VerticalScope had one month to migrate the Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) servers for 1,100 websites from IBM Softlayer to the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) on Google Cloud. However, the process could not be fully automated for two reasons: the crunched timeline and because the back-end architecture of the sites was not consistent—there were many different databases and software configurations at play. Also, since these sites have such a large user base, the migration needed to happen with zero downtime.
To have any hope of meeting its aggressive 30-day deadline, VerticalScope needed the help of a team that was large enough, had the technical proficiency to quickly get up to speed, evaluate and migrate each site, and integrate quickly and seamlessly with VerticalScope engineering.
Pythian brought two key things to this project: a global team with deep technical knowledge and a wealth of cloud migration experience to add to VerticalScope’s own talent, and a solid process to overcome the challenge of not being able to automate much of the migration.
