Prescribing Service Benefits Using Azure Migrate
Successful Azure Migration for NPS
The Overview
NPS MedicineWise is an independent, not-for-profit and evidence based organisation committed to supporting quality use of medicines to improve health decisions and health and economic outcomes in Australia. They recently partnered with cubesys as their aging technical infrastructure was making it difficult to manage customers effectively. In order to make this more efficient and move their system off premises, we used Azure Migrate to develop a comprehensive solution for their needs.
The Customer
NPS MedicineWise was established in 1998 as the National Prescribing Service (NPS) Limited with the primary aim of promoting quality use of medicines. They aim to:
- Improve the use of medicines and other health technologies to optimise health outcomes for Australians
- Improve health literacy of Australians
- Reduce misuse of medicines and other health technologies
- Improve the sustainability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Medical Benefits Scheme.
The Problem
Previously, the majority of NPS MedicineWise systems were on-premises. Aging infrastructure meant it became increasingly difficult for them to effectively manage their clients and caseload using this outdated system. Their system was reaching the end of its life, and the risk for customers was becoming a major headache for them to deal with, which is why they decided to partner with cubesys.
The Solution
To start, we decided to complete a comprehensive assessment of the current workload of the NPS MedicineWise system, with the end goal of migrating them to Microsoft Azure. As a Managed Service (MS) customer of cubesys, we already had an excellent working knowledge of their environment and its needs and critical dependencies.
Using a risk-based approach during the migration ensured we mitigated potential issues before they became a problem, allowing us to focus on the high-priority areas first. cubesys provided the necessary expertise and support required to make this happen, which resulted in a smooth transition for NPS MedicineWise.
This meant there were little outages or downtime for them to worry about, as we utilised our background knowledge of the environment to mitigate any potential issues.
This approach allowed NPS MedicineWise to seamlessly move their entire on-premise systems to Microsoft Azure, with minimal disruption to their day-to-day operations. They now have a modern and reliable infrastructure that can scale to meet their needs and supports the needs of the business.
The Outcome
By working closely with NPS MedicineWise, we were able to move their entire dev/test, desktop and production environments to Microsoft Azure hassle-free. Using our proven methodology and experience using the Azure Migrate tech stack, we completed our custom workload assessment and baseline economic assessments first. This allowed us to provide long-term benefits for the NPS MedicineWise and a more seamless migration.
cubesys was able to provide the expertise and support required to make this migration happen. Azure Migrate was used to move their system from on-premises to the cloud. As an Azure Migrate partner, our experience with this toolset meant we were able to quickly assess the NPS MedicineWise’s workloads and dependencies and action a tailored solution efficiently with minimal disruptions to day-to-day operations.
This case study showcases how cubesys was able to use its expertise in Azure Migrate and the Azure platform to help the NPS MedicineWise move their system to Azure. We did it in the following timeframes.
The project was split into specific phases. During the technical discovery, we identified with NPS MedicineWise that a reduced risk approach was necessary. We recommended that we move the development and test environments to Azure first, which allowed NPS MedicineWise to document all the necessary changes required for the line of business applications (CRM and Website API’s) within that environment.
The second phase was a lift and shift of Desktop virtual machines being used by power users within the NPS MedicineWise environment.
The third and final phase was the lift and shift of the remaining on-premises and Production environment.
The end result is the successful migration of a large number of Virtual Machines of varied sizes and storage.