Migrated cloud infrastructure supports modernization effort and finds new cost efficiencies

In 2021, in collaboration with MNP and Campana, an Ontario-based provider of membership relationship management tools, CAA developed a strategic plan that involved modernizing and migrating their enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform and supporting services to Microsoft Azure.

MNP identified prerequisites needed to migrate the current ERP environment to the Azure Cloud to remove constraints and risks associated with having the ERP services on servers located on site.

As part of an overarching modernization effort to stay ahead of their competition, CAA decided it was time to migrate their on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. They needed a complete end-to-end transformation, and seeing as this would affect the entire organization, there also needed to be a knowledge transfer component to streamline adoption.

The project required numerous complex phases involving architecture, design, requirements capture, documentation, operations training, and project management.

After performing a current state analysis, MNP recommended Azure as the cloud solution to deliver on CAA’s requirements of boosting the organization’s resiliency, security, and scalability.

To perform the migration from the on-site data centre to the cloud, MNP started by working on network, workload, as well as landing zone design, right-sizing virtual machines, and wrapping everything in security and governance best practices.

“During each phase the MNP’s team’s subject matter expertise and skill was apparent resulting in a project that was largely a non-event. It was delivered on schedule and on budget.”

–  Bret Ross, VP Technology & Chief Privacy Officer CAA (Atlantic)

In addition, MNP conducted acceptance testing by validating access and authentication, testing applications, user experience and performance, and validating the operational process: monitoring and alerting, backup and recovery, operating system updates and patch management.

To bring the engagement to a close, MNP documented each step of the ERP service migration to ensure clarity, then held a team training session to facilitate adoption by management. By having a clear, documented process to draw on, the knowledge transfer was smooth and increased the team’s confidence about the new system and accessing its capabilities.

CAA now has a fully cloud-based infrastructure in place that allows for enhanced flexibility, scalability, reliability, and security. They no longer need to dedicate resources to maintaining on-premises hardware and can focus more on cost optimization and finding new efficiencies. With a relationship spanning more than four years, MNP continues to work closely with CAA, providing ongoing support.

“We have completed many projects with MNP over the past few years involving multiple areas of expertise such as web design, security, finance and digital strategy and I have no hesitation saying they continue to be a valuable partner of CAA Atlantic and instrumental as we move our business forward.”

– Bret Ross, VP Technology & Chief Privacy Officer CAA (Atlantic)