TAKING THE PLUNGE AND HEADING INTO THE CLOUDS

Managing large volumes of data and files is often a challenge for businesses, with many companies relying on office-based servers which can be inefficient.

Biting the bullet and making the decision to move to a cloud system may seem daunting, but if the process is organised and implemented correctly it can be straightforward and the rewards significant.

One company that successfully managed this was Lifeline IT client Legal Insurance Services (LIS), which migrated to a cloud-based system several years ago and is now refreshing its structure.

We hear from LIS’s Director, Will Dresner, and Lifeline IT’s technical director, Navdeep Batth, to find out more about the change and how it’s benefited them.

The challenge

LIS is an insurance underwriter that specialises in legal indemnities, predominantly in the property sector. Based in Tunbridge Wells and employing 20 people, the company has been with Lifeline IT for eight years, during which time significant changes have been made to its IT operations.

Explained Will: “Because of the nature of our business, we get large amounts of data sent to us from solicitors. We had a lot of data files and the speed of accessing them was not great – it was very slow and only one person at a time could access them.

Added Navdeep: “All the data was stored on servers that were in their head office premises – remotely accessing it was reliant on an internet connection, which was not great at the time. LIS had two sites so if you were trying to access files and documents from the second site, it would be difficult because of poor internet connectivity.

“They needed a flexible solution that would enable all staff to be able to access information, no matter where they were based.”

The solution

Lifeline IT re-organised LIS’ systems to a cloud-based solution. Emails were moved to Microsoft 365, data and files to Microsoft 365 SharePoint and desktops transferred to Amazon Cloud.

The project involved more than one million files being moved over a period of five weeks and it was one of the largest SharePoint project that Lifeline IT has ever undertaken.

Now Lifeline IT are migrating LIS desktops from Amazon Cloud to Microsoft Azure’s Windows 365. This will provide greater synergy with the Microsoft packages that LIS already uses for emails and data, as well as being faster, more cost-effective and easier to access.

The next development for LIS will be restructuring Microsoft SharePoint to accommodate the larger volumes of data that they now have.

The benefits

Being able to work from anywhere and still access all relevant emails and files is one of the key benefits, along with several people being able to access the same files and see them in real time.

Said Will: “Everything is so much more efficient now we’re no longer reliant on servers in the office – anyone can access company information no matter where they are. When Covid hit we were in a strong position as we were instantly able to work from home as Lifeline IT had already done all the work of moving us to a cloud-based system.”

Added Navdeep: “As well as being a lot more flexible – staff can access all their files and emails from any device, wherever they are in the world – it is also more resilient and secure.”

Said Will: “I would strongly recommend other companies to make the move to a full cloud system – Lifeline IT did an excellent job and the benefits have enabled us to operate more efficiently as a company.”

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