At a glance
Industry
Education
Location
United Kingdom
Challenge
Modernize and rationalize a legacy global IT estate to increase resilience and generate efficiencies by leveraging new technologies.
Success Highlights
- 75% reduction in the volume of end-of-life equipment
- 978 legacy on-premises servers decommissioned
- 66% of workloads migrated to the cloud for scale, performance and flexibility
Our approach
Cognizant had an in-depth understanding of OUP’s business and a wide range of relevant technology expertise. OUP also needed a flexible and adaptable partner, as the modernization would be delivered as multiple discrete projects, each with its own scope, goals and resourcing needs. We were able to meet this requirement for adaptability with our flexible 90% offshore resourcing model.
Our approach placed us as an extension of OUP’s teams, with executive sponsorship on both sides, a joint steering committee and a governance framework to monitor and address any risks. We implemented a change delivery framework to ensure each project was appropriately resourced for on-time completion and established a demand management function with the required organizational backing to manage and resource projects coming through the pipeline.
For each project, Cognizant established a high-level demand brief and desired outcomes. This allowed a dedicated solution architect to propose a way forward for the project and create a blueprint for delivery.
Multiple projects contributed to a multi-year transformation program:
UK data center migration and modernization
Cognizant managed the migration of OUP’s Oxford data center to a new facility capable of securely hosting critical on-premises services. This involved strengthening disaster recovery capabilities, decommissioning unused infrastructure and simplifying the local area network (LAN) to make it modular and scalable.
Device refresh and Microsoft 365 rollout
We took over a stalled rollout of Microsoft 365, incorporating a device refresh with virtual desktops and Microsoft Teams to allow OUP employees to transition to a remote and hybrid working model.
Americas infrastructure transformation
We conducted a full modernization and partial cloud migration of OUP’s primary US-based data center, which serves sites in North America and Latin America. Data storage was migrated from an end-of-support on-premises solution to a Microsoft Azure landing zone with enhanced reliability. A legacy Citrix platform was also migrated to a Microsoft Azure virtual desktop solution to enable work anytime, anywhere. A business-critical Trunk Media Gateway (TMG) was replaced with a modern software-defined networking (SDN) solution from Cisco, delivered as a cloud service. A new software asset management (SAM) system was implemented to ensure effective license management and utilization.
IT spend management
OUP wanted to gain granular insight into its spend on services, licenses and support from IT suppliers so it could be more efficiently managed. For this, Cognizant designed and built a software solution to monitor and manage third-party IT spend, which paid for itself (and more) in six months.
Facilities management
Some projects required facilities and digital transformation expertise. To showcase our flexibility and adaptability, we were able to fully resource projects that involved, for example, preparing an unused floor of OUP’s New York office for leasing to a third party, and managing a transition to a new warehouse services provider.
Business outcomes
Through this program, Cognizant has significantly strengthened OUP’s disaster recovery capabilities, mitigating business risk while modernizing the technology estate. Additionally, the program advanced OUP’s cloud initiatives and resolved persistent bottlenecks in network bandwidth. As a result, OUP now benefits from a stable, modern IT estate that enables more efficient operations and faster change delivery.
Significant outcomes to date include:
- Increased resilience: The volume of high and critical vulnerabilities has been reduced by 20% across the OUP estate, and the volume of end-of-life equipment has been cut by 75%.
- Improved performance: The implementation of internet breakouts from various sites has removed bottlenecks and improved latency, manageability and supportability.
- Cost savings: We decommissioned nearly 1,000 on-premises servers, which accounted for approximately 70% of OUP’s IT estate. This, combined with the transition to software-defined networking, has delivered significant cost savings.
- Agility and scalability: Around two-thirds of OUP’s on-premises workloads have been migrated to the cloud, enabling OUP to take advantage of flexible scalability when needed.
- Enhanced compliance: The introduction of a new software asset management solution has led to a 30% reduction in license exposure.
Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we’re improving everyday life. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.
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