Report: IT infrastructure modernization for a retail company

A medium-sized trading company with two locations and over 25 employees was facing growing pressure due to its outdated IT infrastructure. The systems were getting old—some had been in use for over 11 years—and were increasingly causing problems in day-to-day business. The eight existing virtual machines ran on two physical servers, which were causing more and more frequent disruptions. Several unplanned outages per quarter had already impacted operations, and a terminal server failure would have resulted in immediate revenue losses.

In addition, PROTOS identified a high level of effort in daily administration:

• The internal IT manager spent around 40% of his working time on reactive troubleshooting.

• Due to a lack of automation, 8–10 hours of manual tasks had to be completed each week.

• The lack of location synchronization regularly led to duplicate data sets, which had to be corrected manually.

The security situation was also critical. The existing infrastructure ran unsupported operating systems without security updates, there was no multi-factor authentication, security-related events were hardly logged, and there was no central overview of devices and access. Added to this was an outdated backup strategy that would have resulted in expensive recovery processes in the event of damage. The combination of operational burdens, security risks, and increasing complexity made it clear that a fundamental modernization was inevitable.

Strategic realignment of the IT infrastructure

To effectively address these challenges, the company decided, together with PROTOS, to completely realign its IT infrastructure. The goal was not only to replace the existing infrastructure, but to completely rethink it: moving away from rigid on-premise servers to a scalable, secure, and future-proof cloud architecture based on Microsoft Azure. The aim was to transform IT from a risk factor into a real growth driver.

The focus was on three key areas:

• Replacement of the old server landscape and transition to modern Azure services for all core functions.

• Standardized security, backup, and recovery processes to permanently prevent business-critical failures.

• Introduction of centrally controlled administration, clear access structures, and uniform compliance guidelines.

This realignment laid the foundation for an infrastructure that not only reduces operational pressure, but also offers the company long-term stability, transparency, and security.

Technical implementation by PROTOS as a managed service partner

PROTOS took over the entire implementation and subsequent managed service operation. The migration took place with virtually no downtime—a crucial factor for the retail company, which relies on continuous availability on a daily basis. All user accounts, data, and processes were transferred to a uniform Azure architecture, including Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Azure SQL, and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Architecture diagram for IT operations and IT security at the customer's site:

At the same time, the entire security infrastructure was revamped: MFA was introduced across the board, logging and monitoring were modernized, phishing and security training courses were conducted, and emergency procedures were documented. The 8–10 hours of manual administration work per week that had previously been necessary were largely eliminated.

A dedicated operations team took over the service with extended support hours. Critical incidents are prioritized, reducing the average response time by over 50%. In addition, the company was provided with modern endpoint management via Microsoft Intune, including automated policies, compliance checks, and device monitoring.