IMO has been on an important journey to develop a more strategic approach for utilizing the cloud. After all, to grow in health IT requires a modern cloud infrastructure that will improve agility and security, the product development process, and, ultimately, the products brought to market.
Choose the right vendor to help meet your goals
IMO’s long-term goals called for bringing the company’s tooling and data into the cloud, while also using technology like data lakes and machine learning to more effectively build products. We needed to be able to fail quickly during the development process without wasting time. And, as IMO expands into the United Kingdom – where General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance is essential – we knew the right cloud vendor would be key to our success.
A journey like this is not unique to IMO. Any growing IT company will generate more and more disparate data that needs to be managed. IMO chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its vendor for a number of reasons. AWS is a reputable industry player with training options, a strong set of services, and continuous product innovation. In addition, they offered 175 specialized tools that IMO could leverage toward its business goals.
Build the right implementation team
IMO had a strategic vision, but was looking for a partner to help bring it to life. Six Nines is known for its experience helping companies execute on both cloud strategies and migrations to AWS. They were able to act as an advocate for IMO and built a solid relationship with the AWS team to ensure IMO was adhering to AWS standards.
Strong project managers from the Six Nines team helped IMO establish a set of tooling that enables us to track against targets, providing greater visibility into where money is being spent. Six Nines also brought in on-site and remote consultants to partner with IMO’s technical experts on the Cloud and Foundation Team, which launched IMO’s AWS migration.
Right-size resources for better results
The results of the cloud transition have been significant. Development teams can now quickly spin up new infrastructure via automation, reducing the time from an ‘ask’ to deployment. Doing this in the past would have required hours, or even days, of waiting for even minor requests to be fulfilled. Because of the well-designed, automated platform, teams are able to fine-tune their AWS usage and right-size their resources. These savings in time, money, and manpower can now be reinvested in our portfolio, where they can drastically change the way IMO builds products. Indeed, in July IMO released its first cloud-native product – IMO Precision Normalize – using IMO’s new AWS platform.
Migrating to the cloud has been a game changer for IMO, and we’re not alone. With the right team in place – and with the help of a strategic partner – companies embarking on a similar journey can make the most of their cloud investments in the short term and for years to come.
