Barona's Azure cloud migration accelerated flexible and cost-efficient management of services

Barona is a part of Bravedo Group, which consists of companies providing services for the working life and dozens of businesses in the health care and social welfare sector and technology. Barona is responsible for Bravedo's IT services and information management. Barona's services include personnel hire, recruitment, and also outsourcing, training, and coaching services.

We looked for a partner who would have both convincing evidence of cloud expertise as well as sufficient resources for implementing Azure cloud migration. It was a big advantage that we also received help to manage and develop our existing AWS environment. That made the service comprehensive,

Tero Nevalainen, Head of Cloud Operations and Capacity Services, Barona

Barona's cloud migration key objective was to make infrastructure solutions more modern, easier to manage, and flexible. In the future, all the most important services are primarily found in the cloud, which increases the efficiency of both internal projects and customer work. They also sought long-term cloud management cost savings from the migration.

Knowit created both the Azure cloud infrastructure and implemented a transition from old data centres to cloud workloads for the client. Barona was familiar with agile cloud operations because they already had used the AWS cloud services.

Barona's multi-cloud architecture empowers them to distribute their workloads across the cloud environments and give their development teams the freedom to pick the better suited public cloud for each project.

Changes in the modern cloud environment boosted Barona's opportunities to utilise the norms of new cloud technology in a business-driven manner. Cloud-native operations aim to develop services primarily in the cloud. Therefore, the cloud utilisation in the various areas of business is natural and productive.

The cloud partnership between Knowit and Barona ensures that the customer's modern cloud infrastructure has been developed from the business perspective. As a result of the migration project, Barona gained an easily managed cloud environment that adjusts to business' varying needs.

– From the cloud migration, we sought help to manage cloud environments in a more versatile way. Now, the use of our cloud environment in its entirety is more flexible. For example, capacity changes are easy to implement, says Tero Nevalainen, Barona's Head of Cloud Operations and Capacity Services.

The effects of the cloud migration reflect positively on the future development of services, which the cloud environment provides a solid foundation for. Indeed, one of the key features of the cloud service is its scalability, which makes fast reactions possible when the needs of a company change.

– We can now launch and update services in a more agile way. Cloud management is also comprehensive in the Azure environment, Nevalainen says.

Knowit's strong expertise of Microsoft Azure and AWS reassured Barona in selecting a partner because it brought significant added value to the cloud migration project.

– We looked for a partner who would have both convincing evidence of cloud expertise as well as sufficient resources for implementing Azure cloud migration. It was a big advantage that we also received help to manage and develop our existing AWS environment. That made Knowit's service comprehensive, Nevalainen emphasises.

There was a shared view of a solution-driven and transparent working method in Knowit and Barona's cloud partnership. During the cloud journey, solutions were tested and iterated with a low threshold. That made the project's implementation more effective and made the value of cloud migration solutions visible throughout the project.

Barona thanks Knowit's experts, whose contribution and development ideas moved the project forward smoothly.

- Knowit's experts are very proactive, and they have comprehensive insights and experience in developing cooperation. We at Barona value agile cooperation. Knowit's working methods made them a suitable partner for us because they have both comprehensive cloud expertise and a roll-the-sleeves attitude. The partnership has been effective, Nevalainen praises.

During the cloud migration, common operating models and processes were created, which built a strong foundation for the cooperation and a view to future cloud partnership. The Azure cloud migration provided convincing evidence of cloud management. As a result, Knowit's and Barona's cooperation has continued in both the Azure and AWS.