Case study of migration from local in-house data centre at the Durban University of Technology to Azure Cloud

ABSTRACT

This article deals with a case study of migration from a local in-house data centre (Hyper-V Windows Server 2012) at the Durban University of Technology to Microsoft Azure. The introduction provides the context leading to the migration and the details about why crisis management became the norm during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The background reprises the start of e-learning leading up to the present. Next, an account is given of the methodology used to migrate to Azure, which suggests that the lack of foresight or strategic planning resulted in knee-jerk responses, slow implementation and avoidable stress on project personnel. A simplified technology roadmap for e-learning at DUT is then provided, and is suggested as a starting point for a more comprehensive roadmap, using the system dynamics approach. © 2022 IEEE.