SharePoint is the Agency’s primary collaboration platform with 32k active users and over 400k users with access worldwide. Access to the system was paramount for both business and mission objectives as data collected from sources across the IC were disseminated to mission-related partners. The SharePoint farm was hosted on an aging physical platform (servers, storage, networking), making it difficult and unstable to patch or upgrade. The hardware was at end of life and vendors began to cease support without expensive hardware support renewals. Blackspoke was tasked to move the entire SharePoint farm including all associated data and access control mechanisms to a more elastic platform that could scale to meet the needs of the Agency.

Blackspoke provided a detailed project schedule with specific milestones to meet both the business and technical requirements of the Government.  The project required a side by side stand up of a new system within the AWS Cloud to provide the ability to migrate and test code without impacting the operational aspects of the production system. Blackspoke developed customized PowerShell scripts to automate the migration and cutover of the system that ensured a consistent and repeatable process.

• Streamlined approach to move complex applications from physical hardware to a Cloud platform paved the way for other applications within the Agency.
• Customized migration scripts created in PowerShell to automate the migration and testing of features related to SharePoint allowed for a repeatable process with no downtime.
• Streamlined process allowed for a three month early cutover, saving the Agency over $400k in hardware renewals and expenses related to the ongoing support of physical storage appliances.