First Cloud Venture Proves Successful for Northeast Insurance Company

This Northeast Insurance Company was at a critical point, they needed to plan for Mainframe technology upgrades to IBM hardware, mainframe storage, virtual tape solutions, and mainframe connections. To ensure they remained on a supported platform, it was essential that their hardware upgrades be completed within a specific timeframe. Their expectation was that over a seven-year period, they would have moved all the applications running on the mainframe to server-based systems.

The Northeast Insurance Companies’ traditional approach would have been to purchase new mainframe equipment and install it in their data center. But because they required the mainframe for a limited number of years, they decided to investigate options to find a more cost-effective, flexible alternative. They also wanted to mitigate the potential risk of losing critical technical support staff due to retirement.

Their timeframe to replace the mainframe was seven years, at which time their critical applications would be running in a web-based open systems environment. Their costs would decrease as they moved applications off the mainframe.

Challenge(s)

• Plan for mainframe technology upgrades
  • IBM hardware
  • Storage
  • Virtual tape solution
  • Mainframe connections
• Hardware upgrades be completed within a specific timeframe.
• Replace the mainframe approaching end of life.
• Mitigate the potential risk of losing critical technical support staff due to retirements.

Solution

• Migrating to Blue Hill’s hosted mainframe solution
• Flexibility, reduced costs, and dependable, onshore services, providing the groundwork with moving mainframe workloads to Blue Hill’s robust facilities.
• A more cost-effective solution for maintaining their mainframe environment.
• Decremental pricing as their mainframe requirements decreased over time.
• Dedicated Disaster Recovery service, an improvement over the subscription-based models
• Flexibility to take advantage of additional Blue Hill services as needed, as people with mainframe skills retired; they could rely on Blue Hill’s ample portfolio of services to fill the gap.

A positive initial experience with infrastructure outsourcing/private cloud in a well-defined, discrete environment: as this was their first venture into the cloud, they felt it was an effective way to manage the risk associated with running the mainframe securely.

When we first approached Blue Hill, the first iteration of the cost analysis didn’t appear to be cost effective. Blue Hill was very transparent and helped us understand all aspects of their pricing model to ensure we were not duplicating efforts or costs. Blue Hill offered to take the time to review this analysis with us, being very transparent, and together we were able to make adjustments that made the project very cost effective.

Since Blue Hill offered significant flexibility, reduced costs and dependable, onshore services, this company was able to lay the groundwork by moving their systems to Blue Hill’s robust facilities, and, as a bonus, the ability to take advantage of additional support as needed. This Northeast Insurance company’s first outsourcing venture was extremely successful and initiated the likelihood for future endeavors.