Data center migration from on-premises to AWS Cloud for IBL Ltd

Meet Our Customer

IBL Mauritius is a diversified conglomerate based in Mauritius, boasting a rich history of over 190 years. The group operates across nine business clusters, encompassing more than 280 brands in sectors such as agro-industry, building and engineering, commercial, financial services, hospitality, life sciences, logistics, manufacturing and processing, and property. Its agro operations offer sugar cane growing, milling and refining in Mauritius and the East African region. With a presence in 22 countries worldwide, IBL employs approximately 37,950 team members, making it one of Mauritius' largest employers. The group's strategic objective is to be recognized as a leading international entity, anchored in a robust investment portfolio, a culture of excellence, and world-class expertise.

The Challenge

When IBL engaged NorthBay Solutions, it was for a very specific reason: they were seeking an experienced partner to guide them on their data center migration from on-premises to AWS Cloud. Few of their challenges were addressed during this migration.

1. Transferring large volumes of data from on-premises systems to AWS while ensuring data integrity and minimal downtime.
2. Ensuring consistent user access across environments.
3. Implementing and managing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for user authentication.
4. Configuring a DR site in a different AWS account for ensuring seamless failover processes.
5. Ensuring that multi-account setups and the use of AWS Control Tower align with best practices and prevent mismanagement.
6. Maintaining centralized logging, auditing, and compliance reporting across multiple AWS accounts.

The Implication

Transitioning to the new environment brings several operational and strategic considerations. The following key implications were taken into account:

1. Increased administrative tasks during the migration phase, including account setup, backup configurations, and user access management.
2. Potential for service disruption if the migration and cutover are not carefully planned.
3. Higher initial costs due to resource provisioning and data transfer fees.
4. Staff need to familiarize themselves with AWS services, such as Elastic Disaster Recovery, FSx
5. Dependence on AWS's uptime and support infrastructure for critical business operations.

Solution

Following are the highlights of the solution provided to IBL which were based upon AWS best practices of architecture design, high availability, security and performance.

1. Used AWS Organizations and Control Tower for account provisioning and centralized governance.
2. Implemented identity and access management.
3. Configured MFA on accounts to enhance security.
4. Utilized AWS DataSync and Elastic Disaster Recovery to facilitate seamless data and application migration.
5. Configured Site to Site VPN between on premises to Production Site and DR Site.
6. Deployed DR systems using EDR for EC2, DataSync for FSX and also S3 bucket synchronization to ensure availability during disaster.
7. Implemented centralized logging and security tools like AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, and CloudTrail.

AWS Services

The project heavily utilized AWS services to ensure scalability and efficiency:

Benefits

Below are some of the prominent benefits of the AWS solution provided to IBL.

1. Easily scale resources to meet business demands without investing in additional hardware
2. AWS's built-in security services, centralized access control, and MFA for better protection
3. Higher resilience with geographically distributed DR site and automated recovery tools
4. Simplified management of resources and users across multiple accounts with AWS Control Tower and SSO
5. Centralized audit and logging services ensure compliance with regulatory requirements

As a result of IBL's partnership with NorthBay Solutions, they have moved their critical business applications to AWS and also established a DR Site for Business Continuity.

NorthBay is now providing Managed Support Services (MSP) to the IBL and looking after all of their AWS infrastructure’s operations, security and maintenance.

About NorthBay

NorthBay Solutions is a leading provider of cutting-edge technology solutions, specializing in Generative AI, Cloud Migration, ML/AI, Data Lakes and Analytics, and Managed Services. As an AWS Premier Partner, we leverage the power of the cloud to deliver innovative and scalable solutions to clients across various industries, including Healthcare, Fintech, Logistics, Manufacturing, Retail, and Education.

Our commitment to AWS extends to our partnerships with industry-leading companies like CloudRail-IIOT, RiverMeadow, and Snowflake. These collaborations enable us to offer comprehensive and tailored solutions that seamlessly integrate with AWS services, providing our clients with the best possible value and flexibility.

With a global footprint spanning the NAMER (US & Canada), MEA (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, KSA & Africa), Turkey, APAC (including Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Vietnam), NorthBay Solutions is committed to providing exceptional service and support to businesses worldwide.

We hold the following competencies, specializations and programs of AWS:

• Generative AI and Machine Learning
• Data & Analytics
• DevOps
• Mobile
• Education
• Migration Competency
• MSP Partner
• Public Sector Partner
• Database Ready
• Database Freedom
• Solution Provider Partner
• Well Architected