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How a Global Healthcare Provider Scaled to 1,000+ VMs on IBM Cloud VCFaaS

By Iman Farzadpour posted 4 days ago

  

Why Healthcare IT Modernization Remains a Critical Industry Challenge

The healthcare industry is facing increasing pressure to modernize IT infrastructure without sacrificing reliability, compliance, or performance. As legacy environments become more complex and harder to manage, healthcare providers are turning to cloud platforms to support scalable, reliable virtual infrastructure.

However rising infrastructure costs, and compressed operational timelines are making modernization initiatives more difficult to execute. Compounding the challenge with vendor-driven changes such as the deprecation of AWS VMware Cloud (VMC) and fluctuations in managed service offerings forcing IT leaders to make urgent decisions about re-platforming mission-critical workloads.

 

Client Challenges: A Global Healthcare Training Provider

One global healthcare training provider faced exactly these challenges. Their Virtual Machines (VMs), which delivers information to over 10,000 medical technicians on sophisticated equipment like MRI and CT scanners, was hosted on a soon-to-be-deprecated VMC instance. 

With their service set to sunset and their contract expiring in end of 2024, they had only a limited window to identify and transition to a new platform. The impact of potential downtime was significant, and alternative managed service options including those directly through Broadcom proved prohibitively expensive.

The client needed a solution that could deliver a secure and seamless migration of VMware workloads. It was important for the solution to offer a flexible and cost-effective pricing model that aligned with their business needs. Given the client’s global presence, the solution also had to support international centers. In addition, having a reliable technical support throughout the transition was a key requirement. 

 

 

IBM Cloud VCFaaS: Tailored Solution Delivery

IBM Cloud addressed these requirements with a customized solution centered on VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service (VCFaaS). This multi-tenant, fully managed service provided the scalability and operational flexibility the client required while substantially reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).

IBM collaborated with the client on a Proof of Concept (PoC), which transitioned directly into a production deployment. Throughout the engagement, IBM’s technical sales and architecture teams provided high-touch, white-glove onboarding support, ensuring a smooth and accelerated path to production.

In contrast to a competing PoC conducted with competitors was marred by installation delays and inconsistent support, the IBM solution demonstrated superior technical execution and responsiveness.

Key Outcomes and Performance Metrics

IBM’s offering delivered key advantages, including approximately 50% incremental TCO savings enabled by flexible pricing and on VMware Cloud Foundation licenses. 

The migration of more than 1,000 VMware templates (totaling over 20TB) was completed four weeks ahead of schedule. Enterprise-grade support, with issue resolution times consistently under one hour during the PoC phase, further underscored the reliability of IBM’s service.

 

 

The New Operational Landscape

Today, the client operates its Virtual Platform entirely on IBM Cloud. The environment supports mission critical workloads, powered by scalable VMware infrastructure. What began with 150 virtual machines (VMs) is projected to scale beyond 1,000 VMs within 12 months. 

In addition to VCFaaS as the core managed infrastructure, the solution architecture includes VCF for Classic to support legacy workloads, PostgreSQL DBaaS for database management, RabbitMQ as a Service for messaging, and IBM Kubernetes Service (IKS) to support future micro services-based expansion. 

With this new environment, the client has transitioned from reactive infrastructure management to a forward-looking model focused on innovation, enabling improvements in training quality, operational scalability, and global accessibility.

Why Healthcare Leaders Choose IBM Cloud:

  • 50% reduction in TCO through IBM’s optimized pricing and licensing

  • 1000+ VMware templates migrated, ahead of schedule

  • Global scalability via IBM Cloud’s GEO availability

  • Integrated services including PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, and Kubernetes

  • White glove onboarding and ongoing support

  • Seamless transition from PoC to production — no disruption to end users

 

Next Steps for Healthcare Organizations

For healthcare organizations facing similar challenges with VMware workload migration or broader cloud modernization, IBM Cloud VCFaaS offers a compelling, enterprise-grade path forward. The service combines cost-efficiency, operational agility, and robust support to enable secure and scalable transformation of mission-critical workloads.

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1) Receive $1000 in IBM Cloud credits to use in the next 60 days. Enter Promo code "VCFAAS1000"

2) Limited time promo: 50% discount on 1 and 3 year contract
 

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