Partner Article

Cloudreach to facilitate move to cloud for Kempinski

Cloudreach, a fast-growth cloud computing consultancy, has been selected by Kempinski Hotels, the luxury hotel management group, to support and manage its migration to the cloud. Cloudreach will help Kempinski move from traditional, on-site IT to public cloud-based storage and computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS), eliminating any migration headaches by advising on a phased approach, and managing the transition. The new set-up will allow the hotel group to reduce costs and maximise staff productivity.

Previously, Kempinski relied on 140 servers for its corporate and shared applications, situated and managed in Geneva, Switzerland, at the group’s headquarters. This model was impacting on Kempinski’s core focus of hospitality management as highly skilled staff were charged with only administering IT assets. By moving to a hosted infrastructure, Kempinski will achieve a lower total cost of ownership and allow employees to focus on enabling core business activities by driving efficiencies from the applications rather than purely administering them.

Having considered various options, Kempinski decided on AWS for its competitive pricing, mature offering and reputation. The shift was seen as requiring additional support for the in-house team, given the amount and importance of data and applications to be migrated, and the technicalities and logistics involved. Cloudreach, an accredited AWS Solution Provider, was recommended to Kempinski due to the consultation and management it could provide to address these concerns.

Cloudreach visited Kempinski’s headquarters where they provided their AWS specific AWS Deployment Framework. This is a new service from Cloudreach that aims to simplify the migration process through ongoing consultancy, but also helps in-house IT teams put the business case of cloud migration to their Board. Within this scope of work, Cloudreach conducted a review of Kempinski’s current IT set-up, advised on a phased approach (factoring in PCI compliance) and created a ‘business case’ that outlined how Kempinski would benefit from moving to the cloud and demonstrating measurable ROI. The business case detailed the migration from beginning to end, and considered any risks and issues that could be foreseen, looking at how these would be solved, in order to ensure a smooth and ultimately successful migration to AWS.

Jeremy Ward, Senior Vice President of IT, Kempinski, said “Following the in-depth consultation with Cloudreach, the major concerns we had around migration to the cloud were allayed. Cloudreach’s professionalism and consultative approach made them an obvious partner as we embark on this major project. With Cloudreach’s management and reassurance, it allows us to focus IT resources on being business enablers that drive efficiencies, as opposed to IT administrators.”

Pontus Noren, Director and Co-Founder, Cloudreach said “Cloud is clearly becoming a realistic option for businesses, as they benefit from lower costs and increased efficiency that comes with moving from a conventional IT infrastructure. However, many businesses are anxious about the migration. By providing a business case for companies, Cloudreach aims to dispel concerns – firstly so the migration process is recommended and clearly articulated to those directly involved in the project, but also so the IT department has the ammunition it requires to gain support in the boardroom and help communicate why moving to the cloud makes business sense.”

Kempinski’s shift to the Cloud has caught the eye of several of its suppliers, who are planning to follow in the hotelier’s footsteps: “The solution has been floated to some of our suppliers who are looking at sharing the Kempinski virtual cloud or creating their own virtual cloud to offer a SAAS solution,” Jeremy concluded.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cloudreach .