When the lights went out, the Cloud stayed on: A Hybrid Cloud migration success story.
The Day the Factory Fell Silent
When the lights went out in a KZN manufacturing plant, production stopped cold.
Dispatch screens froze, forklifts idled, and the line-of-business (LOB) app went dark.
Another power cut, but this time, it sparked change.
Instead of another round of hardware upgrades, the leadership team partnered with McGaric Technology to begin a Hybrid Cloud Migration, a strategic move to secure uptime, improve scalability, and future-proof operations against South Africa’s power challenges.
The Turning Point: Why a Hybrid Cloud migration made sense
This time, leadership called McGaric , not for another short-term fix, but for a partner who could design a long-term strategy built on resilience and scalability.
“We didn’t want another band-aid. We needed uptime, without selling the factory to fund it.”
— Financial Director, KZN Manufacturer
McGaric proposed a phased cloud roadmap focused on business continuity rather than hardware replacement, a plan that delivered results without disruption.
The phased Hybrid Cloud migration roadmap
To reduce risk and ensure visible ROI, McGaric designed a two-phase migration plan.
Phase 1: Lift and shift the LOB application to Azure
- Adopted a pay-as-you-use model to eliminate heavy capital costs.
- Ensured high availability and remote access, even during power disruptions.
- Allowed for real-time processing and dispatch functionality to continue when head office went offline.
Phase 2: Migrate file servers and backups to the Cloud
- After a successful pilot, file storage and backup systems were transitioned to the cloud.
- Disaster recovery became instant, not reactive.
- The company gained scalability, cost transparency, and improved security, all without a single weekend of downtime.
When the lights went out again
Two weeks after Phase 1 deployment, another power outage hit.
But this time, the experience was completely different.
While the factory lights dimmed, the systems stayed on. Orders processed, forklifts kept moving, and invoices were printed without interruption.
There was no scramble, just seamless continuity.
Six months later, with measurable ROI and performance improvements, the full Hybrid Cloud Migration was completed.
Legacy hardware was retired, and critical operations now ran reliably in the cloud.
Post-Migration results: Business resilience through Hybrid Cloud
Today, when the grid fails, the business doesn’t.
Staff stay connected to Azure, and LTE backups keep systems online even during network drops.
The IT team now spends its time on improvement, not troubleshooting.
No more emergency call-outs. No more “please reboot the server.”
Just stability, predictability, and performance.
“Hybrid let us test the waters, build cash flow, and then take the full plunge.”
— CEO, KZN Manufacturer
The Lesson: How Hybrid Cloud Migration future-proofs your business
This manufacturer didn’t eliminate downtime with expensive generators or another round of server upgrades.
They did it with a Hybrid Cloud Migration, and a trusted partner who guided them every step of the way.
“McGaric turned a daunting leap into a series of confident strides.”
— CEO, KZN Manufacturer
Is your business still waiting for the lights to come back on?
Let’s map out your journey from outage-prone to always-on.
Book your free discovery call to see what your next phase of IT evolution could look like.