Bolstering Healthcare Security: Migration VECOZO to Azure

NEN 7510 Compliant Azure Migration

In collaboration with Innvolve, we partnered with VECOZO to establish a cutting-edge Azure infrastructure that ensures a future proof ecosystem. Our joint efforts aim to enhance security and reliability, catering to the diverse needs of all users involved.

Goal

Every day, the dedicated team of 200 professionals at VECOZO strives to make significant contributions to cost control within the healthcare sector. Our primary objective was to optimize the cost efficiency of our national healthcare communication platform while ensuring enhanced compliance and security measures.

To achieve this goal, we embarked on a journey to design and implement a state-of-the-art hosting platform built on Azure. This innovative infrastructure seamlessly integrates cutting-edge technologies with legacy components, providing a robust foundation for our operations.

People

When starting the project, we noticed that even though we tried various ways to engage the client team, we were building a highway at high speed, but practically no one was following. Even though they eventually are to take over our work. So we tried the complete opposite of what one would expect and actually completely shut them out. Since no one likes to be shut out, this caught their attention immediately. Now, 80% of the team is actively engaged in the project, getting Azure training and certification and getting ready to take over when we finished building their ‘highway’.

Tech

At the project start we’ve helped VECOZO with building a sound business case which was representative for the potential savings on their communication platform. The other challenging part of the business case was about mapping the complex compliancy & risk requirements (NEN 7510 and ISO 27001 of the organization to the features of the Azure platform.

To validate the business case, we’ve built a Proof-of-Concept (POC) environment based on the high-level design. Feasibility was proven by migrating one of the most demanding applications to the Azure platform. Scenarios identified were Rehosting of Virtual Machines, Rehosting of SQL Server and replatforming it to Virtual Machine Scalesets with Service Fabric.

In our projects we strive to zero-ops, which means that the environment should be deployed and run with zero or a least a minimal amount of human interactions. We achieve this by configuring the infrastructure as code (IAAC), which provides a stable and rebuildable environment, with the least amount of human errors. In this project we’ve chosen to build our infrastructure from release pipelines in Azure DevOps.

Our challenge

Meeting the deadline of only 1,5 years to complete the entire migration of over 300 applications, whilst finding solutions for the complex regulatory and privacy related issues of the project. At the same time engaging the current team in a new way of thinking and working and managing a diversity of stakeholders with different interests.

At the start of the project, we encountered a challenge in engaging the client team effectively. Despite our efforts to involve them in the process, it felt like we were constructing a highway at high speed, with very few people actively participating, despite the fact that they would eventually take over our work.

In an unconventional move, we decided to take a complete departure from the expected approach and temporarily excluded them from the project. By shutting them out, we piqued their curiosity and captured their immediate attention. Recognizing the discomfort of being excluded, the client team quickly became motivated to actively participate.

As a result, we are thrilled to share that now, 80% of the team is fully engaged in the project. They are actively acquiring Azure training and certification, preparing themselves to seamlessly take over the reins once we complete the construction of their "highway."