New Zealand Government Health Agency
Cloud Modernisation for New Zealand Government Health Agency
Government health agencies face increased service demand in an environment of constrained funding and workforce fluctuations resulting in urgent and critical challenges. Significant changes in the patterns of illness, patient care necessities and the associated high operating costs, as exposed in the pandemic, have contributed to the need to ‘work smarter’.
Challenge
The pandemic lockdowns meant that many staff needed to work from home. To support this change in work behaviour, the agency needed access to cloud hosted applications to create a virtual workplace.
Solution
The agency chose to migrate the business-critical application to Microsoft Azure as part of a system modernisation. Fujitsu worked with the agency to refactor the application.
Outcomes
- Shifted to the cloud environment without any adverse impact on their workforce’s critical role
- The methodology used reduced the risks of the transition while delivering a solution that allowed uninterrupted service
- The agency is now confident that further modernisation is achievable"
We tailored and blended Microsoft Azure technologies throughout the migration, orchestration, management and continuous delivery.
Fujitsu Team Lead
About the Customer
This New Zealand government agency aims to enhance the health of New Zealanders by regulating medicines and medical devices to maximise safety and care quality. The agency does not have a large IT function and collaborates with several IT specialists to supply services.
The agency workforce operates from two locations, with centralised administrative functions, product approval and standard setting, based at the head of fice in Wellington. The second of fice is in Auckland and accommodates the Investigation and Border Control functions.
Challenge
The pandemic lockdowns meant that many staff needed to work from home. To support this change in work behaviour, the agency needed access to cloud hosted applications to create a virtual workplace.
This technology was critical to facilitate the continued program of work to grant pre-marketing approval of health products so that New Zealanders had access to the latest medical innovations and to conduct post-marketing public health surveillance to monitor any unplanned side-effects.
Fujitsu was tasked with providing the technology infrastructure to host the agency web site and one of its business-critical applications so that the workforce could continue working productively.
Solution
The agency chose to migrate the business-critical application to Microsoft Azure as part of a system modernisation. Fujitsu worked with the agency to refactor the application. This meant the engineers had to reconfigure the code base without changing its functionality in order to optimise performance and prepare it for cloud migration.
Fujitsu’s approach ensured the agency was organised for optimum future performance. Cloud modernisation predictably contends with requirements that vary greatly from one organisation to the next. The Fujitsu methodology minimises transformation risk and utilises a comprehensive understanding of hosting, cloud provisioning, server, storage, security, networking and applications.
The transition to the cloud environment enabled Fujitsu to supply a managed cloud service to maintain the cloud hosted application accessibility and uptime. Fujitsu also leveraged the Microsoft Azure Centre of Excellence to provide managed services for the Microsoft Azure cloud environment post deployment to production.
Outcomes
Fujitsu continues to bring technology innovation to this critical government agency. Having taken the first step on the journey to cloud, the agency is now confident that further modernisation is achievable. One key economic enabler was to move the application budget from Capex to Opex. This meant the agency only paid for services as they were consumed without a large, initial capital outlay.
A significant outcome is that the agency shifted to the cloud environment without any adverse impact on their workforce’s critical role applying a framework of controls designed to ensure that the therapeutic products available in New Zealand have been thoroughly assessed for risks and benefits.
Fujitsu was able to demonstrate value for money and improved workforce satisfaction. The methodology reduced the risks of the transition while delivering a solution that allowed uninterrupted service during a time of significant uncertainty and change.
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