Sierra Produce Migrates to Personalized Managed Services with AWS & RedNight
Case Study in Brief
Sierra Produce, made the decision to optimize their IT services and leave its previous managed service provider by moving their entire IT environment to Amazon Web Services (AWS) with RedNight Consulting. RedNight helped implement a new AWS-hosted infrastructure including Amazon WorkSpaces virtual desktops and a migration of their existing Famous Software servers. As Sierra Produce’s new MSP, RedNight executed a single go-live cutover weekend with engineers on-site as needed. RedNight has continued supporting Sierra Produce through multiple new business ventures over time, including a new site opening, a headquarters relocation, and several hardware, software, and server upgrades.
Solutions Overview
RedNight began with a full discovery of Sierra Produce’s existing environment. From there, RedNight provisioned a new AWS account, stood up five new servers, built a new Active Directory environment and user base from the ground up, and Amazon WorkSpaces so staff could work from secure, centrally managed virtual desktops. RedNight’s team installed all desktop and server applications, coordinated directly with Sierra Produce’s software vendors — including Famous Software and Key Central — and ran an initial data copy and full round of testing with Sierra Produce before go-live.
On cutover weekend, RedNight installed and configured all MSP monitoring tools and backups. Sierra Produce’s warehouse teams were ensured to be fully operational — followed by a full week of dedicated post-go-live support.
Key Challenges
Sierra Produce were looking for a more personalized IT partnership that would differ from their existing managed service provider. Their current MSP contract was coming up for a renewal, and they knew it was time to find a more suitable team with white-glove service, who wanted to understand their core business.
More importantly, they needed a partner who could not only migrate their environment to AWS but do it with virtually no disruption to a produce operation that depends on its systems being up every single day. That meant a single, tightly coordinated cutover and a provider experienced enough with the produce and agriculture vertical to understand the specialized software, hardware, and vendors already in place.
The Takeaway
● A full MSP and AWS migration completed in a single go-live weekend, with RedNight engineers on-
site in both California and New Jersey
● Zero disruption to day-to-day warehouse and office operations, including printing, wifi, wireless scan
guns, and signature pads
● A continuous, personalized partnership, supported by AWS POC
funding.
● An AWS environment ran off of Amazon WorkSpaces deployment, a new site launch, a HQ office
relocation, and multiple rounds of AWS and Windows platform upgrades
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