Imagine you log in to CreditManager, expecting your usual routine. But something’s different: even faster response times and drastically reduced import times. You didn’t change anything, but behind the scenes, a major shift has taken place!
In late March, we completed the migration of CreditManager from our private cloud setup to Microsoft Azure. Test, Acceptance and Production environments are now all running on Azure. The migration to Azure is a significant step forward for flexibility, security and scalability, says Cor Makkinje, Services Director at Onguard:
“The migration to Azure improves scalability and performance, making CreditManager more reliable and efficient than ever before. Most importantly, this move lays the foundation for future developments in credit management, allowing us to continue innovating and improving our solutions.”
Migration to Azure: A complex task, a smooth execution
The migration involved moving the entire CreditManager hosting environment from a private cloud setup at Rackspace data centres to Microsoft Azure. A project of this scale was no small feat, explains Tim Blok, Chief Technology Officer at Onguard.
“The migration to Azure was a complex project because of the size and complexity of our hosted environment. But we were determined to keep services online and fully functional as much as possible.”
And we did.
What does this migration to Azure mean for you?
Better performance:
There are several benefits to hosting on the public cloud, but for Onguard, the most important ones are scalability and flexibility. Tim provides a nice ‘before migration’ and ‘after migration’ for better context:
Before migration to Azure:
“On the private cloud, scaling up meant ordering and installing new hardware in the data centre. This was time-consuming, as it took time before new resources were available to us.
After migration to Azure:
“In the new situation, we use ‘infrastructure as code’. This means we have our infrastructure and resources defined in code. Resources can now be added just by changing the code. Much faster and with a lot more options to choose from.”
Security now and into the future:
Being part of Visma, security has always been a top priority for Onguard. Although many of our core security protocols remain unchanged, Azure enables us to adopt new features more rapidly.
“Migration to Azure enables us to experiment with new features and implement them more efficiently, paving the way for further enhancement of our security standards. This is particularly beneficial when our infrastructure requires modification to accommodate new security tools or measures.”
Sustainability at scale: Smarter infrastructure is good for the planet
Beyond other benefits, moving to Azure is also in line with the Onguard and Visma sustainability goals. Microsoft Azure has been carbon-neutral since 2012 by offsetting or reducing carbon emissions annually.
“We can now scale down our environment during off-peak times, which reduces unnecessary energy consumption. This wasn’t possible in our previous setup,”
…explains Tim.
Looking ahead: Migration to Azure complete, the real “fun” begins
“First, we’ll focus on performance and cost optimisation,” Tim says. “Then we’ll roll out new features that weren’t possible before. This move has unlocked a lot of opportunities.”
Soon, customers will benefit from faster updates, smarter infrastructure, and innovative features, all delivered on a more agile platform.
Want to know more? Reach out, and we will be happy to answer all of your questions!
