Telefónica expedite cloud migration with Microsoft Azure using CAST Highlight

Telefónica, one of the globe's expert telecommunications enterprises, has effectively expedited the cloud migration and modernisation of more than 100 complex applications onto Microsoft Azure, leveraging the software intelligence capabilities of CAST Highlight. This has significantly accelerated the company's transition to Microsoft Azure. The automatic migration planning process enabled the Telefónica IT Transformation team to update their portfolio, achieving tangible business benefits rapidly.

An ambitious goal had been set by Telefónica to have 80% of workload operations in the public cloud by 2025. To accomplish this, the company had to tackle 100 complex applications consisting of both legacy and modern technologies.

A key challenge faced by management was the lack of transparency and coherent information about these applications, which hindered informed decision-making. In this scenario, the Telefónica IT Transformation Manager required a viable method to develop a factual cloud migration and modernisation roadmap for the entire portfolio.

Working in collaboration with Microsoft and CAST, Telefónica was able to understand the cloud readiness of each application, identify migration and modernisation blockers that needed to be addressed, and roughly estimate the effort required to modernise each application for the cloud. This comprehensive exercise resulted in a detailed roadmap to achieve cloud-native status, with a specific migratory path for each application (such as refactoring or re-architecting). The use of CAST Highlight to automate the planning process saved Telefónica months of effort.

Following this concerted effort, management gained the visibility and confidence necessary to proceed with the migration to Microsoft Azure and plan for the modernisation of dozens of critical applications. Importantly, moving these applications to the cloud sooner enabled Telefónica to realise additional benefits, such as increased agility, improved timelines for software enhancements, and a reduction of operational costs.

Telefónica, based in Madrid, Spain, is ranked among the largest telecommunications companies globally in terms of market capitalisation and customer base. It operates in Europe and the Americas and offers fixed and mobile telephony, broadband, and subscription television services. As of 2022, the company boasted over 103 thousand employees and revenue exceeding EURO € 39.9 billion.

CAST, noted as an expert in the realm of software intelligence, offers software solutions that comprehensively understand multi-technology software systems, automatically gleaning insights about their inner workings. These insights include information regarding interactions between all elements, transaction flows, data access paths, necessary changes for cloud migration, open-source risks, green impact, and ISO 5055 compliance, among others.

CAST Software is used across the globe by thousands of digital leaders, assisting them in making smarter decisions, maintaining and transforming custom software with greater speed, and managing the risks involved more efficiently.

Enterprises across industries that have custom applications set for migration to Microsoft Azure stand to benefit significantly by leveraging CAST Highlight in the journey. Advantages include accelerated migration to Microsoft Azure, fact-based insights on large application portfolios, simplified complexity, reduced risks, and control costs.