Meet Trianz at AWS re:Invent 2025 Register Now
Higher Education Institution Achieves 26% Cost Reduction by Migrating VMC Workloads to AWS with Concierto Migrate
Executive Summary
Virginia State University, a prominent higher education institution in the United States known for its commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and student success, transformed their VMware Cloud (VMC) infrastructure using Trianz Concierto Migrate, achieving a 26% reduction in infrastructure costs. Facing the challenge of escalating VMware licensing costs following VMware's acquisition by Broadcom that doubled operational costs, they needed an enterprise-grade solution that could deliver rapid migration without service interruptions to critical academic and administrative applications.
Concierto's AI-powered automation and hyper-intelligent workflows enabled them to complete their transformation with zero-touch orchestration while ensuring uninterrupted availability for core applications supporting student learning and institutional operations. The transformation positioned them with a scalable, future-ready infrastructure that supports growth, reduces overhead, and improves reliability.
Key Transformation Results:
- Cost Optimization: 26% reduction in infrastructure costs
- TCO Savings: 25-30% reduction on hosting costs identified
- Migration Approach: Risk-free pilot-first validation with automated full-scale cutover
- Infrastructure Modernization: Smooth, disruption-free transition across Windows and Linux systems
- Operational Excellence: Enhanced visibility into application dependencies and improved resource management
Client Overview
Industry:
Education
Organization Size:
Higher Education Institution
Transformation Focus:
Cloud Migration | Cost Optimization
Concierto Platform:
Migrate
Timeline:
Accelerated implementation timeline with pilot-first approach
The Business Challenge
Virginia State University faced escalating VMware licensing costs following VMware's acquisition by Broadcom. The university faced a dramatic increase in licensing fees, doubling its operational costs and prompting an urgent need for a more affordable alternative.
Aging legacy infrastructure created additional complexity. The existing environment, composed of 70% Windows and 30% Linux systems, required a robust modernization plan to ensure compatibility with AWS.
Tight migration timeline pressures were critical as a renewal deadline on the existing VMC setup created a hard cutoff to complete the transition without service interruptions.
Application criticality demanded careful planning. Core academic and administrative applications had complex interdependencies and needed uninterrupted availability during migration to avoid impact on student learning and institutional operations.
The university supports a diverse range of digital services and infrastructure critical to learning, faculty engagement, and campus operations.
The Concierto Solution
AI-Powered Enterprise Transformation Platform
Concierto Migrate delivered the breakthrough capabilities Virginia State University needed through its unique combination of artificial intelligence, hyper-automation, and enterprise-grade reliability. Unlike traditional migration tools that require extensive customization and manual processes, Concierto's SaaS-based platform provided immediate value through zero-code, workflow-driven automation.
Intelligent Discovery and Assessment
Concierto's agentless discovery and full-stack assessment capabilities automatically mapped the university's entire application portfolio, identifying TCO savings, end-of-life systems, and migration-readiness using R-analysis and compatibility checks. The platform's AI-powered assessment engine provided strategic insights that informed both technical and business decisions throughout the transformation.
Hyper-Automated Migration Orchestration
Concierto enabled zero-touch orchestration of the production migration with built-in automation, reducing manual effort and ensuring a secure, compliant transition to AWS. The platform's intelligent workflows automated complex migration scenarios, validation processes, and optimization configurations while maintaining complete visibility and control for technical teams.
Multi-Cloud Optimization Engine
The platform ensured that workload placement decisions were based on performance, cost, and compliance requirements. The university could leverage AWS strategically, with Concierto managing the complexity through a unified interface.
Enterprise-Grade Security and Compliance
Concierto's framework provided built-in governance controls, audit trails, and risk management protocols that exceeded industry standards. The platform's ITIL compliance, SAS 70 certification, and CSA Star certification ensured that all transformation activities met regulatory requirements automatically.
Real-Time Analytics and Optimization
Concierto delivered continuous insights into transformation progress, performance metrics, and cost optimization opportunities, enabling data-driven decisions throughout the migration process and ongoing operations.
Implementation Excellence
Phase 1: Comprehensive Discovery and Assessment
Leveraging the Concierto platform, Trianz initiated an agentless discovery and full-stack assessment of the existing environment, identifying TCO savings with 25-30% reduction on hosting costs, end-of-life systems, and migration-readiness using R-analysis and compatibility checks. The platform's AI-powered assessment provided strategic insights that validated the migration approach and identified optimization opportunities.
