At a glance
- UK manufacturing group with ~900 users across multiple companies
- Fragmented systems following several acquisitions
- Needed a scalable path toward Azure without risking operational disruption
- Adopted a hybrid-first strategy to modernise at a manageable pace
The challenge
After multiple acquisitions, the organisation found itself with disparate systems and increasing complexity. They wanted to simplify the estate, improve resilience, and begin preparing for a transition to Azure but a full, immediate migration wasn’t feasible given legacy dependencies and business-critical workloads.
The approach
Rather than pushing for a single end-to-end cloud move, the team chose a phased, hybrid approach. This began with modernising core on-premise infrastructure, strengthening backup and network capability, and then gradually shifting selected workloads into Azure. The journey started with disaster recovery, creating a safe foundation to build from.
The outcome
- Clear, low-risk roadmap toward full Azure adoption over time
- Reduced cost and complexity through infrastructure consolidation
- Improved resilience and flexibility, enabling future cloud services
- Confidence in scaling modern services without committing to a risky “all at once” migration
Why this matters
- Many organisations face similar complexities; hybrid-first approaches offer safer, steadier progress
- Incremental cloud adoption builds confidence, improves operations, and reduces risk
- Modernisation before migration can prevent costly surprises later
