Hallo Healthcare Group (HHG), an integrated healthcare provider, was acquired by a private equity firm in late 2021. As part of the purchase agreement, HHG needed to quickly separate all infrastructure from the parent organisation, McKesson, and establish their own cloud environment.
HHG is the holding company for some of the UK's leading healthcare organisations including Lloyds Pharmacy, AAH Pharmaceuticals, Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare, Lloyds Direct, and Lloyds Online Doctor. Lloyds Pharmacy, the UK’s second largest community pharmacy chain with 1,400 pharmacies, was hosted on McKesson USA’s Google Cloud platform.
Challenges and requirements
HHG faced a significant challenge — the pressure of completing the project scope within 11 months. Adding to the complexity, a separation agreement prevented HHG from taking or copying any resources — data excluded — from the parent organisation. Requirements needed to be met in both stages of the project:
- The building process: A new organisation structure and resource hierarchy needed to be built in Google Cloud, specifically tailored for the core business application. This included robust features such as billing, security, and project resource management.
- The separation process: The migration had to be completed on time, with minimal downtime and minimal impact on business operations. Performance and user experience needed to be maintained, and strong support needed to be provided during and after the separation.
It was critical to HHG’s operations that the migration to a new Google Cloud environment be done seamlessly. With eight years as a trusted partner, they knew SoftServe could achieve this goal.
Google Cloud infrastructure separation program
SoftServe managed the Google Cloud organisation setup, build, and migration with the help of their delivery team and cloud experts from their Centre of Excellence, while also receiving support from HHG's app management and security teams.
During the discovery phase, the SoftServe team collected information about the current core application setup in the existing McKesson Google Cloud organisation. They designed the appropriate architecture solution for the new Hallo Google Cloud organisation. It soon became clear that, following the separation start date, access to the original McKesson Google Cloud environment would be greatly limited. This added pressure to complete and thoroughly check the migration in advance of the final deadline.
Also, the high dependency on third-party solutions such as Citrix and Palo Alto required careful coordination. Finally, there were significant changes in the design during the implementation phase that had to be integrated into the project. After gathering all the necessary information and understanding the current state of the application, the solution tackled these important points:
Step 1:
The team delivered a new Google Cloud organisation registration and helped with onboarding.
Step 2:
For the landing zone creation and operation, the team:
- Set up the network, established identity and access management (IAM), and managed user accounts
- Regularly reviewed security, as well as handled billing and monitoring
- Integrated the IAM with the user management system, Hallo Azure Active Directory, to ensure users were assigned to the right group
- Synchronised the integrated directory with Google identity and applied required permissions with Terraform modules
- Recreated the technological stack needed for applications, including Google compute engines, storage, databases (MSSQL and MySQL), Windows domain controllers and update servers, and PKI infrastructure
Step 3:
For application migration and troubleshooting, the team:
- Automated the app migration for copying data bases with resource recreation
- Helped the application team with troubleshooting
- Found the root cause of problems — primarily applications — and optimized services and infrastructure
Step 4:
For the services termination solution, the team:
- Engaged Citrix professional services to confirm solution met best practices and to ensure ongoing vendor support would be available
- Set up Citrix VDA (virtual delivery agent) as a new installation within the Hallo Google Cloud organisation
- Tested the installation to ensure it provided the same user experience as the Citrix solution previously used by McKesson.
- Maintained a consistent and reliable user experience for the pharmacy staff with Citrix VDA providing desktop services to all 1,400 pharmacies
Step 5:
During service cutover and the data migration, the team:
- Executed the cutover of services from the McKesson Google Cloud organisation to the Hallo Google Cloud organisation
- Moved and copied the MSSQL database from the legacy McKesson environment to the new HHG environment, and restored operations to protect data consistency
Tech Stack
Value delivered
After creating a detailed plan, SoftServe seamlessly migrated the services that support 1,400 pharmacies to the new Google Cloud organisation and application setup, ensuring the business ran without a hitch. SoftServe delivered in accordance to their best practice migration schedule. Through prioritising user experience, the migration was successfully completed with minimal downtime and disruptions. A pre- and post-migration checklist ensured that all systems were fully up and running. A hypercare support period ensured that any user challenges were quickly identified and resolved.
Most importantly, SoftServe ensured HHG kept control of their data, safeguarding its integrity throughout the process. Even when challenges came up — such as the limited access to the original McKesson Google Cloud environment or significant changes in design during the implementation phase — the team still delivered.
Goals met
- Smooth transition
- Data consistency
- Post-cutover support
- User experience maintenance
- Compliance and security
- Operational continuity
- Strategic planning
With a successful cloud migration behind them, now HHG could focus on what matters most — providing patients and customers with high-quality healthcare products and services.
The power of partnerships
When taking on big projects like cloud migration, many companies look to an experienced partner. For more than 30 years, SoftServe has helped clients build transformative patient experiences, unlock data value, and accelerate business outcomes across the healthcare continuum. SoftServe offers technical engineering expertise, a deep understanding of the healthcare and life sciences industry, and Centres of Excellence competencies in innovation strategy, experience design, big data, data science, and AI/ML.
GOOGLE CLOUD EXPERTISE
SoftServe is a Premier Google Cloud Services Partner with deep and recognized expertise in enabling clients to develop Cloud Native applications through leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics. We’ve successfully delivered hundreds of projects for clients ranging from Fortune 100 enterprises to digital-native startups.
