Project Overview
Aster modernised its on-premises datacentre through an Azure datacentre migration, enabling more flexible working and reducing risk. The organisation engaged Transparity for Azure cloud migration services. Following assessment and rightsizing, Aster moved its core workloads to Microsoft Azure, added Azure AD domain controllers and Azure Virtual Desktop, and adopted reserved instances to help manage ongoing costs.
The migration ran smoothly, with knowledge transfer to Aster’s own team throughout. It has shifted IT costs from capex to opex, improved productivity through remote management, simplified disaster recovery, and reduced environmental impact. The project builds on Aster’s existing Microsoft 365 foundations and supports modern working practices aligned with Transparity’s Modern Workplace approach.
The Challenge
In 2016, Aster launched a corporate building strategy which led, in 2020, to its ‘right spaces, right places’ initiative – a response to changing customer needs and expectations. The traditional nine-to-five model no longer reflected how the business worked, and Aster wanted its office footprint to better serve colleagues, customers and the business alike.
“The change is built around our customers, and the needs of our own colleagues who also want more flexibility.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
Supporting flexible working was fundamental, alongside providing modern, efficient workspaces. Even before the pandemic, Aster’s flexible working programme meant colleagues no longer needed to be in the office five days a week, and the organisation was already well placed with mobile devices, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams in use.
“We started by looking at mobile devices, laptops and mobile phones with Microsoft 365. Even pre-pandemic, everyone already had at least one mobile device. We were using Enterprise Voice and a considerable number of people were using Microsoft Teams, so we were well positioned to respond to the work-from-home directive.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
For the IT team, cloud migration was the natural next step in Aster’s digital journey – an opportunity to reduce costs, simplify infrastructure and free up real estate for other uses. An earlier consolidation project meant most sites no longer housed IT infrastructure, with Andover remaining the last site to house Aster’s datacentre.
“The datacentre also tied us to that office space. By moving those services to Microsoft Azure, we could prevent IT becoming a blocker to business goals.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
The Solution
Aster evaluated several cloud solutions before settling on Microsoft Azure as the natural choice, building on its existing Microsoft 365 investment and a five-year programme to migrate core systems into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
“We evaluated several cloud solutions and Microsoft Azure was the obvious choice. Plus, we already had Microsoft 365 and we have a five-year programme to migrate our core systems into Microsoft Dynamics.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
The Aster team worked closely with Microsoft to understand likely costs and right-size servers, helping to assess whether a move to the cloud was viable. A survey of monthly usage informed provisioning decisions, alongside consideration of the quarterly and annual processes that could affect demand.
“Moving to Azure meant the costs associated with housing, heating, lighting and securing the datacentre could be avoided. Plus, we lose some of the management overheads because we don’t have to do the patching – all of that is done by Microsoft. That frees our team up to do other work.” Mark Bonelle, Infrastructure Networking & Virtualisation Lead, Aster Group
With a deliberately lean internal team, Aster turned to Transparity, a Microsoft pure-play partner specialising in cloud and digital transformation, to support the move to Azure. Transparity supported planning throughout, bringing experience and knowledge transfer that helped the Aster team learn best practice and better ways to configure their environment.
“Transparity proved themselves; they are a great organisation to work with.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
Execution was carefully planned. The team added a small number of new servers – including two Active Directory domain controllers and two Azure Virtual Desktop machines – while migrating everything else from on-premises in batches of interdependent applications using the Azure Migration Tool.
“We created a few additional servers – such as two Active Directory servers to go into Azure, and two Azure Virtual Desktop machines. Everything else was moved from our side in batches of applications that need to talk to each other. We used the Azure Migration Tool to do all of that and nothing failed.” Chris Robson, Infrastructure Services Cloud Lead, Aster Group
Detailed, advance planning and a focus on building internal skills underpinned the project’s success, with the team encouraged to pursue relevant Microsoft certifications.
“It’s very important that we’ve invested in our team. Those who wanted took the exams and gained the relevant Microsoft certifications. It’s great for the team – and, at the same time, it de-risks the business. Building skills internally makes sense.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
Cost management remained a key focus throughout, with the team applying Azure optimisation practices such as rightsizing and reserved instances to help keep ongoing spend under control.
“Microsoft and Transparity were really good at making sure we were aware of the toolsets and total costs involved.” Steven Maidment, Assistant Director, IT Services, Aster Group
The Outcome
Cost optimisation, from capex to opex
The shift away from capital-heavy datacentre costs to a predictable operating expense model is already paying off, with rightsizing and reserved instances expected to deliver further savings of up to 50 percent. It has also given the IT team full visibility of the real cost of every service, enabling more informed conversations with the business about new requirements.
Simplified, automated disaster recovery
Azure has removed much of the risk associated with disaster recovery, moving Aster away from off-premises colocation and replication towards a fully automated solution housed in a purpose-built Azure datacentre.
“With Azure, we’re anticipating a simplified disaster recovery plan. We will have a fully automated solution. It moves the risk and gives us a much more sophisticated system.” Mark Bonelle, Infrastructure Networking & Virtualisation Lead, Aster Group
Increased productivity and flexibility
Remote management of the Azure environment means the IT team no longer needs to travel between sites to repair hardware, while a ‘virtual first’ approach gives colleagues genuine choice over where and when they work.
“We’ve also seen a productivity gain in IT. We don’t have to keep travelling to sites to repair kit – we can do it all from home. That means better productivity, reduced carbon footprint and reduced overheads.” Mark Bonelle, Infrastructure Networking & Virtualisation Lead, Aster Group
Reduced environmental impact and de-risked infrastructure
Running workloads in Azure typically carries a lower carbon footprint than an on-premises datacentre, while removing kit from Aster’s office buildings has reduced exposure to environmental, physical security and connectivity risks – supporting the business’s wider de-risking goals.
