Transforming IT & Cloud Strategy for a US-Based Apparel Retailer
Transforming IT & Cloud Strategy for a US-Based Apparel Retailer
About The Client
A leading US-based apparel retailer with approximately 150 outlets and a strong omnichannel footprint across online and physical stores. It specializes in its own niche brand and other brands. They had an in-house Data Centre, and Saksoft worked with them to identify areas of IT optimization, develop cloud plans, and then migrate.
Business Challenge
Existing on-premises Exchange 2010 environment had critical performance and stability issues — impacting hundreds of users across the organization
Detailed architecture was not available, support was not available, OPEX and CAPEX costs were high
There was no DR — moreover the Exchange 2010 environment was approaching end of life in 2020
Approximately 475 users were hosted with on-premises AD sync — user mailboxes and critical backups were not managed properly
Data Center infrastructure and operations were not stabilized — with mounting OPEX and CAPEX concerns and no concrete IT or cloud roadmap
Lacked end-to-end architecture information and documentation about interdependencies between applications, infrastructure, and business
Indefinite delays in implementing changes, ever-increasing CAPEX and OPEX and IT productivity issues
No details were available about the technology stack and no clear roadmap on how IT could augment the business
What did we do?
Performed a detailed discovery and assessment of IT and business across the entire data center environment
Proposed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online solution — designed the solution architecture and migration plan
Identified IT optimization opportunities across applications, infrastructure, and CAPEX/OPEX
Hybrid migration solution was proposed — business criticality and environment stability considered at every stage
Developed a detailed roadmap of cloud adoption on Azure, and Microsoft 365 using their advanced services. Proposed several business cases with cost benefits along with possible technology solutions
Proposed AD integration with Microsoft 365 via Azure AD Connect and SSO capability for 475 users
IT Cloud Blueprint developed by Saksoft is now used as the baseline architecture document
Provided IT consulting and security recommendations to strengthen the client’s infrastructure and align with PCI DSS audit requirements.
Designed and enabled air-gapped, immutable backup protection to enhance data security, ransomware resilience, and business continuity.
Introduced an enterprise-grade archive storage tier for backup data, optimizing long-term backup retention and significantly reducing storage costs. This initiative delivered an estimated annual cost savings of USD 30K–40K while maintaining required security, compliance, and data-retention standards.
Business Outcome
Achieved 25–35% savings in IT infrastructure costs, delivered entirely offshore
Migrated in 8 weeks with zero disruption across all 150 stores
Streamlined 20 apps to 8; consolidated 50+ on-prem instances into 25 across AWS, Azure, and Microsoft 365
Designed AWS advanced services (S3, RDS, FSx) with built-in HA/DR
Phase 1 of the Microsoft 365 rollout completed as part of a well-received phased