Financial Services Leader Makes Plans to Modernize IT Infrastructure Through CleanSlate Cloud-Optimized Blueprint

Learn how CleanSlate helped a leading financial services organization assess their IT environment, optimize licensing, and build a customized business case for AWS migration.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A prominent U.S.-based financial services company, aimed to modernize its IT infrastructure to enhance flexibility, reduce costs, and streamline operations. Facing the need to exit their data center and optimize licensing, they partnered with CleanSlate Technology Group to conduct a Cloud Optimized Blueprint and an AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OneOLA). This collaboration provided a comprehensive evaluation of the company’s IT environment, identifying opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements. The assessment led to a strategic plan for migrating to AWS, enabling the organization to modernize its infrastructure effectively.

A leading U.S.-based financial services company specializing in education finance and business processing solutions, with approximately 6,000 employees across offices nationwide, was undergoing a strategic realignment. The executive team and Board of Directors announced plans to simplify its business model, reduce operational expenses, and enhance flexibility.

challenges

The company aimed to identify which IT assets needed to be separated and develop a plan to exit its data center by the end of the year. In addition, they sought to:

  • Outsource loan servicing and create a variable expense model
  • Realign business operations and look at potential divestment of business units
  • Streamline shared service infrastructure and reduce corporate footprint

 

To meet these goals, the organization also prioritized modernizing its IT infrastructure by adopting cloud technologies, rightsizing support and licensing to reduce costs, and maintaining enterprise-level security with less overhead.

 

The company partnered with CleanSlate to conduct a Cloud-Optimized Blueprint powered by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) OneOLA program (Optimization and Licensing Assessment). CleanSlate evaluated the organization’s VMware, Windows, and Oracle databases with the ultimate objective of modernizing infrastructure and exiting its legacy data center.

The CleanSlate / AWS OneOLA Process  

CleanSlate guided the company through the Optimized Cloud Blueprint and AWS OneOLA process—an enhanced version of the traditional AWS OLA—offering a standardized analysis across multiple workloads, including Microsoft applications, Oracle, storage, cloud-to-cloud migrations, RDS, and VMware.

Benefits of AWS OneOLA included:

  • Cost savings through license and infrastructure optimization
  • Fast turnaround with results delivered in just weeks
  • Minimal internal IT involvement, as CleanSlate led the assessment
  • Strategic roadmap development with data-based recommendations
  • 100% free and AWS-funded, with no hidden fees

Solutions

The engagement began with CleanSlate’s Optimized Cloud Blueprint, where they analyzed the client’s current state, outlined a target architecture, and developed a migration readiness plan. This included:

 

  • Identification of business drivers and priorities
  • Mapping business drivers to outcomes
  • Rapid IT portfolio analysis
  • Initial total cost of ownership modeling

 

CleanSlate then conducted the AWS OneOLA using the Database Current State Investigation tool for Oracle to examine the client’s infrastructure and licensing environment. Data was collected over a seven-day period from the organization’s Windows, Oracle, and VMware systems.

 

Just one week after the data collection period, CleanSlate delivered a comprehensive business case with tailored recommendations.

Results

Reduced

Oracle licensing by 25%

Costs Saved

54% in Rightsizing, and an additional 19% through migration

Increased

Operational Efficiency

CleanSlate’s rapid completion of the Cloud Blueprint and AWS OneOLA revealed significant opportunities for modernization and cost reduction.

 

Key outcomes included:

  • 54% cost savings through rightsizing and optimization
  • A reduction in Oracle Licensing from 128 to 96 licenses (48 Production, 48 Non-Production)
  • An additional 19% estimated savings by migrating to AWS

 

These findings led the client to choose AWS as their future infrastructure platform. They received AWS partner funding to move forward with the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP). CleanSlate supported this next phase with expert guidance, customized strategies, and cost optimization to ensure a seamless and successful cloud migration.

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