Greener technology and reduced cost with cloud migration for leading energy company

As with many leaders in the energy sector, this brand is committed to a sustainable future. That commitment extends far beyond its many investments in renewable energy sources all the way to the company’s own operations. Recognising the potential for cloud technology to reduce its environmental impact, streamline operations and cut costs, the company embarked on a journey to migrate its on-premise data centres to the cloud. 

The company’s two on-premise data centres housed over 700 Virtual Machines (VMs). Maintaining and provisioning these VMs was a significant expense and contributed to the company’s carbon footprint. While the benefits of cloud migration were clear—and a methodology existed to measure said benefits—the industry itself lacked an agreed-upon process to calculate carbon emission savings. 

Our client was keen to understand the environmental impact of its cloud migration. Eager to use this data to further its sustainability goals and quantify the effect its efforts were having on its carbon footprint, the brand was also hoping to find a streamlined, cost-effective solution to reduce the burden of managing its many data centres. 

We partnered with Microsoft to design and implement a comprehensive cloud migration strategy, leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure. Our Innovation Labs team developed a custom Web API to measure and compare carbon emissions from the company’s VMs and their recommended Azure equivalents. The results were then visualised on a Microsoft Power BI dashboard, providing the company with a clear understanding of its potential carbon savings. 

The energy company achieved estimated carbon savings of up to 50% in the first year, with potential savings of up to 85% in the fifth year post-migration to Azure. These reductions align with the company’s commitment to a net-zero future, and in addition to the environmental benefits, the migration has resulted in substantial cost savings and operational efficiencies. 

Now able to directly quantify the environmental impact of its cloud migration, the company can make informed decisions that benefit its bottom line and the planet, leveraging the power of innovation to drive sustainability in its business.

Read more about our unique proposition – the Migration Carbon Emission Calculator.

Moving forward, Innovation Labs plans to make the Web API available on the customer’s own tenancy to allow the company to perform calculations on varying inputs. We also intend to produce a modified version of the dashboard for the Web API to remove the dependence on Microsoft to create the dashboard in each use case. Looking farther forward, we will work to create a cloud-agnostic API to allow for non-Azure migrations.  

Outcomes

• Partnered with Microsoft to migrate over 700 VMs to Azure 
• Developed a custom Web API to calculate carbon emission savings 
• Visualised results on a Microsoft Power BI dashboard 
• Achieved estimated carbon savings of up to 50% in the first year 
• Enabled significant cost savings and operational efficiencies