Transforming your Information System: first and foremost an architectural challenge
Migrating to the cloud is about more than just moving virtual machines. For an IT department, the real question is one of strategy: which applications to modernise, in what order, using which technologies and under which governance model? Without a structured answer to these questions, cloud projects get bogged down, costs spiral out of control and the expected benefits (agility, resilience, budgetary control) fail to materialise.
It is precisely to address this challenge that the Cloud Practice team at Cloud Temple steps in. Comprising certified Solution Architects, the team supports clients in transforming and modernising their IT systems on Azure.
A range of expertise to support CIOs
Close and personalised support
Cloud Temple offers its clients a range of expertise to provide close support throughout the transformation of their information systems. The Solution Architects in the Cloud Practice work alongside the client’s teams, from defining the cloud strategy right through to the detailed design of the target architectures.
No two cloud roadmaps are the same from one client to another. A player in the financial sector does not face the same regulatory constraints as a manufacturing company undergoing rapid external growth; an IT department that has just taken over a sister company does not have the same priorities as a stable organisation seeking to reduce its operating costs. The Cloud Practice therefore does not deploy a generic migration template: each project begins with an assessment of the client’s specific business, technical and organisational challenges, in order to devise a roadmap that precisely meets their expectations.
This support is designed to enable CIOs to take full advantage of the various cloud solutions offered by Cloud Temple: the SecNumCloud-certified trusted cloud for sensitive data and applications, and Azure for hyperscaler services. The Solution Architect helps to deploy each workload to the most appropriate environment, based on security, compliance and performance requirements.
Drawing on tried-and-tested frameworks: the Cloud Adoption Framework
The support provided by the Cloud Practice is based on the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, Microsoft’s methodological framework, which structures cloud adoption into proven phases: strategy, planning, preparing the foundations (landing zones), adoption, governance and management. By adhering to this framework, our architects ensure a repeatable, well-documented approach that is aligned with industry best practice.
The CCoE: a governance body at the heart of the transformation
Leading the transformation, not just going along with it
The support programme is organised around a steering and governance body: the CCoE (Cloud Centre of Excellence), also known as the Architecture and Urbanisation Committee. Its role is to identify the challenges faced by CIOs within their information systems (technological obsolescence, application debt, data silos, operating costs) and to address them in a structured manner.
The CCoE regularly brings together Cloud Temple architects and the client’s stakeholders. It mediates architectural decisions, approves reference patterns and ensures that technical decisions are consistent with the company’s strategy.
The 6R method: assess each application before processing it
For each application in the portfolio, the CCoE applies the transformation method 6R, which sets out six possible pathways:
- Rehost : migrate the application as it stands («lift and shift»), for a quick win; ;
- Replatform : migrate whilst modernising certain components, such as switching to a managed database; ;
- Refactor / Re-architect : to redesign the application to make use of cloud-native services (containers, microservices, serverless); ;
- Repurchase : replace the application with an equivalent SaaS solution; ;
- Withdraw : decommission applications that are no longer needed; ;
- Retain : to keep certain applications on-premises on a temporary basis, where migration is not appropriate.
This systematic assessment enables us to draw up a realistic roadmap, prioritised according to business value and the level of effort required.
Two paths, two different contexts
- A key player in the sector insurance, involved in a project to Move to Cloud combined with application modernisation, has seen its infrastructure foundation (several on-premises virtual machines) transformed into an Azure managed services architecture: databases Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server, orchestration of containerised application components via Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and secure exposure of data flows via a Application Gateway. A combination of replatforming and refactoring, in which the database was migrated to a managed service and eligible components were containerised, thereby reducing the operational burden associated with maintaining application engines and servers.
- A key player in the sector energy approached the Cloud Practice to migrate a website that had historically been hosted on on-premises virtual machines. The chosen approach (a replatform) enabled the creation of a target architecture based on Azure App Service for application hosting, Azure SQL Database for data persistence, and a Application Gateway as a front-end solution to secure and distribute incoming traffic, eliminating the need to manage servers, patches and manual scaling in favour of managed services.
Two sectors, two contexts, two distinct approaches stemming from the same 6R method – proof that the target architecture is built around the client’s needs, and not the other way round.
Beyond infrastructure: a vision for the urbanisation of information systems
The CIGREF layered model
Architectural support cannot be limited to the provision of technical services within an ’Infrastructure as Code’ framework, however industrialised that framework may be. The CCoE led by Cloud Temple is able to put forward proposals regarding the’application architecture, drawing on the the stratified urbanisation model proposed by CIGREF, which breaks down the Information System into four layers:
- the nappy Business processes, modelled by our clients’ business architects; ;
- the nappy Functional organisation of the IS, modelled by their Application Architects; ;
- the nappy Application components of the IS, which also includes cross-application data flows (interfaces); ;
- the nappy Technical components of the IS infrastructure, which includes a list of the technologies used.
Cloud Temple: a driving force in application and technical layers
Cloud Temple takes a proactive approach to the last two layers of this model. In practical terms, our Solution Architects map out application components and their interfaces, take stock of existing technologies, identify technical debt and dependencies, and then propose target Azure architectures: decoupling workflows via integration services, containerising eligible components, and modernising data platforms.
This integration with the upper layers – managed by the client’s specialist architects and application architects – ensures that technical choices genuinely serve the business processes, rather than the other way round. This is the key difference between a technical migration and a genuine IS urbanisation.
Continuity guaranteed right through to operation
The roadmap drawn up by the CCoE does not end with deployment; it extends into the day-to-day operation of Azure environments. Administrative rights are delegated via Azure Lighthouse, which enables Cloud Temple’s teams to manage the client’s resources without the complexity of cross-identity management. This management is underpinned by continuous monitoring, supported by performance tracking dashboards, availability and costs, automated patch management and a proactive alerting system, as well as regular reviews of changes and obsolescence, which enable technical risks to be anticipated before they affect business operations.
A Microsoft-recognised partner
Certified Azure Expert MSP and appointed Microsoft Solutions Partner In the areas of Infrastructure, Digital & App Innovation, Data & AI, and Security, Cloud Temple holds certifications that attest to the level of expertise of its teams in Azure.
Would you like to plan your digital transformation in Azure with the support of our Solution Architects? Contact us to discuss matters with the Cloud Practice team.