Move the whole business to the Cloud? Yes, but why? Like many companies, Premaccess asked itself that question. Founded in 2007, it is today an expert in Platform/Serverless/SaaS application development and in cloud managed services – in particular with its infrastructure orchestration solution BAM (Build Automation Machine). But it was not always so.
Initially specialised in premium hosting of sensitive data (banking, healthcare, trading, ads…), Premaccess decided in 2015 to migrate its whole business to the Cloud. Technological innovation is part of its DNA. It was hard for the company to turn a blind eye to the arrival of the Cloud providers on the market.
Between putting a Cloud strategy in place, rethinking the business model and training the teams on these new technologies, the former hosting provider took nearly 5 years to become 100% Cloud. The company will close its very last datacenter next December.
Unlike “Cloud native” providers, Premaccess went through the journey that every company follows when it switches from “On premise” to the cloud. An experience its teams have turned into a strength. That know-how is now useful in supporting their new clients as well as possible on this adventure.
Falco Schmutz, CEO of Premaccess, looks back on this migration to the AWS Cloud. In his view, for anyone in an IT department, “taking part in setting up a Cloud architecture requires stepping back from your own profession, and even being reborn from it.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What services did you offer at Premaccess before your move to the Cloud?
- Migrating to the Cloud: was it obvious to you as soon as the Cloud providers arrived on the French market?
- How did you go about your migration to the Cloud? What were the different steps you went through to carry out this project?
- What, in your view, are the benefits of the Cloud for a company?
- What advice would you like to give to companies considering migrating to the Cloud?
What services did you offer at Premaccess before your move to the Cloud?
“Before our move to the Cloud, we were specialised in premium hosting of sensitive data. For our clients, we built bespoke infrastructures that we hosted in our datacenters, and we offered them technical services such as multi-site high availability, managed services…
We did that job for nearly 14 years.”
Migrating to the Cloud: was it obvious to you as soon as the Cloud providers arrived on the French market?
“Not necessarily! In early 2016, someone at Premaccess told me that AWS was coming to France. He asked me: ‘Do we want to go there?’. At the time, I was rather reluctant. No doubt because I was comfortable in my business, in the offer proposed to my clients…
But I changed my mind very quickly. Two months later, I took part in an AWS training course. A three-day course during which I met the CIOs of several large French groups. Those three days of introduction to the AWS tools were an eye-opener. (Thanks to Boris Lecoeur and Arnaud Lemperreur for convincing me 🙂 ) I became aware of this Cloud provider’s innovation power, of its ability to reinvent our profession. I understood that it embodied the future. And I also opened my eyes to our hosting business: if we carried on like that, we risked falling behind the competition and being unable to innovate.
At Premaccess, we are technology and innovation enthusiasts. Turning a blind eye to the arrival of the Cloud providers in France meant going against our vision and against the promise we make to our clients: to guide them towards what is most suitable and best on the market. Moving to the Cloud meant following our convictions!”
How did you go about your migration to the Cloud? What were the different steps you went through to carry out this project?
“Our 1st consideration was our strategy: do we go for a Cloud or a multi-Cloud strategy? Very quickly, we chose to adopt a 100% AWS Cloud strategy, because we like this provider’s DNA. AWS is always looking for the next relevant innovation.
Our 2nd consideration was our business model, because moving to the Cloud required us to reinvent it. We learned a lot in this digital shift. We now pass that knowledge on to our clients. On the Cloud, you are in “pay for use” mode. Which differs from the logic of a software purchase decision… As a result, we are now able to answer the various questions our clients ask themselves about the financial management of their Cloud infrastructure: “How is billing done on the Cloud”, “how can I make sure that my company’s business uses these technologies to the right extent?”… We have built strong FinOps skills.
Finally, our 3rd consideration concerned team training. Building Cloud architectures requires expertise. We had to train and modernise our teams. We invested a lot of time in training, in bootcamps and in certifications. Clearly, migrating your infrastructure to the Cloud implies a paradigm shift: you move from the job of network systems engineer to devOps. Which is not within everyone’s reach.”
What, in your view, are the benefits of the Cloud for a company?
“I see 3 major ones:
Innovation in your offering: Thanks to the Cloud, you get easy access to technology. The myriad of microservices available on the AWS Cloud lets you test new offers faster before putting them on the market. It lets you shorten your innovation cycles. That is an essential benefit at a time when companies are going through digital transformation.
Automation: you can manage your infrastructures more simply. Enough to save your technical teams time (even more so with a solution like BAM, which we developed to carry out this migration and to make it available to our clients).
Security: the Cloud providers have an incredible list of conformities (compliances). When you know the time this involves in terms of regulation, verification, security… It is impossible to try to compete with them in this area.”
What advice would you like to give to companies considering migrating to the Cloud?
“My first piece of advice concerns the human investment. Do not underestimate the time it takes to train, to change mindsets, to engage the teams so that they take ownership of this new project. Do not hesitate to find ambassadors, drivers of this change, within your teams.
Second piece of advice: Do not underestimate the contribution of the people who migrated their infrastructure to the Cloud before you. They know what you are talking about, they understand perfectly the difficulties you are facing (technical and human).
Finally, my third piece of advice will be about the financial side: by migrating to Cloud technologies, you will gain in the long term. You should not expect it to have an impact on your finances straight away. This type of project requires a lot of change. For a while, for example, you may find yourself with duplicate infrastructures on classic hosting and on Cloud hosting. In addition, the teams have to be ready, trained to carry new projects with these new technical tools. Depending on the size of your organisation, you will see a significant financial gain after 3 to 6 years.”
Now an “AWS Advanced consulting partner”, Premaccess supports many companies in their migration project. Its team stands out from “100% Cloud native” competitors:
- It knows the AWS business inside out.
- It understands what is at stake in such a project for a company, having been through it itself.
So if you want to migrate all or part of your business to the Cloud, do not hesitate to surround yourself with experts in this field.
Would you like advice on migrating to the Cloud… Contact us.