CompuData grows 25% year over year, increases cloud revenue by 250% by migrating from private cloud to Microsoft Azure with Ingram Micro

Scaling an IT business requires an infrastructure that’s agile, simple to maintain, and cost efficient. Without the right technology and partners, costs and complexity can increase exponentially as a company grows.

IT solutions provider CompuData wanted to focus its energy and resources on its customers while setting itself up for continued growth in a cost-effective way. The company migrated from a private cloud to Microsoft Azure, working with migration toolsets from Microsoft to complete the majority of the migration in less than two years. CompuData has already significantly grown its net-new business, increased its growth rate, and reduced overhead costs.

Enhancing scalability and efficiency by migrating to Azure

CompuData has provided technology solutions for small and midsize organizations for more than 50 years. The privately held, woman-owned business provides customized cloud solutions for regulated industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services.

In 2008, after recognizing the growing importance of the cloud in enterprise technology, CompuData built a private cloud to run its servers and workloads. However, the company wanted to reduce overhead costs and complexity as it grew so that it could scale cost-effectively and continue adding value for customers.

The company decided to migrate its entire infrastructure to Azure to take advantage of the global scale, cost controls, and security and compliance features that Azure provides. “Managing and maintaining a private datacenter as we scaled up was just not cost effective,” says Ed Guarrieri, Chief Operating Officer at CompuData. “For us to scale to the next level as a cloud solution provider, Azure would be the best way we’d be able to provide the right solutions for our customers.”

Transforming to provide higher-value managed services with Ingram Micro

More than 95% of CompuData’s customers were already using Microsoft Modern Work solutions, and Azure aligned well with the company’s existing workloads. Azure also has the compliance and data controls that CompuData needs for its customers in regulated industries. The choice to migrate to Azure was easy.

For support during the migration, CompuData worked with Ingram Micro, which provides access to Microsoft solutions and support while implementing them as well as funding, resources, and expertise. Ingram Micro had been assisting CompuData with software licensing and hardware procurement and supported CompuData as it participated in the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization (DCO) program, which helps businesses transform their legacy datacenter operations to a cloud-centric business model on Azure.

Between 2022 and 2024, CompuData transitioned all of its hosted customers to Azure through the Microsoft DCO program. The company successfully migrated its legacy infrastructure to Microsoft Azure while using the many migration incentive programs Microsoft offers. “We connected CompuData with presales resources to redesign its solutions in Azure and supported it with funding for end-customer migration projects,” says Michael Wirth, Category Acceleration Executive for Microsoft Azure at Ingram Micro. “We also helped CompuData expand the services portfolio that it’s bringing to market with its existing customer base.”

Achieving 25% year-over-year growth while reducing costs

CompuData quickly saw significant benefits after migrating to Azure. The company has achieved a 25% year-over-year growth rate while reducing overhead costs and needing fewer resources to manage its expanding workloads. Instead of using resources to manage servers in datacenters, CompuData is putting its energy toward its customers. As a result, the company has increased its cloud revenue by 250% since migrating to Azure. 

CompuData is also scaling faster and adding value to its offerings as Microsoft continues to enhance its services and introduce new features. “Being able to scale your business cost-effectively on Azure is huge, and being able to expand your product portfolio based on what Microsoft is developing and handing over to you really strengthens what you can offer to your customers,” says Guarrieri. 

By using Azure, CompuData can prioritize security and compliance without maintaining complex custom infrastructure. This is especially important for its customers in healthcare, finance, and other highly regulated industries. “Microsoft has designed compliance into so much of what it’s delivering,” says Guarrieri. “The regulated industries we serve align really well with the Microsoft solutions we’re using.” 

CompuData has also improved its remote work setup, using Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint for communication and collaboration. The company uses Microsoft 365 to connect its employees and teams with the apps they need. “Microsoft delivered a better solution set that makes it more cost-effective for us to scale,” says Guarrieri. “It makes sense for us to use Microsoft technology rather than try and rebuild the wheel ourselves.”

Delivering secure and compliant cloud solutions

CompuData plans to shut down its private cloud by 2024. Its next project is to turn additional legacy client server applications—which clients would previously have run using on-premises servers—into cloud-based offerings on Azure. The company also wants to improve the business analytics it provides using Microsoft Power BI and Azure Data Lake.

CompuData continues to work with the Ingram Micro team and enhance its offerings using Microsoft solutions. “Microsoft keeps adding functionalities at such a rapid pace,” says Guarrieri. “We’re adding features at that same pace because we’re tapping into Microsoft technology. We can offer so much to our customers at a faster pace than we could develop ourselves.”

By migrating to Azure, CompuData has unlocked the scalability and efficiency to digitally transform its business and deliver cutting-edge, compliant cloud solutions. “We’re a customer service business,” says Guarrieri. “Customers care about uptime, security, reliability, and performance. We can deliver that better and more cost-effectively on Azure today.”