An ultra-specialized hospital centre, the Montreal Heart Institute (ICM), is dedicated to care, research, teaching, prevention, rehabilitation, and the assessment of new technologies in cardiology. Always on the cutting edge, the ICM is a leader in its field and plays a leading role in Quebec, Canada and the world. It is affiliated with Université de Montréal.

Background and challenges

ICM aims to provide exceptional services to researchers and respond promptly to their needs. In a healthcare environment like ICM, digital transformation to the cloud can greatly improve service delivery.

While ICM recognized the tangible benefits of migrating to the cloud, they also recognized that they had to overcome several challenges to accomplish it without impacting service delivery.

• Containing migration costs while complying with the government’s Computer Processing Center Consolidation Plan (PCCTI) addressing migration to cloud computing
• Addressing a lack of internal cloud computing expertise to quickly carry out a “lift and shift” migration.
• Mitigating risks associated with closing a data processing center with only one center in place.
• Maintaining data integrity while ensuring scalability.
• Managing legacy system migration complexity and system instability.

Solution

ICM proceeded with a solution based on VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS to meet these challenges.  The deployment was funded through the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), with COFOMO being chosen as a collaboration partner.

ICM chose COMFO as a digital transformation partner based on COFOMO’s expertise, experience, and VMware VMC Master Partner certification.

Results

The adoption of VMC on AWS yielded several benefits for ICM. The first migration was completed successfully within six months and brought about the following achievements:

• A seamless transition with no disruption to service delivery
• Full compliance with the Government’s program to consolidate data processing centers (PCCTI) in Quebec healthcare establishments
• Establishment of an internal IT Center of Excellence (CEI)
• Implementation of a robust change management process
• Improved skills of internal IT resources, leading to more efficient deployment
• Enhanced security posture
  

Overall, the implementation of VMC on AWS positively impacted ICM, enabling them to achieve these milestones and reap the benefits of a better, more efficient IT infrastructure.