With “wicked smart” technology and always-on operations, MLS PIN relies on highly available, secure infrastructure to keep the real estate market moving every day.
Why Move Now?
A longtime TierPoint colocation customer leveraging the Marlborough and Andover data centers, MLS PIN began rethinking physical data centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three drivers made Azure the right next step:
- Predictable spend: Instead of refreshing one-third of their hardware every year, MLS PIN wanted a fixed monthly cost with only 5-10% variance for usage and growth.
- Scalability: The move would unlock rapid capacity adds, impressing the dev team. Ritul Patel, Director of Information Technology, confirmed this expectation ultimately borne out: “Everything was up and running within a week.”
- Efficiency: More automation meant less manual maintenance. No more late-night trips to rack, patch, or swap gear, and no need to add headcount.
Microsoft-friendly licensing made Azure the more advantageous choice, especially given the company’s substantial Hyper-V footprint.
Assessment & Funding
TierPoint ran an 8-week assessment, analyzing workloads and returning right-sizing guidance per server. MLS PIN tuned high and low compute profiles from there.
Three crucial value adds solidified the team’s choice to migrate to Azure with TierPoint:
- Assessment and migration costs were 100% covered by Microsoft incentives, facilitated by TierPoint at no cost to MLS PIN.
- Of the three partners MLS PIN evaluated, only TierPoint brought Microsoft funding to the table.
- Reimbursement, expected in 90-180 days, arrived within 30 days.
“I’m going from a data center physical location to the cloud at Microsoft's expense. Even that came out within 30 days."
Ritul Patel, Director of Information Technology
The Migration Plan
For MLS PIN’s 24/7 service, downtime wasn’t an option. TierPoint designed a three-phase migration that began with non-critical workloads, then moved to mid-tier systems, and ended with a final cutover of high-priority assets such as photos and the 10-terabyte SQL database.
To protect performance, the team used real-time replication between on-premises and Azure environments. During the final overnight cutover, TierPoint verified that replication was complete within minutes of the go/no-go decision, securing a smooth transition. Each migration window finished ahead of schedule, and two-week validation gates after every phase ensured a stable rollout with zero issues.
Azure Architecture Choices
MLS PIN transitioned its SQL database load balancing from a third-party tool to the Azure Load Balancer. This move improved performance, simplified management, and removed another layer of infrastructure to maintain.
The team also replaced its Commvault backup solution with Azure Backup, choosing a geographically distinct Midwest region to strengthen disaster recovery capabilities.
Through TierPoint’s Azure Managed Services, MLS PIN now receives regular security and cost optimization alerts, including patching and update recommendations that help keep the environment secure, efficient, and resilient.
Outcomes
The move to Azure delivered measurable improvements across performance, efficiency, and day-to-day operations.
Partner data feeds that once took 1–10 minutes to publish during peak periods now complete in about 60 seconds, allowing third-party platforms like Zillow to refresh listings nearly in real time. Internal benchmarks also show lower application latency and faster page loads for the Pinergy platform, even during the busiest spring and summer markets.
The development team has gained agility as well. Environment refreshes that previously took a week can now be completed in just a few hours.
Operationally, the change has been transformative. Gone are the late-night data-center trips, hardware swaps, and manual patching sessions. Azure automation and TierPoint’s managed services now handle maintenance and monitoring, giving MLS PIN a predictable monthly cost and freeing its IT staff to focus on higher-value innovation.
After a full busy season in Azure, the results speak for themselves: zero downtime, faster service for customers and partners, and a happier, more productive development team.
At A Glance
Industry
Real Estate Technology
Services
Azure Migration and Managed Services
Users
43,000+ agents, brokers, assessors, and mortgage lenders across MA and bordering states.
Core Application
Pinergy, a subscriber portal for listings, photos, virtual tours, data, and statistics.
Availability
24/7/365 with a high SLA
Summary
MLS PIN, New England’s largest multiple listing service (MLS), moved its always-on Pinergy platform and data services from TierPoint colocation to Microsoft Azure through a 100% Microsoft-funded assessment and migration led by TierPoint. The team achieved the switch ahead of schedule with zero surprises thanks to a phased plan, real-time SQL and media replication of a 10 TB database and photos, and Azure-native services that handled load balancing and backup.
After the migration, the client enjoyed approximately 60-second partner feeds, lower application latency, faster environment refreshes, and a predictable monthly spend. TierPoint’s managed services now provide ongoing security and cost optimization to continue to support “wicked smart” results.
Website
https://www.mlspin.com/
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