Vertical Systems Azure Migration to Retire On-Prem Infrastructure

Vertical Systems is one of the longest-established providers of travel technology in the UK. A family-owned business founded in 1981, they are best known for their award-winning Tarsc platform, a leading front and back-office travel management system used across the industry.

Vertical Systems had traditionally hosted their infrastructure across two locations: their own data centre in Laindon and a third-party co-location facility. These environments supported a large mix of business-critical systems running on both Windows and Linux servers.

However, the physical data centres were becoming increasingly difficult and costly to manage. The company identified a need to modernise and move away from these legacy hosting environments. Their short-term goal was to migrate their systems into Microsoft Azure as quickly and smoothly as possible.

In the long term, they wanted to explore more advanced, cloud-native solutions to support ongoing innovation with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

The project needed to be carefully managed to avoid disruption to their core services, which support travel agencies across the UK.

Valto was engaged to lead the Azure migration project for Vertical Systems, beginning with an in-depth planning and assessment phase. We conducted a series of discovery workshops to understand the full scope of their infrastructure, how their applications were built, and what would be required to transition everything into the cloud.

We then designed and deployed a secure, best-practice Azure environment to support the migration. This included mapping out system dependencies, configuring network and security settings, and preparing for a phased transition.

Approximately 70 servers were migrated during the project. Some were rebuilt from scratch for optimal performance, while others were moved in their existing form to reduce disruption and ensure continuity.

Throughout the migration, we made full use of Azure’s built-in features to support the transition, such as load balancing, cloud firewalls, and secure network connections between sites. Careful consideration was given to sizing each system appropriately to ensure a balance of performance and cost-efficiency.

We also worked closely with Vertical Systems’ internal team to upskill their administrators and provide ongoing support for the new environment.

The migration to Azure delivered immediate benefits for Vertical Systems. By moving away from physical hosting environments, the company was able to reduce costs associated with maintaining on-site servers and third-party data centres.

Their applications now run on a more modern and reliable platform, resulting in better performance, increased stability, and a noticeably improved experience for users.

The move has also reduced the operational burden on Vertical Systems’ team, freeing them up to focus on future development rather than infrastructure management.

Users have reported faster system response times and increased reliability, reinforcing the value of the investment.

Looking ahead, Vertical Systems plans to continue their cloud journey by reassessing how their applications are built and exploring opportunities to modernise further using Azure’s advanced capabilities. This includes potentially transitioning some systems to Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions for greater scalability and efficiency.