Smoothing the Epic Migration to AWS at Geisinger

Summary

Marlin Moer, Associate VP at Geisinger, discusses the organization's successful transition of its Epic EHR system to AWS Public Cloud. Geisinger moved to the cloud to address the growing complexity and cost of managing infrastructure. Benefits included faster response times, enhanced scalability, and significant cost savings. Moer shares lessons learned, including the importance of staff education and developing a FinOps program. The move has allowed Geisinger to better support its healthcare, research, and educational operations, positioning them for future growth. Geisinger continues to migrate more applications to the cloud to improve efficiency and innovation.

Takeaways

• 😀 Marlin Moer has been with Geisinger for 20 years, bringing expertise in healthcare administration, business, and IT.
• 😀 Geisinger moved Epic to the public cloud on AWS to reduce the complexity and cost of managing infrastructure while preparing for future growth.
• 😀 The shift to AWS was seen as a way to leverage new technology, scale efficiently, and ensure long-term sustainability for their applications and services.
• 😀 Epic's initial reluctance to embrace the cloud was overcome through collaboration with AWS, leading to Geisinger becoming one of the largest single-instance Epic deployments on a public cloud.
• 😀 The benefits of moving Epic to the cloud included significant improvements in speed and response time, leading to positive feedback from users.
• 😀 Geisinger experienced cost savings and operational flexibility with AWS, enabling them to scale up resources as needed and scale back during off-peak times.
• 😀 Geisinger's decision to stay in the cloud was confirmed within just three days of being in production due to the positive user feedback and system performance.
• 😀 The move to the cloud also allowed Geisinger to more efficiently manage their servers and infrastructure, reducing unnecessary costs associated with on-premise data centers.
• 😀 Marlin advises other organizations to prioritize understanding and implementing a FinOps program early in the cloud migration process to optimize financial management and scaling.
• 😀 Geisinger’s broader cloud migration strategy involves migrating as many applications as possible to the cloud, including health plan applications and research-based platforms, to improve flexibility and scalability.

Q & A

Why did Geisinger decide to move Epic to the public cloud on AWS?

Geisinger decided to move Epic to the public cloud to manage increasingly costly and complex infrastructure. They wanted to leverage new technologies sooner, position themselves for future growth, and gain flexibility in managing costs while improving scalability.

How did Epic react when Geisinger decided to move to the public cloud?

Epic was supportive and worked closely with Geisinger to understand the limitations of the cloud. They collaborated to ensure the migration was successful, focusing on scalability and the technical requirements, such as how Amazon could deliver the necessary performance.

What were the key benefits Geisinger saw after moving Epic to AWS?

The key benefits included improved speed and response times, which resulted in positive feedback from users. Additionally, they gained cost savings due to the ability to scale resources up and down as needed, rather than maintaining unused servers in their data centers.

How did the move to the cloud affect Geisinger's data centers?

Geisinger migrated approximately 40% of its servers to the cloud, and during the testing phase, the cloud solution demonstrated significant improvements. As a result, they decided not to move back to the on-prem data center after the initial tests, though some data centers are still in use for failover purposes.

What lessons did Geisinger learn during the migration to the public cloud?

One lesson learned was the importance of having a FinOps program in place early on. Additionally, they recognized that instead of just lifting and shifting current operations to the cloud, they needed to rethink their approach to security, account management, and cost structure for cloud environments.

How did Geisinger handle the internal anxiety about moving to the cloud?

Geisinger addressed staff anxiety by providing education and training on cloud technology. They ensured that their IT staff understood how to manage cloud infrastructure, including new concepts like regions, availability zones, and the capabilities of the cloud environment.

What role did Geisinger’s partners play in the migration to the cloud?

Geisinger worked with DEOE, an implementation partner, who had experience with cloud migrations. This partnership helped them navigate the challenges of migrating to the cloud, ensuring a smoother transition based on lessons learned from similar projects.

What impact did the cloud migration have on Geisinger’s scalability?

The migration to the cloud greatly improved Geisinger's scalability. They were able to quickly scale up server resources during high-demand periods and scale down during lower-demand periods, optimizing their infrastructure and reducing unnecessary costs.

Did Geisinger plan to shut down its data centers after moving to the cloud?

Geisinger has not fully shut down its data centers yet but has moved much of its infrastructure, including Epic, to the cloud. The data centers are still in place for failover purposes and for applications that are not yet ready to migrate to the cloud.

What is Geisinger's strategy for moving other applications to the cloud?

Geisinger's strategy is to move as many applications as possible to the cloud. They continue to evaluate each vendor’s cloud solutions and their compatibility with virtualization. Some applications that do not support cloud environments are still hosted on-premises, but the goal is to migrate as many as feasible to the cloud.