Navigating Mergers and Acquisitions: IT Consolidation Best Practices and Approach

In today’s business environment, mergers, divestitures, and acquisitions (M&A) are becoming increasingly common. However, with these business transformations come the challenges of consolidating multiple IT services and applications. Effective consolidation streamlines operations, enhances accessibility, provides a single pane of glass for management, security, and scalability, most importantly, reduces costs.

At Microsoft, my team specializes in helping customers tackle these challenges by delivering top-notch solutions. In this article, I’ll Walk you through some key activities to consider when faced with IT consolidation during M&A.

Step 1: Define the Scope of Consolidation

The first critical step in any consolidation project is identifying the scope. Where is the consolidation happening, and what are the source and target environments? Once these are defined, the next step is to determine how to consolidate the apps, identities, and infrastructure across the two entities.

Step 2: Data is Key

When it comes to IT, everything revolves around data. In a consolidation scenario, the most valuable data typically comes from Configuration Items (CI’s), customer asset management systems, and server management teams. If the organization maintains robust documentation of these CIs, it can greatly simplify the process.

However, what if documentation is sparse? In such cases, we rely on interviews with various teams, including application, server, and infrastructure teams, as well as vendors who support the current infrastructure and applications. These interviews help us gather the essential information needed for a smooth consolidation and migration.

Step 3: Leverage Tools for Data Collection

Even with comprehensive interviews, there may still be gaps in the available information. This is where tools like the MAP Toolkit, Connection Loggers, and Network traces come into play. The list of tools could be longer, but I have mentioned a few here just for reference. These tools help identify the applications running within the environment and provide details about them. Our team at Microsoft is well-versed in using these tools and can assist customers in creating an accurate inventory of applications hosted in their environment, which will ultimately help in defining the application scope for migrations.

Step 4: Prioritize and Plan Migration

Once we have a comprehensive list of the applications, servers, and identities involved, the next step is to prioritize and plan the migration. A thorough discussion with stakeholders will determine which elements should be migrated from one domain to another.

For Active Directory (AD) users, groups and computer migrations, we leverage the expertise of our Microsoft IMS (Identity Migration Service.) team. For server / application migrations, the approach will depend on the methodologies we plan to follow.

Approach to Consider for Users/Groups and Computer Migration:

• Prepare source and target domain readiness.
• Define the migration approach and tool selection.
• Migrate the users, groups, and computers to the target.
• Test the resources that have been migrated and confirm that users can log in to the target domain.

Step 5: Server / Application Migration Scenarios

In some cases, servers may already be tied or tagged to a specific domain. However, if users are available in the new domain and the required groups and other settings are configured (using Identity Migration Services team to migrate resources to the target domain), we can switch the server’s domain and reapply the necessary user and group-specific permissions. This is the easiest option when the application hosted on the server is simple and does not require any code changes or reprogramming. In more complex scenarios, switching the domain isn’t possible. In these cases, we may choose to clone the server and create a mirrored environment in the target Active Directory domain, or we may need to set up a parallel environment for the applications. From there, we can reconfigure the applications, endpoints, and any other settings necessary for the app to function properly.

Some Common Approaches to Consider:

• Assessment of the current environment.
• Setting up migration goals.
• Creating a migration plan.
• Testing the migration plan in a lower environment.
• Migrate server and databases (If applicable).
• Consider taking sign-off from respective teams.

Step 6: Good Rollback Plan

You should always create a solid rollback plan for any migration activity. This is a key requirement for a successful migration, and it helps you prepare in case something goes wrong. A good rollback plan will act as a lifesaver, minimizing the impact and helping you recover quickly in case of failure.

Step 7: Post-Migration Cleanup

Cleanup is the most essential and important step in any migration or consolidation activity. We will need to clean up any resources left behind in the source domain.

This includes the cleanup and removal of any Active Directory resources, such as Users, Groups, Group Policies, DNS entries, or trust relationships between the domains.

Proven Success in IT Consolidation

We have successfully guided numerous customers through consolidation projects, helping them achieve their goals efficiently and securely. If you're currently facing an M&A scenario and need assistance with your IT consolidation efforts, don’t hesitate to reach out to Microsoft. Our team is ready to help.

Security First: Protecting Your Environment

At Microsoft, security is always a top priority. As we help you consolidate and manage your IT infrastructure, we ensure that security remains at the forefront. We not only help with the technical aspects of consolidation but also with safeguarding your environment throughout the process.