Enhancing Moorings Park Communities’ IT Infrastructure on AWS

Founded in 1977, Moorings Park Communities is a continuing-care retirement community not-for-profit based in Naples, Florida. With three separate Naples-based campuses, it serves hundreds of retirees seeking secure, comprehensive residential and healthcare offerings. The organization relied on a hybrid architecture where the bulk of its IT infrastructure, resident data, and business applications were hosted on premises. As this on-premises setup neared the end of its life, Moorings Park Communities faced escalating maintenance costs and limited scalability.

“As a not-for-profit organization, our operating budget is very tight, so any solution could not increase our operating costs more than normal,” says Tony Marques, chief information officer at Moorings Park Communities. “We found that migrating to AWS was a cost-effective move.”

To minimize disruptions to its services, the organization needed to make the migration as smooth and efficient as possible. So, it engaged AWS Professional Services for guidance. “Before this, my team had no experience on AWS,” says Marques. “The coaching and support from the AWS Professional Services team, along with their recommendations for ongoing training and certification, proved invaluable for this project.”

Before the migration, AWS Professional Services evaluated Moorings Park Communities’ IT infrastructure to identify the optimal strategy for migrating to the cloud. After crafting a detailed plan, the teams began the migration in stages, beginning with the less critical systems. For data storage, Moorings Park Communities adopted Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), a collection of managed services that makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale databases in the cloud. For file storage, it implemented Amazon FSx, which makes it simple and cost effective to launch, run, and scale feature-rich, high-performance file systems in the cloud.

Throughout the migration process, AWS Professional Services met with the Moorings Park Communities IT team to train them on the new technology. The team learned about AWS services and best practices, gaining the skills needed to manage their new cloud environment. With this support, the organization migrated nearly 80 percent of its business applications and IT infrastructure to AWS in 20 weeks.

“I can’t say enough positive things about AWS Professional Services,” says Marques. “Once we started working with them and saw their professionalism and knowledge, it confirmed our decision to choose AWS. Plus, they helped us stay on time and on budget.”

With campuses located in Florida’s “Hurricane Alley,” Moorings Park Communities needs to be able to recover from hurricanes and other disasters so that it can maintain uninterrupted care and services. Many AWS services, including Amazon RDS and Amazon FSx, include robust disaster recovery capabilities to facilitate business continuity. With these capabilities, the organization can quickly recover critical data files and restore database operations to the point in time before an unexpected event occurs.

“I love the disaster recovery capabilities of AWS,” says Marques. “We not only have the ability to recover in another data center, but we can also satisfy our auditing requirements with built-in disaster recovery tests. I can practice a failover to my West Coast data center without impacting the production environment and then provide the results to auditors.”

Moorings Park Communities has realized significant benefits from the migration, including a reduction in the time and resources required for IT maintenance. This operational efficiency means that staff can dedicate more time and resources to direct care and services for residents rather than technology management. On AWS, the organization can scale its services in alignment with its current needs and rapidly adapt to future demands. Moorings Park Communities can also take advantage of its cloud foundation to accelerate innovation; it plans to incorporate new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to enhance the living experience of its residents.

With the help of AWS Professional Services, Moorings Park Communities migrated the majority of its business applications and IT infrastructure without inflating costs. Now, the community is in a strong position to explore advanced capabilities. For example, it plans to add a digital assistant to its website, which will provide intelligent responses to inquiries from current and prospective residents, streamlining access to information.

“On AWS, we have built a strong cloud foundation that our residents can be proud of. We’re able to provide the high level of service that they expect,” says Marques. “With the right support and the best technology, our organization can continue to succeed in the future.”