Washington State Department of Labor & Industries drives cultural shift and achieves measurable cost savings with Microsoft Azure | Microsoft Customer Stories
Public organizations face rising costs and cultural barriers when modernizing IT. This customer story highlights how the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries achieved cost savings and a cultural shift by moving VMware workloads to Azure. Read the story for real-world insights into how Azure VMware Solution accelerates modernization while reducing risk. Contact Lakeside Computers to explore how you can achieve similar results.
What motivated L&I to migrate to Microsoft Azure?
The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) aimed to modernize its aging technical ecosystem, which was largely composed of on-premises datacenters. The agency recognized the need to improve efficiency, enhance cybersecurity, and better serve the 3.3 million workers it oversees. Additionally, the Washington State legislature encouraged state agencies to adopt cloud services, prompting L&I to collaborate with Microsoft on a 'move and modernize' strategy.
How long did the migration to Azure take?
L&I completed its migration to Microsoft Azure in just nine months. The agency established a phased cloud migration roadmap that allowed for incremental moves of entire server environments without disrupting daily operations, ultimately transitioning more than 300 servers to the Azure cloud platform.
What benefits has L&I experienced from the migration?
Since migrating to Azure, L&I has realized several benefits, including measurable cost savings on operational expenses, improved predictability for long-term computing needs, and enhanced infrastructure stability. The agency also anticipates a reduction in carbon emissions, contributing to Washington State's sustainability initiatives, and has fostered a more inclusive and collaborative workplace culture among its IT staff.

Washington State Department of Labor & Industries drives cultural shift and achieves measurable cost savings with Microsoft Azure | Microsoft Customer Stories
published by Lakeside Computers
As a business owner you recognize that your time is finite and that your expertise doesn’t cover everything, so it’s false economy to try to handle all aspects of your business in-house. Dedicating your time and energy to your business’ core functions—serving your clients and building your business—is smarter than allowing yourself to get bogged down with the myriad of other tasks. You will be more successful when you focus your efforts, rather than trying to be a Jack-of-all-trades. So do what you do best, and hand off “the rest” to Your IT Department Lakeside Computers.