Case Studies:DHS Modernizes its Workforce by Migrating SharePoint Server to Microsoft Office 365

Quickly migrate huge SharePoint estate to the cloud

In its vital role of enforcing federal immigration statues, preventing terrorism, and combating illegal movement of people and goods across U.S. borders, our client has amassed terabytes of data that must be easily accessed, shared, and acted on by its thousands of employees. For years, the agency has used Microsoft SharePoint Server to help it do that. 

AIS helped our client develop many SharePoint-based applications for things such as improving detainee safety and helping detainees connect with family members—and delivering those solutions much faster than were possible using traditional application development processes and tools. 

To reduce costs and improve agility, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), decided to consolidate its data centers and move applications to public cloud environments, giving the branch 18 months to migrate applications. Our client asked AIS to help move its vast on-premises SharePoint Server estate to Microsoft Office 365. 

Within six months, working in waves, AIS upgraded from SharePoint Server 2010 to SharePoint Server 2017, then migrated 7 terabytes of SharePoint data used by 30,000 employees to Microsoft SharePoint Online in Office 365—with no interruption to the vital work of keeping borders and detainees safe. 

Improve collaboration

By using SharePoint Online in conjunction with other Office 365 modern workplace applications such as Power Apps, Planner, and Flow, business users are empowered to create document libraries, set and change permissions, collaborate more powerfully use Microsoft Teams, and generally connect more easily, with one another and with colleagues in other DHS agencies. 

Speed application development

With these same modern workforce tools, our client can work with AIS, and independently, to create software solutions faster. We’re helping the agency create a service catalog that employees can use to quickly create needed applications. For one recent project—creating a hotline call tracking system—we were able to use rapid application development techniques to produce a working iteration of the project in just three weeks versus the six to twelve months such a project previously required. 

Reduce maintenance costs

By migrating its on-premises SharePoint estate to Office 365, our client was able to reduce its SharePoint support staff from five to two people, freeing up resources for other needed projects. 

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