Construction Company transforms its traditional relationship with IT
SANTOS CMI, previously a traditional player in terms of IT, transformed its way of working when it migrated to Microsoft Azure. In three months, time, the Azure Task Force helped the company successfully migrate its workloads to the Cloud. Now, the company enjoys all the benefits Azure has to offer and continues to grow its infrastructure in the Cloud.
It is a well-known fact that the pandemic has brought with it some fundamental changes in the way people work, and how quickly they can react to different situations. This has happened throughout the world, in different forms, and at various speeds. It continues to take place, accelerating now in regions like Latin America, where some countries are quick to embrace new forms or ways to get the work done. Ecuador is no exception, and at times this country moves forward quicker than other countries in the region.
Now, meet SANTOSCMI (SCMI): an Ecuadorian construction service company. It has full Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Commissioning (EPC) capabilities to design and build thermoelectric power plants, oil & gas production, processing, storage, and distribution facilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. With over 40 years of experience, SCMI delivers projects to multinational and state operators seeking to meet a tight schedule, under international codes and standards, and follow a comprehensive design.
A Traditional Player
In terms of IT, SCMI has been a traditional player by all standards, having all their infrastructure in-house, which consisted of fully deployed datacenter housing with all the required equipment to serve their IT needs. Up until 2020, everything was fine. IT was handled the usual way with a dedicated server for all tasks at hand. The server infrastructure was outdated, but the IT staff was onsite to make it work, deficient as it was. With the arrival of the pandemic, the need arose to start thinking of unusual ways to do IT.
Facing a lockdown and having to work from home, problems that were solved quickly in the past became somehow more difficult to resolve. Servers down, an overheated datacenter, email server down became issues that the IT team could no longer resolve immediately. There was no one on site anymore to reboot servers or fix the air conditioning in the datacenter.
At first, everyone panicked. After that, they decided that the next best was to deploy a set of IT servers at the home of the IT director. One can imagine that after such a drastic measure anyone would have considered a more definitive solution to the problem at hand, and so this resulted in matters being looked at to find a more permanent solution.
Embracing new ways to get things done
In came Cloudtivity with an opportunity to embrace new ways to get things done. Ecuador team member (*) Enrique Cruz, a seasoned IT expert with a passion for change, presented a solution in stages. Using a methodology unique to Cloudtivity (Azure Task Force), Enrique introduced a path to cloud adoption, specifically to migrate all workloads to the Cloud.
At first, taking advantage of Microsoft’s free Microsoft Teams trials, Cloudtivity deployed a comprehensive collaboration tool that empowered SCMI ‘s staff to work and collaborate from home. This resolved not only the remote work issue but also gave Santos CMI’s management a glimpse of how much can be done when you can focus on getting the work done as opposed to having to maintain an old infrastructure that continuously creates issues. The e-mail came shortly afterward by means of trial again, all resulting in the adoption of Microsoft 365.
Our unique Azure Task Force, headed in this case by our own Servio Romero, a certified Azure Architect, made it possible for the customer to migrate all their existing servers. In direct competition with Google and Amazon for both collaboration tools and cloud services, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure became top winners for the ease of deployment, centralized administration, and cost. A bonus was the opportunity to deploy services in trial scenarios that made it easier to pitch to upper management once they had the opportunity to witness the benefits of implementing resources that help the company grow.
A Nightmare Becomes a Dream
No longer was it necessary to police IT services. No more having to run to the office to reboot servers or to call the air conditioning service provider because the Datacenter became too hot for the servers to continue working. No more issues with e-mail service and no more physical servers sitting in the living room of the IT Director’s home. A nightmare became a dream for SCMI. All it took was a bit of work, the proper pitch, the right partner, and at the right time, of course.
A Seamless Migration with the Azure Task Force
The Cloudtivity Azure Task Force paved the way to a seamless migration, supported by a team of Azure experts combined with the power of a company that has paved the way for change in numerous entities in Ecuador and Latin America, providing expert advice and committed technical support to get the job done.
Cloudtivity has evolved as a company, from a Microsoft licenses provider to a Cloud Solutions Provider, through the commitment of a potent technical support team and the advice of a tech-savvy sales staff, that lives and breathes IT and Microsoft power.
A Successful Migration
Today, the customer experiences several benefits: IT services that are available 24/7. Server patches and updated licensing are delivered automatically, enhancing not only operations but adding security. Centralized server management makes administration an easier task for those involved. Server backups provide peace of mind and enhanced security.
A sensible reduction in operational costs originates from the need to maintain their Datacenter. The flexibility that originates from having the liberty to increase or decrease services as needs change, directly in response to the business real needs; effectively providing a level of elasticity this company never had in what relates to IT. Agility when needing to check the availability, health, or status of services, securely from anywhere in the world.
And let us not forget not to have the sight of IT servers in your living room anymore! Today, SCMI’s entire infrastructure of currently seventeen (17) servers is in Microsoft Azure. And it continues to grow, as three (03) additional servers will be added soon. Proof that small dreams properly nurtured can become a greater reality.
(*) Enrique Cruz is an Information Technology Engineer with an MBA in Marketing and Sales. With sizable experience in IT infrastructure and security management, Enrique is changing the way enterprises deploy and make use of Microsoft technology in Ecuador. Customers like Jabonería Wilson, Automotores y Anexos (AYASA), Edimca and Aglomerados Cotopaxi, Fabara Abogados, and others are seeing the benefits of the cloud, through his fierce commitment to Microsoft and the cloud, offered by our Azure Task Force and executed by a team of experts that combine knowledge and passion to provide value for our customers.
(*) Our unique “Azure Task Force” provides high-value technical support for those enterprises with an interest in embracing cloud services. Our step-by-step process is designed to lessen the impact of migration while providing a methodology that supplies not only services but meaning and direction. A sense of purpose is overlooked when undertaking the task of migrating to the cloud. Our motto defines it perfectly: “Doing cloud for the sake of doing it is useless. Doing cloud to reduce costs is useless. Doing clouds without a strategy to increase value is useless. Doing cloud right is about creating value for your business. It is about transforming your organization into a more scalable, more elastic, more resilient machine”.
Problem:
Companies that maintain on-premises datacenters have a limited and costly set of solutions to deploy when unexpected situations demand remote operation, hybrid workplace scenarios, scalability, and a flexible cost management practice.
Solution:
Trusting a partner with an important level of expertise in successfully migrating servers to Azure, as our Azure Task Force. Assures a streamlined process and a guarantee that the resources deployed are carefully configured to optimize the budget without sacrificing performance needs.