Benjamin Moore: Crafting cloud resilience

Objectives:

• Migrate SAP and non-SAP applications from its existing hosting provider to Microsoft Azure before its hosting provider’s decommissioning deadline
• Establish a secure cloud environment with ongoing managed security services
• Minimize business disruption during the migration process

Solution:

• Unisys migrated ~200 non-SAP servers to Azure using a proven rehosting approach.
  • Implemented an Azure landing zone, Azure ExpressRoute connectivity models and security services
  • Deployed managed detection/response and security information and event management (SIEM) services for centralized security
• oXya migrated the remaining ~100 SAP servers to RISE with SAP-managed cloud service running on Azure.

Results and benefits:

• Met the critical hosting provider’s decommissioning deadline
• Achieved a seamless migration of disparate applications to the cloud
• Achieved operational resiliency in a high-performance Azure cloud
• Gained modern security capabilities and 24/7 threat monitoring across the environment with a standard, holistic security policy across the entire infrastructure

Facing an urgent cloud migration challenge

Founded in 1883 on integrity and innovation, iconic New Jersey-based manufacturer Benjamin Moore formulates premium paints using proprietary resins and colorants. A Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, Benjamin Moore provides the finest decorating solutions through independent retailers nationwide.

In 2022, an urgent challenge arose – rapidly migrating Benjamin Moore's mission-critical data center workloads to the cloud before its hosting provider ceased operations in early 2024. With ERP, analytics, logistics and other critical business applications at stake, Benjamin Moore sought expert partners to help it execute this large-scale cloud migration securely within a year. It turned to its longtime IT services provider, Unisys, to re-platform its applications on Microsoft Azure.

"Unisys has provided cloud-managed and data center support for Benjamin Moore for many years, so with the decommissioning deadline looming, they had the right technical expertise to start immediately," said Glenn Pinnel, CIO at Benjamin Moore. "Its proven Azure proficiency and familiarity with our environment made Unisys the clear choice."

Benjamin Moore's IT footprint included approximately 300 mission-critical servers across SAP and non-SAP workloads. Migrating these workloads required meticulous planning and execution to ensure business continuity.

Undertaking collaborative planning and execution

Unisys and Benjamin Moore worked closely to assess, design and mobilize a two-part cloud migration. Unisys focused on rehosting the non-SAP servers to Microsoft Azure. Unisys’ partner, oXya, managed the transition of the core SAP landscape to the RISE with SAP-managed cloud service running on Azure.

Effective collaboration between Benjamin Moore, Unisys and oXya was crucial to the project's success. The teams worked closely from the initial discovery phase through post-migration validation, holding regular meetings to fill information gaps, align on the scope and maintain progress.

Migrating in coordinated waves

Unisys implemented Azure infrastructure components like landing zones, networking and connectivity to the existing hosting provider for seamless migration lanes. Its proven rehosting approach enabled the rapid movement of non-SAP servers while oXya concurrently built out the SAP RISE environment and transformed select components like data integration workloads to Linux per new SAP standards.

With meticulous planning and open communication between all parties, the migration unfolded in coordinated waves during non-standard work hours to minimize business disruptions. Unisys and oXya personnel oversaw the effort over the course of 20 weekends, working as needed to resolve issues and complete the migrations on schedule.

"With a tight timeline and no room for delays, oXya engaged its migration specialists to perform and coordinate the project," said Rushi Patel, project management director – US at oXya. "Our 30 years of SAP experience and 99% customer satisfaction gave Benjamin Moore confidence in a successful RISE deployment."

"The Unisys and oXya migration teams exhibited exemplary technical skill, flexibility and dedication to complete this project on time with almost no business impact," added Pinnel. “Of the 300 servers migrated, only two needed temporary failbacks before quickly succeeding – that level of accuracy is remarkable for a large migration."

Securing the cloud environment

In addition to rehosting servers to Azure, Unisys implemented an array of security services for unified threat monitoring and response across Benjamin Moore's applications. This included establishing an Azure Sentinel SIEM environment, integrating Microsoft Defender for endpoint protection and setting up Azure Firewalls and additional Azure Bastion and Azure DDoS Protection services. Unisys' 24/7 security operations center provides comprehensive managed detection and response powered by AI and machine learning.

A Unisys Attack Surface Discovery assessment helped reduce cyber risk by identifying any stale, abandoned or misconfigured assets prior to migration so they weren't replicated in Azure. Additional deployments included the Unisys Extended Detection and Response Solutions, including managed detection and response, security operations center support services and professional services leveraging VMWare Carbon Black, Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender. The combined efforts yielded an optimized cloud footprint protected by a modern, centralized security fabric actively monitored by Unisys' security operations center analysts.

"Unisys cybersecurity solutions give Benjamin Moore consistent visibility, protection and threat response capabilities across its cloud-hosted and on-premises environments," explained Harry Stubbs, Benjamin Moore’s client executive at Unisys. "We instituted a unified security policy and real-time response capabilities to provide Benjamin Moore with an enhanced foundation for identifying, reporting and responding to malicious activity."

Optimizing for future innovation

With the migration complete, Benjamin Moore can now focus on optimizing cloud operations while oXya explores adding complementary SAP RISE applications and managed services.

"SAP RISE gives Benjamin Moore a streamlined, evergreen cloud platform for running its manufacturing, finance and supply chain operations from anywhere," added Patel. "With SAP Application Management Services, Monitoring and Customer Success, oXya adds a layer of services on top of the SAP RISE baseline that greatly facilitates Benjamin Moore’s interaction with the SAP RISE standard support."

The migration project provided Benjamin Moore with an agile, high-performance, secure environment for driving its business forward. Through the power of the cloud and a team of trusted partners, the company now has an innovation runway for developing new paints, services and customer experiences.

"The success of this migration reaffirmed the quality of Unisys' services – it was a true pleasure to work with such talented professionals," concluded Pinnel. "With this critical accomplishment, Benjamin Moore is equipped for our next century of growth and industry leadership."

To explore how Unisys can simplify your journey to the cloud, making migration and modernization a breeze, visit us online or contact us today.