Why Belfast is in the middle of every current migration cycle
Belfast concentrates firms feeling current migration triggers — VMware Broadcom on HSC NI Trusts and Titanic Quarter tech estates, Cisco EOL across multi-site NI council networks, HSC NI cloud-shift programmes, cross-border (UK/RoI) data-residency strategy shifts.
VMware → Nutanix for HSC NI regulated estates
Broadcom's pricing is forcing the question on HSC NI Trusts. VMware → Nutanix AHV is the most common destination for regulated estates.
Cisco → Fortinet for 11 NI councils + multi-site
Belfast multi-site customers (11 NI councils, multi-branch retail, multi-site HSC NI) consolidating ageing Cisco onto Fortinet single-pane.
On-prem → AWS / Azure EU regions
Titanic Quarter tech businesses with cross-border operations lift-and-shifting to AWS / Azure with careful EU-region-vs-UK-region data-residency decisions.
Cross-border data-residency reorganisation
Post-Brexit, many Belfast businesses serving both UK and EU customers are restructuring data residency — separating UK and EU data flows with appropriate technical controls.
What a Servnet Belfast migration delivers
Discovery + bill-of-quantities
Complete picture of the current estate turned into a migration BoQ.
Target architecture design
Reference architecture for the destination platform — including cross-border data-residency considerations.
Pilot environment in week 3-4
Non-production pilot built on the new platform.
Wave-based migration with parallel-run
Production workloads migrated in waves.
Weekend cutover windows
For Belfast customers, cutover Friday-evening onwards with engineers on-site.
Old-platform decommission + ITAD
Once the new platform has run clean, decommission begins.
Belfast migration engagements we run
- ▸HSC NI Trusts VMware → NutanixBelfast Trust, Northern Trust + 3 others moving from vSphere to Nutanix AHV — HSC NI IG retained throughout.
- ▸Titanic Quarter tech cross-border restructuringAllstate NI, Citi Belfast, Liberty IT restructuring data-residency post-Brexit — UK vs EU data flows separated with technical controls.
- ▸NI Exec departments to AzureNI Exec departments migrating off ageing on-prem to Azure UK-South — Cabinet Office MCSS retained.
- ▸11 NI councils Cisco → FortinetNI council estates consolidating Cisco ASA + Meraki onto FortiGate + FortiSwitch.
- ▸Belfast finance on-prem → cloudBelfast finance customers moving to AWS eu-west-2 or Azure UK-South — with regulator-aware documentation.
- ▸NI universities to M365 + AzureQUB + Ulster migrating Exchange-on-prem + on-prem file servers to M365.
How a Belfast migration runs week-by-week
Weeks 1–2 — discovery + estate map
Automated discovery + interviews with application owners.
Weeks 3–4 — target design + pilot build
Target architecture signed off. Pilot environment built.
Weeks 5–8 — wave migrations
Production workloads migrated in 4–6 waves.
Weeks 9–10 — soak + decom
New platform runs clean for soak.
Belfast vendor migrations — common questions
We're a Belfast firm with 150 VMs on vSphere — Broadcom has tripled. What's right?
For most Belfast firms with that footprint, Nutanix AHV or vSAN ESA. Model 3-year TCO including migration cost.
Can you migrate an HSC NI Trust to Azure without HSC NI IG breakage?
Yes — frequent HSC NI engagement. We retain HSC NI Information Governance throughout the migration.
How do you handle cross-border data-residency for Titanic Quarter tech?
For UK + EU operations we design migration target with UK and EU data flows separated — typically using regional cloud accounts/subscriptions, data-residency controls, transfer impact assessments.
Can you do Cisco → Fortinet across 11 NI councils with no downtime?
In most cases yes — install Fortinet in parallel, migrate sites one at a time.
How long does 150-VM VMware → Nutanix take in Belfast?
Discovery → final-VM-on-new-platform is typically 10–14 weeks. Allow extra time for NI travel during cutover phases.
We're a Belfast tech business wanting to consolidate cross-border operations onto one cloud strategy?
Yes — frequent engagement for cross-border Belfast tech. Cloud strategy design covering UK + EU regions, data-residency controls, transfer impact assessments.
Other services we deliver in Belfast
Facing a VMware bill, Cisco EOL or cloud migration in Belfast?
Send us the platform, the trigger and the timeline.