Radisson Hotels Partners with AWS and Deloitte to Achieve Strategic Cloud Migration and Operational Transformation
Radisson Hotels, in collaboration with Deloitte and AWS, embarked on a key project to modernize its IT infrastructure. The initiative involved migrating over 150 servers and applications from an on-premises data center to a scalable, robust cloud platform powered by AWS. This effort ensured a smooth transition with zero rollbacks or interruptions to business operations. The result positions Radisson Hotels as a leader in hospitality innovation in the digital era.
Key Benefits
Operational Efficiency
Radisson Hotels faced the pressing need to migrate its on-premises systems to a dynamic cloud environment that could meet evolving business demands. This shift eliminated the limitations of physical infrastructure, providing the flexibility needed to expand and innovate service offerings. The transition to AWS Cloud delivered a transformative boost in operational efficiency, enabling Radisson to leverage improved speed, accessibility, integration, and overall IT performance.
One of the most remarkable benefits is the enhanced application performance and accelerated rollout of new services, which significantly elevate the customer experience while ensuring agility and swift adaptation to business fluctuations.
Security, Compliance, and Business Continuity
In today’s landscape, a secure and resilient environment is essential. By leveraging AWS’s security framework, Radisson benefits from a cloud infrastructure that protects sensitive customer and business data, strengthens compliance, and reduces risk exposure. This robust foundation safeguards business continuity while reinforcing customer trust.
Project Development
Migration of Legacy Servers and Applications to AWS Cloud
Migrating from on-premises servers and applications in a large organization is a complex endeavour that demands precision and flawless execution. For Radisson Hotels, the journey began with a structured planning phase guided by Deloitte’s AWS-based migration framework. This framework provided the roadmap for successfully transitioning over 150 legacy servers and applications to the AWS Cloud while ensuring uninterrupted operations.
The project was executed in two parallel streams:
- AWS Landing Zone Evolution. The first stream focused on enhancing the existing AWS Landing Zone to accommodate the migrated applications. New functionalities were integrated to support high availability, disaster recovery, and backup requirements.
Network layouts were reconfigured to improve efficiency and simplify internal routing. These changes enabled the seamless integration of new network security appliances and reduced maintenance efforts without impacting production systems.
- Discovery, Analysis, and Migration. A critical discovery and analysis phase identified all applications within the physical data center, including virtual machines and physical servers. Special attention was given to mapping dependencies between applications, a key factor in defining migration waves.
The technological stack was analysed to explore modernization opportunities, considering options such as rehosting, replatforming, repurchasing, or retiring applications. This analysis ensured the best course of action for each application.
The migration process was organized into 23 carefully planned waves, prioritizing critical applications and production environments. Less complex systems were migrated first, while critical applications were handled with in-person collaboration and overnight shifts to ensure a seamless transition. The migration phase concluded with zero rollbacks and no disruptions to business operations, creating a resilient cloud environment for future growth.
From the outset, our primary focus was to empower Radisson Hotels to reallocate resources from infrastructure and application maintenance to strategic, customer-centered initiatives, strengthening their capacity to drive growth and innovation that elevate the user experience.
Juan Ignacio Codoñer, Director Cloud and System Engineering, Deloitte
Lessons Learned and Key Takeaways
- Collaboration and Communication: a pivotal moment in the project was a two-day in-person workshop that improved communication and collaboration among team members, significantly enhancing project dynamics.
- Meticulous Planning: detailed planning and the use of native AWS solutions, such as Cloud Endure Migration services, were instrumental in addressing challenges and ensuring success.
- Cost Optimization Post-Migration: a cost-saving plan was implemented, including:
- Scheduling non-production environments to shut down during nights and weekends.
- Right-sizing migrated servers due to the superior performance of AWS EC2 instances, enabling resource reductions while maintaining performance.
- Implementing AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances for additional cost efficiency.
AWS Services Utilized
- Migration Tools: AWS Application Discovery Service, AWS Datasync, AWS Migration Hub, Cloud Endure Migration
- Networking: AWS Transit Gateway, AWS Directory Service
- Infrastructure: AWS Control Tower, AWS EC2, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, AWS Backup
- Cost Management: AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Savings Plans
As we embarked on this migration journey with AWS and Deloitte, we aimed to not only modernize our infrastructure but to build a scalable, secure environment aligned with our strategic vision. The collaborative efforts and expertise of our partners were instrumental in ensuring a seamless transition with zero disruptions to our operations, allowing us to move confidently into a future-ready cloud infrastructure.
Oscar Alejandre, Senior Director, Network & Infrastructure, Radisson Hotel Group
