Rebecca Gibson |
This article was originally published in the Winter 2018 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.
What is DXC Technology’s Microsoft Azure Analytics Migration Factory?
DXC’s Analytics Migration Factory helps organisations move their existing data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) environments from on-premises servers (or cloud platforms) to the Microsoft Azure cloud efficiently and cost effectively at high velocity. The facility is staffed by DXC experts who are certified in data science, Microsoft Azure and cloud architecture, design, deployment and managed services. We rely on our many years of experience with migrating to cloud platforms and continue to work with Microsoft to develop standard best practices, accelerators, design patterns and methods. We can execute migrations at scale in a consistent manner for any company in any part of the world. Just like a factory, we have multiple lines that address core areas of assessment, design, development, testing, and migration deployment.
Can you tell us which industry trends or other factors led DXC to develop the Migration Factory?
Organisations want to become more agile to ensure they can respond to rapidly evolving market and consumer demands. They’re also looking to move away from traditional procurement models where it can take months, if not years, to design a reference IT architecture, choose appropriate software, secure approval for a capital expenditure (capex) budget, onboard hard to find employees and start delivering value to the business. Plus, our clients are seeking an easier way to integrate new services and capabilities into their existing platforms on a timely basis, rather than having to wait for their next capex budget to be released. All three goals can be achieved by leveraging Microsoft Azure – the platform can be ready and available to process client data and deliver analytics and AI in a matter of seconds. It gives users instant access to a rich set of cloud services as they’re released by Microsoft. Meanwhile, the subscription-based model reduces the procurement cycle and the total cost of ownership.
Another key reason for opening the Migration Factory was that our clients are experiencing an acute shortage of data, analytics, AI and cloud skills, so we wanted to train and certify hundreds (and eventually thousands) of DXC professionals who could do it on their behalf.
What types of companies would benefit from working with DXC’s Migration Factory?
The Migration Factory is aimed at any organisation from any industry sector that wants to start, or accelerate, its journey to the cloud with the help of skilled experts who work in partnership with Microsoft. We can help companies with small or enterprise-scale projects to migrate their existing data and analytics infrastructures to the cloud and help them integrate new services and innovations, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our goal is to ensure that enterprises reap the cost, operational efficiency, productivity and revenue generation benefits of the cloud.
How is DXC collaborating with Microsoft in this endeavour?
Microsoft is a key strategic partner for the Migration Factory, so we collaborate with its product, engineering and architecture experts on market trends, field experience, Microsoft Azure features and more. We also collaborate on the training curriculum and sandbox testing environments, as well as hackathons and client events. Together, we’re driving innovation in terms of accelerators, enhancing existing cloud services and accelerating client migrations.
What feedback have you had from clients using the Migration Factory in India?
DXC has successfully completed platform and analytics workload-type migrations for many years, but we consistently hear from clients that the new factory approach, accelerators and collaboration with Microsoft is much more attractive to them. Sales cycles on this type of initiative typically last for months, but our clients want to start migrations within weeks because our offering is making their lives easier.
How will the Migration Factory evolve over the next 12-18 months?
We’ve already onboarded several hundred people at our factory in India and we’re aiming to have trained around 1,000 by March 2019. As part of our expansion plan, DXC recently announced the opening of additional Migration Factories in two major markets – Warsaw, Poland and Manila, Philippines. All three factories will be supported by client-facing experts that can be used during the consulting and design phases of migration projects.
In addition, DXC will strengthen our collaboration with Microsoft to ensure that we are jointly providing the types of data, analytics and cloud migrations services that will help our customers to innovate on a continuous basis. Our respective cloud and platforms experts will develop better service offerings and accelerators and run more hackathons for clients. In the future, we will increase focus on specific industry-based projects.