CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
THE CLIENT
Large West Coast Wholesale Mortgage companies with operations in all 50 States.
Notable Achievments
RESERVED INSTANCE SAVINGS
55%
saving of monthly cost
OPERATIONAL HOUR OPTIMIZATION
70
increase in efficiency
Challenges
Scalability and Efficiency
A West Coast Wholesale Mortgage company faced significant operational inefficiencies due to an outdated Azure Virtual Desktop environment. Their system, initially set up on a pay-as-you-go model, incurred high costs and was challenging to scale to meet global operational needs. Poor maintenance over the years compounded these issues, leading to recurring problems and downtime.
Global Operations Requirements
The necessity to support a global operations team, particularly in India, required nearly continuous availability of virtual desktops, complicating the management of uptime and resource allocation. This global demand further strained their inefficient system.
Knowledge Retention
High turnover within the IT department resulted in a loss of critical knowledge, making it difficult to maintain and optimize the Azure environment effectively.
Solution
Phase 1: Stabilize the Environment
- System Audit and Issue Identification: Conducted a comprehensive audit to identify inefficiencies and outdated solutions.
- Infrastructure Overhaul: Updated all outdated applications and services, corrected Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and registry settings for critical applications, and resized and reconfigured VMs.
- Knowledge Consolidation and Documentation: Created detailed documentation of system setups, including resource groups, storage configurations, and role assignments to mitigate knowledge loss due to attrition.
Phase 2: Optimize the Environment
- Resource and Session Management: Resized VMs based on usage data and introduced session limits to prevent over-provisioning. Enhanced system monitoring using Azure dashboards for real-time tracking.
- Automation and Policy Updates: Improved system automations, standardized VM configurations, and updated policies to ensure consistent user experiences globally.
Phase 3: Cost Savings
- Transition to Reserved Instances: Shifted from a pay-as-you-go model to a 3-year Reserved Instance plan, reducing VM costs by up to 52%.
- Optimized VM Operation Hours: Implemented an auto-scaling plan and scheduled automatic VM shutdowns/startups to align with actual business needs, reducing operational hours significantly.
Results
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Operational Stability The comprehensive updates and optimizations stabilized the Azure environment, reducing downtime and improving global operations. The system became more reliable and easier to manage, accommodating the needs of both U.S. and Indian teams.
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Cost Efficiency
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Reserved Instance Savings: Monthly costs reduced to approximately $1,680 due to the switch to Reserved Instances.
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Operational Hour Optimization: Additional savings from optimized VM operation hours brought total expenses down to about $1,176 per month, achieving total monthly savings of around $4,824.
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Enhanced Global Efficiency With refined automations and robust monitoring, the system became more reliable and easier to manage across different time zones, improving overall operational efficiency.
Conclusion
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By addressing foundational flaws and overhauling their Azure Virtual Desktop environment, the Mortgage company achieved significant operational improvements and cost savings. These strategic changes not only stabilized their IT infrastructure but also optimized resource use and reduced overhead costs, demonstrating the critical importance of maintaining a flexible and robust cloud environment to support global business operations.
