Challenge
Swansea University, a world-leading research centre serving over 20,000 students, is widely celebrated for its positive impact on people's lives around the world.
The renewal of a significant proportion of the university's large IT infrastructure presented an opportunity to invest in cloud hosting to innovatively improve student and research services and the scalability of IT support. And, if the university moved quickly, it could avoid significant increases in licensing costs incurred through the existing on-premise hosting model. However, with extremely tight deadlines to complete the work before the licence price increase, the timeline was extraordinarily challenging.
The project faced three critical challenges:
The complexity of these challenges, particularly the implementation of the new Microsoft Elastic Storage Area Network, added both technical complexity and opportunities for innovation. The Swansea university IT team recognised that it needed to work with a cloud transformation partner to support this complex, time-sensitive change programme.
Solution
Methods, selected for their proven track record in cloud transformation, proposed migrating nearly 700 virtual machines to the Azure VMWare Solution (AVS). The solution design incorporated the innovative Elastic SAN technology and a comprehensive skills transfer programme, enabling the university to run VMware workloads on Azure—the only viable solution within the required timeframe.
In a pioneering move for UK higher education, the project implemented Elastic SAN cloud-native Storage Area Network technology. This decision was particularly bold as there were no existing UK reference sites for the university's CIO to evaluate, making Swansea University the first to adopt this transformative technology in the sector.
A collaborative team of twelve professionals from Swansea University, Methods, and Microsoft executed the transformation, with Microsoft providing additional funding support to offset costs. The project adopted a 'one team' approach, emphasising knowledge transfer and team upskilling throughout the implementation. This collaborative model proved crucial in managing both the technical complexity and tight timeline while ensuring the university team gained valuable expertise for future operations.
Impact
The transformation achieved its primary objectives while setting the stage for future innovations. The university avoided increased licensing costs while meeting its aggressive timeline - a feat previously unmatched in the UK higher education sector.
Beyond immediate cost savings, the project equipped Swansea's IT team with enhanced cloud capabilities, positioning them to drive further technological advancements. The university now has a foundation for modernising its IT infrastructure through cloud-enabled techniques, particularly in data/artificial intelligence (AI) and application modernisation.
The successful implementation of AVS and E-SAN storage has established a blueprint for other UK universities facing similar challenges, making Swansea University a pioneer in higher education cloud transformation.