In 2017, Cowen Inc. set off on an
ambitious goal to close data centers
and shift to the cloud in a little over a
year. Cowen’s Head of Infrastructure
shares how they made it happen.
Having historically operated in data center environments, Cowen recognized
the importance of migrating to the cloud. We knew we needed an experienced
partner to help train our staff and develop a plan for the migration.
After thoughtful review and consideration, we engaged with Cloud Technology
Partners (CTP) to help us through the process. A year after we started the
migration, we have just successfully completed our initial project, on time and
on budget. In fact, we are now looking forward to future cloud projects.
Here is how we made it happen.
Getting Started
Although Cowen was new to cloud, I had cloud experience at my prior firm
where my team moved a data warehouse into the public cloud. This move ulti-
mately saved the firm money, while increasing agility and elasticity. Cowen’s
leadership fully embraced the public cloud, having had successes with the
cloud in the past. These factors were key to the project’s launch.
Timing was also important. Many servers in the firm’s two New York area data
centers were nearing the end of their useful lives, and the data centers them-
selves were facing contract renewals. The firm was also evolving its business
model to more SaaS vendors, leaving empty space in its data centers.
Although many internal factors were in alignment, we knew we still needed an
outside company that could make a full assessment and offer the know-how
needed to perform a cloud migration on this scale. We reached out to Amazon
Web Services (AWS) for guidance and AWS put us in touch with CTP.
From the beginning, the team was impressed with CTP’s expertise and the
strength of its offerings. It was also apparent that CTP’s CMO, Jonathan Bumba,
understood our immediate needs and recognized what we wanted to accom-
plish and knew how to get us there.
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