Enkom shuts down the data center. The Swiss cloud takes over.

Customer Profile

Thanks to innovative technologies, skilled employees, and a strong focus on customer proximity, Enkom AG plays a leading role in the design and implementation of communication networks and digitalized business processes. 165 employees work at five locations. Enkom's customers include renowned companies from the security, multimedia, transport, and mobile communications industries.

A long-standing and successful partnership with Baggenstos

We look back on a highly successful collaboration with Enkom. It began back in 2014 and was taken to a new level in 2021 with the Operation Care Managed Service from Baggenstos. With the migration of services to Azure and Microsoft 365, the step into the public cloud in Microsoft's Swiss data center has now been taken.

Azure and Microsoft 365 for modern working environments

The strategic decision clearly pointed toward cloud services. The servers in the data center were to be replaced by corresponding solutions on Microsoft Azure. In addition, the extensive capabilities of Microsoft 365 were used to create modern and secure workplaces for all employees.

{{Referenz (/enkom-3) | Markus Flashar}}

Facts and Figures

Starting point and objective

Until the project started in November 2021, Enkom's IT was mostly hosted in a Swiss data center. Up to that point, the services were provided on-premises there. With the strategic decision to move to the cloud, the infrastructure in the Glattbrugg data center was dissolved and the services were migrated to Azure and Microsoft 365.

Solution

In the first step of the consolidation phase, the complexity of the existing infrastructure was reduced. The number of servers was thereby minimized. Existing services were modernized and newly provisioned in the cloud via IaaS or SaaS. The existing centralized internet access was consolidated and rebuilt autonomously at each location. As a result, only the most essential components – such as firewall, switch, and Wi-Fi – remain at the individual Enkom locations. All IT services are obtained either via Microsoft 365, Azure, or as SaaS (Abacus and Printix).

At the same time, the services already in use in Azure were moved from the North Europe data center to Switzerland North. As a result, all of Enkom's cloud services are now delivered from Switzerland.

Results

As part of the consolidation, numerous services were simplified. Through the use of Azure Reserved Instances (ARI) and automations (a start/stop script so that servers only run during operating hours), the existing Azure costs were reduced to a minimum.

Various legacy elements from earlier projects were cleaned up and replaced by current products – for example, the VPN gateway, old services in Azure, and the hybrid Exchange server. By consolidating the existing individual licenses into bundles and cleaning up the users, monthly licensing costs were reduced. The elimination of the data center, together with cost-effective internet connections at the locations, made it possible to save further operating costs.

Challenges

The time pressure resulting from the termination of the data center contract posed a challenge.

Thanks to good planning and great commitment from everyone involved, the deadline was met. As planned, Enkom was able to obtain all services from Azure and Microsoft 365.

Many thanks for the excellent collaboration

We would like to sincerely thank everyone involved in the project for their trust and excellent collaboration. We will do everything we can to further strengthen this trust in the years to come.