Manufacturing

Multi-Cloud Migration for Aerospace Manufacturer

Client: UK Aerospace Manufacturer

Key Outcomes

42% Infrastructure Cost Reduction

Reduction in total infrastructure costs compared to on-premises refresh and operation

8x improvement Deployment Frequency

From monthly deployments to multiple deployments per week through CI/CD automation

300% increase HPC Capacity

Available HPC compute capacity for simulation workloads through cloud burst capabilities

15 minutes Mean Time to Recovery

Down from 4 hours average, through automated failover and infrastructure-as-code

The Challenge

The client operated a 200+ server on-premises estate supporting CAD/CAM systems, PLM platforms, and ERP. Hardware was approaching end-of-life, with refresh costs exceeding £3M. Deployments took 4-6 weeks, and the infrastructure team spent 70% of time on maintenance rather than innovation. Critical HPC simulation workloads were constrained by fixed cluster capacity.

Our Solution

Cloudshire designed a hybrid multi-cloud architecture using AWS for general workloads and Azure for integration with existing Microsoft tooling. We implemented a phased migration using the 6R methodology, moved HPC workloads to burst-capable cloud clusters, modernised CI/CD pipelines, and established FinOps practices for ongoing cost governance. Security architecture was redesigned with zero-trust principles meeting aerospace compliance requirements.

Client Context

A UK aerospace manufacturer with 1,200 employees relied on ageing on-premises infrastructure for their core engineering and business systems. With a £3M hardware refresh looming and increasing demands for compute-intensive simulation workloads, they needed a strategic approach to modernisation.

The Challenge

The on-premises estate was complex: 200+ servers running a mix of Windows and Linux, tightly coupled applications, and specialised HPC workloads. The engineering team needed burst HPC capacity for simulation peaks, but fixed-cluster computing meant jobs queued for days during busy periods. Meanwhile, the infrastructure team was overwhelmed with maintenance.

Our Solution

We designed a hybrid approach that moved general workloads to AWS while maintaining Azure connectivity for Microsoft-centric applications. HPC workloads were migrated to elastic cloud clusters with spot instance support. We implemented infrastructure-as-code, automated CI/CD, and established FinOps practices with cost allocation by engineering team.

Results

The migration completed over 6 months with zero unplanned downtime. Infrastructure costs dropped 42% compared to the projected on-premises refresh, while HPC capacity tripled. The engineering team now gets simulation results in hours rather than days, directly accelerating product development cycles.

Services Used

  • Cloud Migration & Modernisation
  • Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Strategy
  • HPC & Compute-intensive Workloads
  • DevOps & CI/CD
  • FinOps & Cost Optimisation
  • Security Architecture & Zero Trust