Alameda County ITD saves 100 hours per patching cycle with Azure VMware Solution

As more processes and operations move online, government organizations are looking for ways to innovate securely by modernizing and digitizing services. The Alameda County Information Technology Department (Alameda County ITD), a government agency that serves 1.7 million residents, seeks to drive digital transformation and efficiency to run operational and resident-facing processes. 

In 2022, Alameda County ITD consulted with Microsoft and concluded that its on-premises architecture was hindering it from serving its community efficiently. By migrating its infrastructure to the cloud with Microsoft Azure and Azure VMware Solution, Alameda County ITD achieved operational excellence, saving time and maintenance costs. 

Supporting 10,000 employees and 1.7 million residents with the latest technological solutions

Alameda County ITD serves Alameda County, the seventh most populous county in California, which has 1.7 million residents who speak 57 languages. The department aims to offer its 10,000 employees the latest technological solutions to empower them to efficiently deliver public services to this diverse community.

Alameda County ITD has long been committed to modernizing government operations. In 2012, Tim Dupuis, Chief Information Officer of Alameda County ITD, established a Virtual First initiative that has led the department to become a leader in innovation across California. “We consider ourselves at the forefront of modernization,” says Sybil Gurney, Assistant Chief Information Officer at Alameda County ITD. “We’ve been working on the modernization of our old legacy apps and mainframe apps, and we’ve been at the forefront of looking into AI and what it can do for us.”

This focus on innovation helped Alameda County ITD address its challenges. “We had a lot of aging infrastructure storage and computers,” says Wei-min Lee, Senior Infrastructure Services Manager at Alameda County ITD. “To meet our goals, we needed to get to the point where we could pivot infrastructure toward a cloud state of existence.”

Alameda County ITD’s on-premises architecture caused frequent capacity constraints, complex maintenance requirements, and lengthy procurement cycles for expansion. With increasing storage demands and the need for better disaster recovery to support diverse government departments, Alameda County ITD turned to Microsoft for a solution.

Migrating on-premises architecture and 62 terabytes of data to the cloud using Azure VMware Solution

Many governments are prioritizing data and infrastructure migration to hyperscale cloud solutions such as the Microsoft Cloud, which provides advanced AI while helping meet security, privacy, and compliance requirements. For years, executive leadership from Alameda County ITD attended weekly meetings with Microsoft employees to discuss new solutions. “Microsoft recommends solutions and offers resources and trainings to help us understand and implement new technology right away,” says Ram Gurumurthy, Chief Technology Officer of Alameda County ITD. With Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft Teams already in place, working with Microsoft for migration was an easy decision.

“We had expanded again and again,” says John Humphries, Infrastructure Services Engineer at Alameda County ITD. “We finally got to the point where we didn’t want to expand on-premises again; we wanted to expand in the cloud. We went with Azure VMware Solution because we have a big relationship with Microsoft and were already using Microsoft Azure.” 

In 2022, Alameda County ITD found itself at capacity only months after investing in an additional node for its on-premises solution, which led it to take the migration decision. Following Microsoft guidance and recommendations, it began migrating its architecture, working closely alongside Microsoft to ensure effective service while running on a hybrid model. The department used Azure ExpressRoute to help securely migrate to Azure Blob Storage, thus improving operational efficiency and lowering costs. 

As of 2024, the department has migrated about 50% of its on-premises solutions, including over 200 virtual machines and 62 terabytes of data. “So far, we have been able to build redundancy and resiliency by combining on-premises VMware with Azure VMware Solution for a really resilient hybrid architecture,” says Jagan Subramanian, IT Infrastructure Director at Alameda County ITD.

Saving 100 hours of maintenance per patching cycle and $50,000 a year with Azure VMware Solution

Since the migration, Alameda County ITD has improved disaster recovery and increased efficiency. “In the cloud, we don’t have to patch VMware,” says Humphries. “That is a catastrophically complex and time intensive process on-premises—it takes up to 100 hours of work each time we do it. That’s a huge benefit.”

By cutting down maintenance hours, Alameda County ITD empowers its employees to provide services quickly rather than spending days or weeks on updates. “When procuring for scalability, for example, getting a node cluster on-premises would take months,” says Gurumurthy. “In Azure VMware Solution, it will take days, even hours.” Such shortened timelines have made it easier for Alameda County ITD to cut costs by as much as $50,000 per year, managing taxpayer money effectively. 

Additionally, recruitment has become easier. “There’s a perception that government is behind, lethargic, and outdated,” says Gurumurthy. “We are anything but that, and when we tell recruits we have all these technologies, they can’t believe it.” Alameda County ITD is thrilled with how smoothly things have gone and is excited to see what it can accomplish as it increases storage capacity and reduces time and costs associated with maintaining an on-premises solution.

Moving toward a secure and accessible future with Azure

Alameda County ITD has led the way in innovation and efficiency, helping Alameda County be recognized as a top digital county in the United States. Moving forward, the organization plans to continue improving life for employees and constituents by implementing the latest technology. “One of the first steps is to build up the disaster recovery component,” says Subramanian. “We support law enforcement, healthcare, social services, and others, and it’s critical that we provide secure, compliant infrastructure and adequate disaster recovery.” 

To save more costs, Alameda County ITD is hoping to move toward a complete cloud-based development environment, removing the need to maintain the development infrastructure. With Microsoft support, the organization is excited about where emerging technology will take it. “With the right technology, we’re moving toward our vision of eliminating homelessness and hunger, providing more accessible infrastructure, and creating a better county,” says Gurney. 

Discover more about Alameda County ITD on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.