From data centre exit to cloud resilience in 18 months for global insurer

A global insurer and reinsurer faced an urgent requirement to exit its data centre within 18 months, avoiding £12 million in capital expenditure. With the existing Azure environment unfit to host core infrastructure, the client initiated a full-scale cloud transformation.

The programme was structured into a number of key, sequential work streams:

• New Azure Landing zone
• Next generation firewall deployment
• DevOps and release automation
• Application migration
• FinOps and Cost Governance

Designed using Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework and delivered through Azure DevOps and Infrastructure as Code, the platform provided the client with a resilient foundation to exit the data centre safely, maintain control, and scale with confidence.

Application Migration: Approach & Solution

A full discovery exercise was conducted across the estate to catalogue the application portfolio, assess dependencies, and define migration patterns.

This informed a detailed migration framework, enabling risk-based scheduling aligned to business impact, compliance, and exit timelines. Following our standard migration approach for each application, i.e. Discovery, Design, Build, Configure, Test and Transition, each application was planned, evaluated and migrated using our standard migration methodology.

Some applications followed a rapid DC exit method using Azure VMware Service (AVS), while others were re-architected using cloud-native service into their target landing zones.

Key Outcomes

• > 200 applications mapped, planned and migrated with zero unplanned outages
• Alignment with existing RTO/RPO requirements across all services
• Migration sequencing driven by readiness, compliance, and operational risk

The overall programme enabled the client to successfully exit their data centre within 18 months, avoiding £12 million in capital reinvestment while maintaining continuity of critical services. By building a secure, automated, and scalable Azure Landing Zone from the ground up, the client established a resilient cloud foundation that improved operational stability, reduced cost, and accelerated delivery across the business.

The platform now supports full visibility, control, and governance at scale, and has introduced a unified FinOps model to drive cost accountability across engineering and finance.

Get in touch with Estelle James, Managing Partner, to discover how ECMS can help you transform your business without the complexity: estelle.james@ecmanagedsolutions.com