Azure Migration for Syntegon Drives 30% Cost Reduction

Project at a Glance

• Client: Syntegon, a strategic lifecycle partner to critical industries like pharma and food.
• Project: Modernize customer support infrastructure to address high costs, security gaps, and enable scalability.
• Challenge: Legacy on-site VMware systems hindering scalability and performance, flexibility in a dynamic market, and security.
• Solution: Cloud migration with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Terraform; security via Entra ID.
• Results: 30% cost savings, enhanced security, automated workflows, sustainable transformation.

By leveraging Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Terraform for automation, the collaboration delivered a 30% reduction in infrastructure costs, enhanced security via Microsoft Entra ID, and transformed an 8-hour manual deployment process into a streamlined, automated operation. These results demonstrate not only significant cost savings but also a sustainable blueprint for digital transformation in industrial sectors.

Introduction

Syntegon is a strategic lifecycle partner to the pharma, biotech, and food industries, known for continuously investing in innovation and operational excellence. With more than six thousand connected machines, the company supports thousands of industrial machines worldwide through its critical Remote Service Portal (RSP).

This platform allows service technicians and engineers to troubleshoot, maintain, and optimize complex machinery quickly and securely — often in real time — ensuring high productivity for customers. Continuous, efficient support is not just a competitive advantage, but a key requirement for maintaining long-term client relationships and meeting stringent reliability agreements. As Syntegon’s client portfolio and international operations expanded, so did their need for a more robust, flexible, and scalable digital foundation.

The Challenge: Limitations of On-Premises Architecture

In industries where productivity losses directly impact both clients’ bottom line and Syntegon’s reputation, these delays were costly. Yet operational inefficiency was only one facet of the problem:

• Security concerns escalated as critical infrastructure aged.
• Access for a dispersed workforce introduced exposure points.
• Inflexible architecture failed to adapt to changing market demands.
• Performance issues hindered efficiency and responsiveness.

Syntegon’s continued ability to deliver superior service to its global client base hinged on the effectiveness of its Remote Service Portal (RSP). Yet, this critical tool was increasingly hampered by a VMware on-premises Remote Desktop Services (RDS) architecture. Combined with legacy dependencies to libraries running out of support and hardware starting to fail, Syntegon’s RSP was ill-equipped for modern business realities.

Lacking flexibility and scalability were hindering the business on multiple fonts:

• Deploying new service environments took up to eight hours because of a labor-intensive, hands-on process.
• Static on-premises infrastructure hindered resource scaling for new technician teams, geographic expansion, and fluctuating service demand.
• Scaling was slow, costly, and operationally complex due to hardware lead times and manual provisioning.

How could Syntegon ensure global service excellence, while safeguarding sensitive data and scaling in alignment with dynamic market conditions? Cloud transformation was the only satisfactory solution.

The Solution: Cloud-Native Transformation with Microsoft Azure

Recognizing that the stakes were both operational and strategic, Syntegon partnered with SoftServe to develop an end-to-end modernization initiative anchored in cloud-native principles and efficiency. Drawing on its Azure expertise and close collaborations with Microsoft, SoftServe delivered secure, scalable solutions tailored to Syntegon’s needs. By migrating from the legacy on-premises RDS to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Syntegon will move away from the limits of physical hardware and toward a dynamic, elastic solution designed for global scale.

Deployment was spearheaded by the rollout of over 50 preconfigured AVDs. These virtual environments provide reliable, high-performance workspace solutions to Syntegon’s technicians, ensuring seamless support across time zones and regional boundaries.

To eliminate the inefficiency of manual deployments, SoftServe introduced Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform. By scripting infrastructure configurations, the team established repeatable, error-free deployments that could be triggered, monitored, and managed centrally. Relying on automation, Syntegon could now provision environments across three Azure subscriptions, reducing not only provisioning time, but also the likelihood of misconfiguration.

Security was foundational to the design. Moving beyond legacy, perimeter-based models, the architectural overhaul integrated Microsoft Entra ID for identity governance. Furthermore, the on-prem VPN servers were abandoned in favor of connectivity cloud solutions such as Phoenix Contact Secure Cloud — allowing for enhanced monitoring, restriction and governing of connections. Complemented by Azure Firewall, Network Security Groups, and Private Endpoints, the new security posture minimized attack surfaces while streamlining access for authorized users — allowing Syntegon to confidently support an increasingly global and mobile workforce.

Implementation

Recognizing that business continuity could not be jeopardized, SoftServe implemented a phased, risk-mitigated migration strategy:

1. Discovery: Systematic assessment of legacy VMware/RDS architecture, identifying integration points and migration challenges.
2. Proof of Concept (PoC): Architecting and stress-testing the new Azure environment under real-world conditions, ensuring compliance with strict latency and performance criteria.
3. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Early-stage deployment to select user groups, collecting feedback to refine performance and workflows before scaling.
4. Full-Scale Product: Incremental rollout to the global environment, with built-in mechanisms for continuous monitoring and rapid support escalation.

This rigor allowed for iterative risk assessment and swift course-corrections, ensuring a seamless experience for both technical teams and end-users.

Tech Stack

The solution architecture leverages a robust and scalable tech stack aligned with Microsoft's recommended practices to ensure optimal performance, security, and governance. Key components of the tech stack include:

• Microsoft Landing-Zone for AVD: Secure, scalable foundation mapped to Microsoft best practices for cloud adoption and architecture.
• Entra ID: Centralized identity management and secure user access
• Dynamic scaling: Environment adapts to workload changes, maintaining high performance.
• Azure Policy: Automated governance and compliance enforcement across virtual desktops
• AKS: Manages the self-service portal (RSP2) with high availability and agile updates.
• Azure Monitor: Combined with LogAnalytics and Grafana for continuous performance tracking and system optimization.

Results: Flexibility, Operational Enhancement, and Cost Efficiency

The shift to Microsoft Azure delivered measurable and sustained business value, altering Syntegon’s approach to support operations:

• 30% Reduction in annual infrastructure costs: Transitioning to Azure cut yearly expenses by nearly a third, immediately freeing capital for innovation and client-focused initiatives.
• >90% Deployment time reduced: Automated provisioning reduces environment setup to 10–20 minutes from several hours, empowering engineers to respond to client needs almost instantly.
• 0 Image preparation delays: Pre-configured VM images guarantee specialized diagnostic software is available at session launch, providing teams with rapid access to essential tools.
• >99.9% System uptime: Enterprise-grade reliability ensures near-continuous remote support, underpinning Syntegon’s promise of operational excellence to global clients.
• 100% Automated session management and compliance: Custom Microsoft Entra ID-integrated applications allow secure on-demand AVD sessions and automatic decommissioning while enforcing strict role-based access controls and compliance requirements.

Next Steps

The migration to Microsoft Azure was not merely an IT project for Syntegon; it was a business enabler that future-proofed their critical service capabilities and shifted IT from a support function to a center of strategic value creation. By embracing automation, cloud scalability, and robust security controls, Syntegon has reinforced its standing as an innovator, equipped to compete and thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Syntegon’s success exemplifies the tangible, strategic impact of cloud migration. Increased agility, demonstrable cost savings, and improved risk management form a compelling argument for rethinking legacy architectures.

Are you ready to modernize your business with secure, scalable solutions? As a Microsoft Solutions Partner with over 20 years of expertise across Azure, Microsoft Fabric, and AI services, SoftServe is here to help.

Explore how our proven approach to Azure migrations can drive tangible results for your organization. Learn more about our Azure offerings. Or contact SoftServe today for a personal consultation!