I led La-Z-Boy Southeast’s migration from a physical datacenter to a private cloud on Google Cloud Platform — moving roughly 20 physical and virtual machines, cutting datacenter costs by more than half, and upgrading domain controllers to the latest Windows Server along the way.
The Cost of Owning Iron
A physical datacenter is a standing bill: ISPs, rent, power, backup, and hardware that ages whether you use it or not. Moving ~20 machines to the cloud promised big savings — but a migration that loses data or breaks the domain is worse than the bill it was meant to cut.
What I Delivered
20 VMs migrated
Moved roughly 20 physical and virtual machines to a private cloud on Google Cloud Platform.
50%+ cost reduction
Eliminated ISP, rental, and backup costs — datacenter spend cut by more than half.
OS & AD upgrades
Upgraded domain controllers to the latest Windows Server for better security and performance.
Planned migration
Sequenced the move so services stayed up and data stayed intact through the cutover.
Skills & Tools
The stack behind this build — tap any to see related work.
The Impact
A leaner, cloud-hosted environment with the datacenter footprint — and its recurring costs — gone. More than 50% lower spend, modernized domain controllers, and infrastructure that scales instead of depreciating.
From Footprint to Cloud
Owning a datacenter made sense until it didn’t. Moving the right workloads to the cloud, on a plan that protected the domain and the data, turned a fixed cost center into a flexible one — and cut the bill in half.
