Migrated 530+ workloads and increased cloud adoption from 18% to 78%, reducing infrastructure costs by 32% and significantly improving operational agility.
Client
A Global Technology Leader
Our client is a global industrial technology company headquartered in US. The enterprise delivers services in environmental and fuelling solutions, and repair solutions.
Over time, driven by acquisitions and regional expansions, Client’s IT ecosystem evolved into a fragmented and infrastructure-heavy environment. This resulted in duplication of systems, inconsistent operational practices, and a growing cost burden.
To modernize its technology estate and improve agility, our client partnered with Hexaware to manage IT operations and drive a cloud-first transformation strategy. This included migrating workloads to public cloud platforms, consolidating infrastructure, and standardizing environments globally.
Challenges
Managing Application Sprawl Across a Global Enterprise
One of the most pressing challenges was the presence of over 20 globally distributed sites, many of which were not designed to support enterprise-grade applications. These facilities often lacked redundancy, scalability, and compliance readiness, creating risks to business continuity.
In addition, the application landscape was highly fragmented. With approximately 980 applications spread across business units, nearly one-third were redundant or overlapping due to acquisitions. This not only increased maintenance overhead but also made integration and modernization difficult.
The infrastructure itself was heterogeneous. The environment included nearly 5,800 servers, of which roughly 30 percent were still physical while the remaining were virtualized. Around 840 databases existed across multiple platforms such as Oracle, SQL Server often running different versions without standardization.
Storage consumption stood at nearly 200 terabytes, with unstructured data growing at an estimated 12 percent annually.
Despite initial cloud adoption efforts, only about 18 percent of workloads were deployed in cloud environments, and even these lacked centralized governance and optimization.
Migration Complexity
The application portfolio required careful classification to determine migration strategies. Roughly 45 percent of applications were identified as cloud-ready and suitable for lift-and-shift or minor re-platforming. These workloads posed relatively low risk and were prioritized in early migration waves.
Another 35 percent of applications required moderate effort, involving refactoring, middleware upgrades, or dependency decoupling. These represented business-critical systems that needed careful handling to avoid disruptions.
The remaining 20 percent were highly complex legacy systems. These applications were often tightly coupled with on-premises databases or relied on specialized infrastructure. For such workloads, decisions ranged from re-architecting to complete replacement or, in some cases, temporary retention.
Additional complexity arose from latency-sensitive industrial systems, regulatory requirements across multiple geographies, and interdependencies among applications belonging to different acquired entities.
Solution
Multicloud Strategy with Azure and AWS
Our client’s primary goal was to significantly reduce its physical IT footprint by consolidating more than 20 data rooms into 5 strategic locations, with the long-term aim of eliminating most of them in favour of cloud infrastructure.
The enterprise committed to a cloud-first principle, targeting migration of nearly 70 to 80 percent of workloads to public cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS.
Another critical objective was workload standardization, ensuring consistent operating systems, middleware, and security frameworks across all regions.
From a financial perspective, Client aimed to reduce total cost of ownership by approximately 30 to 40 percent over a three-year period.
A Strategic and Scalable Cloud Transformation Roadmap
Hexaware began with a comprehensive discovery and assessment phase. Using Amaze® and automated tools, the team mapped application dependencies, identified redundancies, and conducted cloud suitability assessments. This exercise led to the retirement of nearly 30 percent of applications, significantly reducing migration scope.
Controlled Execution of a Large-Scale Migration
A structured wave-based migration strategy was then designed to ensure controlled execution. The program began with a foundational phase where cloud landing zones, security frameworks, and governance models were established.
Subsequent waves were organized based on application complexity and business criticality. Early waves focused on low-risk workloads to build momentum and confidence. Later waves handled business-critical and complex legacy systems.
Each migration phase followed a disciplined agile framework. This included detailed planning, pilot migrations, validation and testing, stakeholder signoffs, and finally scaled execution. This iterative approach ensured quality and minimized risks throughout the program.
The target architecture adopted a hybrid multi-cloud model, enabling flexibility and resilience. Standardized identity and access management, centralized monitoring, and unified security policies were implemented across environments. Wherever feasible, applications were modernized using platform-as-a-service offerings and containerization.
Migration Timeline
The overall transformation program started in Jan 2024 was executed over approximately 24 months.
The first three months were dedicated to assessment and strategy definition, followed by two months to establish the cloud foundation, including landing zones and governance frameworks.
The next phase involved pilot migrations over a three-month period, focusing on low-complexity workloads. This was followed by an eight-month scale migration phase, during which most applications were moved to the cloud.
Complex and legacy workloads were addressed in the subsequent six months, requiring deeper architectural interventions. Finally, a two-month optimization phase ensured decommissioning of legacy infrastructure and fine-tuning of cloud environments.
Migration Outcomes
By the end of the program, our client successfully migrated approximately 80 percent of its applications, amounting to over 530 workloads.
14 data rooms were decommissioned, drastically reducing the physical infrastructure footprint. Cloud adoption increased from an initial 18 percent to nearly 78 percent.
The enterprise achieved a reduction of around 32 percent in annual infrastructure costs, driven by lower hardware maintenance and the adoption of consumption-based cloud models.
Application rationalization efforts resulted in the retirement of approximately 280 redundant systems, simplifying the IT landscape significantly.
Benefits
Faster, More Resilient Business Operations
The transformation delivered significant operational improvements, enabling the client to operate with greater speed, reliability, and efficiency.
75% Reduction in Physical Infrastructure Footprint
Infrastructure consolidation reduced the physical footprint by nearly 75%, eliminating non-compliant facilities and creating a more streamlined, efficient operating environment.
Provisioning Accelerated from Weeks to Hours
Operational agility improved significantly, enabling faster deployment of new products and services while enhancing responsiveness to business needs.
99.95% Availability for Critical Systems
Standardized security frameworks and centralized monitoring strengthened reliability, delivering availability levels exceeding 99.95% for mission-critical workloads.
Lower Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions
Reduced reliance on physical facilities supported sustainability objectives by decreasing energy usage and minimizing the organization’s environmental footprint.
How Our Cloud Strategy Drove Success
By combining application portfolio optimization, infrastructure consolidation, and disciplined execution, Hexaware enabled a seamless modernization journey across AWS and Azure.
Cloud-First Governance Ensured Strategic Alignment
A strong governance framework provided clear direction, standardized decision-making, and supported consistent execution across regions.
Wave-Based Execution Minimized Transformation Risk
A disciplined migration approach enabled controlled rollout, reduced disruption, and maintained business continuity throughout the program.
Stakeholder Alignment Accelerated Enterprise Adoption
Continuous engagement across business units ensured collaboration, streamlined decision-making, and sustained momentum.
Application Rationalization Reduced Migration Complexity
Retiring redundant systems minimized migration effort, lowered costs, and simplified the overall technology landscape.
AI Automation Improved Efficiency and Accuracy
Automated discovery and migration processes with Amaze® accelerated execution, enhanced visibility, and reduced manual errors.
Summary
A Future Ready, Cloud-first Enterprise
Our client transitioned from a fragmented, infrastructure-intensive environment to a streamlined, cloud-first enterprise. Through a combination of strategic consolidation, structured execution, and scalable cloud adoption, our client achieved significant improvements in cost optimization, agility, and operational resilience.
By rationalizing nearly 280 redundant applications, migrating more than 530 workloads, and consolidating over 20 distributed facilities into a modernized operating model, the enterprise established a scalable foundation for future growth.
The transformation not only reduced infrastructure costs and complexity but also enhanced service reliability, accelerated provisioning, and positioned the business to respond more effectively to evolving market demands.
