George Marootian is the Executive Vice President and Head of Technology for
US Distribution at Natixis Investment Managers. This is the second article of a
three-part series that will discuss the firm’s move to the cloud, continued oper-
ations in AWS, and the innovation and agility benefits the organization has
realized since the migration.
When we began migrating our IT environment from data center to cloud, we
understood the physical challenges ahead of us. We had to sunset approxi-
mately 100 virtualized servers, lift and shift dozens of apps to AWS and refactor
dozens of others that were old, unfit or needing to be modernized. It was a big job.
What we may have underestimated was the work required to transform our
culture to fit Natixis Investment Managers’ new cloud-focused business model.
You cannot simply flip a switch and change the way you operate. We spent time
planning, training, reviewing impacts and reworking processes to make sure
the move progressed the way we anticipated.
Now, three years later, we are on the other side, and we have made great prog-
ress transforming the organization. The staff has adopted a new set of pro-
cesses and developed new skills. Specific departments are leveraging the cloud
to work faster and more productively. Additionally, IT is taking on a more stra-
tegic role that is responsive to the needs of the business.
Cloud Invites Change and Change Invites Fear
Organizational cloud transformation seemed unattainable back in 2014. We
had a data center at our old Boylston Street location in Boston’s Back Bay, and
IT’s job was essentially to keep it running. We handled basic operational and
facilities-type tasks such as coordinating with power companies, measuring
the air gas in halon systems and cataloging applications. IT was viewed as more
of a service department than as a facilitator for innovation.
We saw the move to the cloud as the means to achieve a few things: save money
and avoid building a new data center, of course. But more importantly, it gave
us an opportunity to change IT’s charter. By eliminating the hardware mainte-
nance and configuration tasks, we believed the team would have more time to
function strategically and drive value to the organization. We are pleased that
this conclusion has been realized.
FALL 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 17