Seamless Migration to
the Cloud with AWS
A Case Study with SmartSearch
Case Study in Brief
SmartSearch needed a risk-free migration without disruptions to AWS. By working with RedNight, the migration was even more successful than planned.
“The performance that we got on AWS from day one was breathtaking. We didn’t realize how much more headroom AWS would provide out of the gate.”
L. J. Morris
President and Chief Technology Officer, SmartSearch
The Challenge
Founded in 1986, SmartSearch provides talent acquisition software that centralizes sourcing, recruiting, applicant tracking, and hiring activities. To power its service, the company had previously self-managed an on-premises data center. Improving performance or increasing memory was a costly, time-consuming experience for SmartSearch.
SmartSearch knew that hosting its system on AWS would both reduce the burden of data center maintenance and unlock key performance improvements. It chose to migrate its entire system to AWS. “We compete with the best in our industry, and we want our customers to have access to the most stable platform,” says Morris. “We evaluated everything and realized that AWS was the best choice for us. So, we made the decision to go all in.”
On the advice of its parent company, SmartSearch engaged RedNight Consulting, an AWS Partner, to accelerate the migration. RedNight Consulting has significant technical expertise on AWS and worked with SmartSearch to create a comprehensive migration strategy. “RedNight Consulting recommended that we completely recreate our network on AWS first and then optimize it,” says Morris. In January 2021, the teams set out to duplicate SmartSearch’s environment on AWS, with a goal to complete the project in 6 months.
The Solution
First, SmartSearch and RedNight Consulting completed a proof of concept that identified components that SmartSearch needed to adjust prior to the migration. Based on these findings, the teams performed a domain update, simplified the network architecture, and decommissioned servers that were no longer in use.
Then, they began to replicate SmartSearch’s Microsoft SQL Servers on the cloud using AWS Application Migration Service. By June 2021, SmartSearch had completed the first phase of its migration with virtually no disruption to its clients or system downtime. In fact, the cutover window took only 9 hours and was scheduled over a weekend. “In the war on talent, staffing companies sometimes have minutes to submit a resume, satisfy their customer, and gain a huge commission,” says Morris. “Our primary goal was to minimize customer impact due to a migration. RedNight Consulting partnered with us to develop a plan, and we carried it out flawlessly. The migration to AWS was beautiful.”
When the new system went live, SmartSearch saw immediate improvements. “The performance that we got on AWS from day one was breathtaking,” says Morris. “We didn’t realize how much more headroom AWS would provide out of the gate.” Since the migration, SmartSearch customers have expressed great satisfaction with the system’s performance and reliability.
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