The Challenge: Moving Critical Workloads Without Starting Over
A cloud migration can create a new infrastructure challenge. Organizations may have applications and workflows that work well on premises, but moving them to the cloud can introduce new storage architectures, operational models, cost structures, and management requirements.
For the healthcare organization, this mattered because the workloads included medical imaging through its Hyland Acuo VNA environment, along with application and general-purpose file data across its broader IT environment.
The question was not simply where to put the data. The organization needed a cloud file platform that could support the performance, scale, availability, and operational requirements of these workloads while fitting naturally into its AWS strategy.
Just as importantly, the IT team wanted to build on an architecture it already knew and trusted rather than introduce unnecessary complexity as part of the cloud migration.
Why Qumulo?
The organization had already seen Qumulo scale with its on-premises infrastructure. As its storage requirements grew into multiple petabytes, the organization became familiar with Qumulo’s architecture, management model, and support organization.
That existing experience gave the organization a foundation for evaluating its cloud options. Instead of treating cloud file storage as an entirely separate infrastructure decision, the team could evaluate whether Qumulo could provide the capabilities it relied on today within AWS.
Qumulo worked closely with the organization and AWS to model the proposed environment, validate expected performance and throughput, and develop a five-year total cost model based on current utilization and anticipated growth.
The process gave the organization visibility into both the technical architecture and the economics of operating its file infrastructure in AWS before committing to the migration.
The Solution: Cloud Native Qumulo on AWS
The organization selected Cloud Native Qumulo on AWS to support its cloud transition.
The architecture is designed around separate environments optimized for different workload requirements. Medical imaging and PACS/VNA data will use CNQ multi-AZ Cold tier deployments, while application and general-purpose file workloads will use CNQ multi-AZ Hot tier deployments.
The environments span AWS regions to support the organization’s broader availability and data protection strategy.
For migration, the organization can use Qumulo-to-Qumulo replication to move existing file data from its on-premises systems into CNQ, while application-specific migration capabilities can support portions of the medical imaging transition.
This allows the organization to move workloads progressively rather than requiring an entirely new storage architecture or operating model as applications transition to AWS.
Bringing the On-Premises Experience to AWS
One of the most important aspects of the organization’s decision was operational continuity.
Once deployed, the cloud environments can be managed using the same Qumulo experience the IT team already understands on-premises. The infrastructure underneath may change, but teams do not have to relearn how their file platform works simply because the data has moved to AWS.
That consistency is valuable well beyond healthcare.
Organizations in media and entertainment, financial services, life sciences, research, manufacturing, and other data-intensive industries face the same challenge: cloud strategy may be set at an organizational level, while IT teams must figure out how to migrate critical applications and large file datasets.
Qumulo gives those organizations a path to the cloud without forcing them to abandon the file architecture and operational experience they already trust.
From On-Premises Customer to Cloud Customer
The organization’s relationship with Qumulo began with a relatively small replicated on-premises deployment. As its data requirements grew, the environment expanded into a multi-petabyte footprint across four on-premises systems.
Its next phase extends that relationship into AWS.
By choosing CNQ, the organization can support critical healthcare and general-purpose file workloads in the cloud while maintaining consistency with the Qumulo environment its IT organization already operates.
The result is more than a storage migration. It is a way to execute a broader cloud strategy while reducing the disruption that can come with moving large-scale file workloads.
The Takeaway: Your Data. Your Way. Cloud Without Starting Over.
When an organization’s cloud strategy changes, its file infrastructure needs to change with it. Qumulo allows customers to extend familiar file workflows from the data center to AWS, migrate data progressively, and support demanding applications without introducing an entirely different file platform.
For the healthcare organization, that means taking an on-premises Qumulo environment that has already scaled to multiple petabytes and extending that experience to AWS for some of its most important data and applications.