Phase 2: Strategic Wave Planning
Workloads were logically grouped into migration waves based on application dependencies and criticality, ensuring a structured and risk-mitigated transformation plan. This strategic approach enabled the university to maintain operational continuity while systematically modernizing their infrastructure.
Phase 3: Pilot Migration Validation
A non-production pilot migration was executed to validate the target infrastructure, testing essential services like server boot-up, DNS, and VPN to confirm readiness for production cutover. This pilot-first approach minimized risk and validated readiness before the full production migration.
Phase 4: Automated Full-Scale Migration
Concierto enabled zero-touch orchestration of the production migration with built-in automation, reducing manual effort and ensuring a secure, compliant transition to AWS. The platform's intelligent validation and testing capabilities verified that every migrated workload met or exceeded performance expectations before go-live, enabling a smooth, disruption-free cutover across systems.
Phase 5: Post-Migration Optimization
Following the migration, Trianz used Concierto to right-size workloads and optimize configurations for performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency in the new AWS environment. The platform's continuous monitoring and intelligent recommendations enabled ongoing optimization that delivered compounding value over time.
Transformation Results & Business Impact
Operational Excellence Achieved
Virginia State University's transformation with Concierto delivered results that established new benchmarks for higher education cloud transformation, demonstrating the platform's ability to drive exceptional business value through intelligent automation and AI-powered optimization.
- Cost Efficiency: The AWS migration delivered a 26% reduction in infrastructure costs, helping the university meet its budget and efficiency goals
- Risk Mitigation: A pilot-first approach minimized risk and validated readiness, while automation enabled a smooth, disruption-free cutover across systems
- Operational Visibility: The new AWS environment enhanced insight into application dependencies, enabling smarter allocation, performance tuning, and operational control
- Infrastructure Modernization: Virginia State University now operates on a resilient, high-performance cloud foundation that supports growth, reduces overhead, and improves reliability
Strategic Business Impact
- Financial Sustainability: Significant reduction in operational costs provides resources for academic innovation and student services
- Operational Continuity: Zero-disruption migration maintained uninterrupted service to core academic and administrative applications
- Future Readiness: Scalable cloud infrastructure positions the university for growth and continued digital transformation initiatives
Platform Technology Excellence
Concierto Migrate Architecture:
- Cloud Platforms: AWS
- Automation Engine: Zero-code, workflow-driven intelligent automation with zero-touch orchestration
- Discovery Capabilities: Agentless discovery and full-stack assessment
- Migration Planning: Strategic wave planning based on dependencies and criticality
- Validation Framework: Pilot migration validation with comprehensive testing
- Integration Hub: Enterprise-grade APIs and connector ecosystem
- Compliance Framework: ITIL compliant, SAS 70 & CSA Star certified
- Security Architecture: Enterprise-grade governance and audit capabilities
Key Differentiators
- SaaS Delivery Model: Immediate value without infrastructure overhead
- Hyper-Automated Workflows: Eliminates manual processes and human error with zero-touch orchestration
- AI-Powered Discovery: Comprehensive assessment with TCO analysis and migration-readiness validation
- Pilot-First Approach: Risk-mitigated migration with validation before production cutover
- Enterprise Reliability: Proven at scale with built-in automation for secure, compliant transitions
Future Transformation Roadmap
Building on their cloud migration success, Virginia State University is now positioned to leverage Concierto's advanced capabilities for continued optimization and expansion of their AWS environment. The scalable, future-ready infrastructure provides a foundation for ongoing digital transformation initiatives that support the university's mission of academic excellence and student success.
Why Leading Enterprises Choose Concierto
This transformation success demonstrates why organizations across industries select Concierto for their most critical cloud initiatives. The platform's unique combination of AI-powered intelligence, enterprise-scale reliability, and zero-code simplicity delivers results that traditional approaches cannot match.
Concierto's SaaS-based delivery model, hyper-automated workflows, and multi-cloud optimization capabilities provide the agility and efficiency that modern enterprises require while maintaining the security and compliance standards that regulated industries demand.
Ready to accelerate your cloud transformation?
Contact Trianz today to discover how Concierto Migrate can deliver unprecedented speed, efficiency, and business value for your enterprise.
Explore moreReady to Transform Your Data Platform?
Let's discuss how we can help you build a modern data architecture that drives business value