Case study · Virtualisation & HCI
Insurance
platform generation modernised
workloads consolidated — VMs, VDI, remote apps
VDI seats migrated
data-loss incidents
The client ran three estates in two places: Sangfor VMP carrying VDI and published remote applications, and a parallel set of VMware VMs — including Active Directory — underneath the business. Staff at different sites connected to their desktops over the internet. The modernisation target was current-generation Sangfor HCI, not a simple patch: VMP to HCI is a full platform generation shift spanning many intermediate releases, and nothing could migrate until the desktop layer (VDC), the platform, and the licensing all reached versions that supported the next step. On this project, checking — not clicking — was the hard part.
We ran it as a checks-first programme. Before anything changed, both the desktop controller (VDC) and the virtualisation platform went through the vendor's pre-upgrade tooling — licence validity, disk state, base-image requirements, node health. When a virtual-storage check failed on the nodes, that wasn't a surprise on the night: VMs were powered down in an agreed sequence, the check re-run, and the remedy completed before any upgrade work was scheduled.
The platform then crossed generations in stages: VMP lifted to current Sangfor HCI, VDC upgraded through its required release path to the supported version, and SCP deployed as the new cloud management layer. Session agents rolled forward VM by VM. The VMware estate — file, application, and domain-controller workloads included — migrated onto the same HCI cluster, with business systems logged in and verified site by site before hand-back.
Access architecture was corrected while the estate was open: internet-delivered VDI traffic was split into DMZ and internal networks, so remote users reach a hardened entry point instead of traversing the production estate flat.
One cluster now carries all three workload types: regular VMs (Active Directory included), 50 VDI seats, and published remote applications — running on Sangfor HCI with VDC and SCP at current versions, two product generations forward, zero data loss. Because the pre-checks absorbed the failures, remediation happened inside planned windows rather than as incidents during the upgrade. A post-change inspection and written improvement plan left the client's resilience and recovery arrangements in better shape than the platform they started from.
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