Allscripts' Agile Transformation: Leveraging Azure for Cloud Migration

Allscripts, a leading healthcare software manufacturer, was facing several challenges. The company had to ensure that its infrastructure was secure, available, and performed well as a portion of its client base consumed its products using a software as a service model. Allscripts maintained six development/non-hosting datacenters around the world but wanted to curb datacenter sprawl and consolidate and centralize these facilities to reduce costs, simplify management, and increase security. Synchronizing the hosting and software development sides of the business was also challenging due to a siloed methodology that introduced inconsistent product deployments and support issues. In 2017, Allscripts acquired two companies with datacenter assets that needed a home, and fast. The two companies brought dozens of applications and Allscripts had nowhere to put them and their 1,000-plus virtual machines (VMs). The applications included a mixture of older versions of Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server, which were facing end-of-support challenges, and the remainder ran on the Linux operating system, which presented migration challenges of its own.

Allscripts is a leading healthcare software manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. The company serves physician practices, hospitals, health plans, and Big Pharma. Thousands of hospitals, health systems, community practices, and pharmaceutical companies rely on Allscripts software to deliver smarter, more effective patient care. The company makes a wide range of software applications used by a spectrum of healthcare players to build open, connected communities of health. Pharmaceutical companies use Allscripts software to run clinical trials more efficiently. Hospitals and clinics use its electronic health records, financial management, and population health management systems. And, hospitals and pharmacies use its electronic prescribing solution. By collaborating with payers, health plans and programs, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, and employers, Allscripts has a panoramic view of the care process and uses that perspective to develop innovative tools that lower costs, improve care, and enhance both patient and provider satisfaction.