Background
A global technology manufacturer was working to reduce its dependence on aging on-premises infrastructure as part of a broader cloud adoption strategy. Its internal application portfolio included dozens of business-critical applications developed over many years, each with its own technical requirements, dependencies, and operational context.
The organization selected Microsoft Azure as the foundation for its infrastructure modernization efforts and needed additional expertise to accelerate the transition. IntelliTect brought deep experience in .NET development, Azure architecture, and DevOps to help modernize and migrate approximately 45 applications while establishing repeatable practices the organization could use for future migrations.
Challenges
Migrating a large portfolio of internal applications involved more than simply changing where the applications were hosted.
Many relied on legacy dependency management practices, including Global Assembly Cache (GAC) deployment and COM dependencies that were not well suited to cloud environments. Logging, secrets management, service dependencies, and deployment processes also needed to be evaluated and modernized for Azure.
The applications had been created by different teams for different purposes, resulting in varied architectures, development standards, and dependency profiles. IntelliTect therefore needed to work closely with individual application owners to understand how each system operated before determining the appropriate migration path.
Security added another requirement. Each application needed to undergo code scanning so that identified vulnerabilities could be addressed as part of the migration process.
Solution
IntelliTect worked alongside the manufacturer’s internal teams to execute the migrations while also developing consistent modernization and deployment patterns. The project was funded through Microsoft’s Enterprise Customer Investment Fund (ECIF).
Rather than treating the engagement as a simple lift-and-shift migration, IntelliTect modernized applications where necessary to make them better suited for cloud deployment.
Modernizing Application Frameworks
Applications were evaluated individually and upgraded based on their architecture. Most .NET Framework applications were moved to .NET Framework 4.8, while existing .NET Core applications were upgraded to .NET 8.
This created a more consistent and supportable foundation for applications moving into Azure.
Replacing Legacy Dependencies
Legacy dependency management presented one of the most significant technical challenges.
IntelliTect replaced GAC-based dependency deployment with NuGet packages and updated legacy packages for distribution through JFrog Artifactory. COM dependencies were reworked into API-based dependencies that were better suited for cloud-hosted applications.
These changes reduced reliance on server-specific configurations and helped make applications portable to managed cloud infrastructure.
Establishing Azure Deployment Architecture
Applications were deployed using Azure App Services and Azure Static Web Apps based on their individual requirements.
IntelliTect also standardized deployment automation across the portfolio. YAML-based pipelines were created and managed through Azure DevOps, and repositories were migrated to Azure DevOps when necessary.
Using consistent pipeline patterns reduced variation between applications and provided a repeatable approach for future deployments.
Improving Security and Observability
Cloud migration also created an opportunity to strengthen several operational practices.
Azure Log Analytics was implemented to provide application logging and observability, while Azure Key Vault was used for secure secrets management.
Code scanning tools were run against each application to identify low, medium, and high security concerns before migration, allowing issues to be addressed as part of the modernization process.
Working Directly With Application Owners
Because every application had its own history and business context, collaboration was essential.
IntelliTect engineers worked directly with application owners to understand dependencies, troubleshoot migration issues, and determine the right modernization approach for each system.
IntelliTect also provided project management and strategic guidance throughout the engagement, helping the organization identify patterns and lessons that could inform a much larger cloud migration effort.
Outcome
In six months, approximately 45 applications were modernized and migrated to Azure.
The engagement delivered more than a change in hosting environment. The migrated applications benefited from modernized dependency management, standardized deployment pipelines, improved secrets management, centralized logging, and security scanning.
Just as importantly, the project helped clarify how the organization should approach cloud adoption at a larger scale.
The engagement demonstrated that migrating the company’s broader application portfolio would require participation from individual application teams rather than relying indefinitely on a centralized migration effort. The patterns, pipelines, and practices established during the project gave those teams a foundation for taking greater ownership of future application modernization.
Additional infrastructure retirement and database migration work remained for future phases, but the engagement established a repeatable technical and operational approach for continuing the organization’s cloud transformation.
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