The client
- Business Name: Polish Village Bread
- Industry: Manufacturing
- Size: 40+
- Working with Operum since 2021
Since its founding in 2004, Polish Village Bread has become a beloved brand in North West London, known for its handcrafted breads and rolls inspired by authentic Polish recipes. With a strong focus on quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction, the bakery has continuously evolved, investing in product development and operational efficiency.
As part of its expansion, Polish Village Bread faced the challenge of relocating its production facility. To ensure business continuity and minimize downtime, the company decided to migrate its on-premise IT infrastructure to the cloud. The transition also allowed for greater flexibility for remote workers, ensuring seamless operations despite the physical move.
Challenges: Why Move to the Cloud?
As the company grew, so did its IT demands. The existing on-premise server infrastructure presented several challenges:
- Production Facility Relocation – Moving to a new site risked downtime and operational disruptions. A cloud solution would ensure uninterrupted access for employees, regardless of location.
- Legacy System Limitations – The company’s highly customized production system made updates difficult, requiring costly increases in server power instead of system optimizations.
- Reliability & Scalability – As the business expanded, a more reliable and scalable IT infrastructure was needed to support future growth.
- Performance Optimization – With growing data and system demands, Polish Village Bread needed a more efficient and high-performing IT environment.
- Remote Work Enablement – Some employees worked remotely, and with the facility relocation, ensuring smooth remote access was crucial.
Recognizing these needs, Operum.Tech worked closely with Polish Village Bread to design and implement a cloud solution that would address these challenges while preparing the company for future expansion.
The Cloud Migration Process
To ensure a smooth transition, we selected OVH’s physical server leasing solution, deploying a Proxmox-based cluster with three nodes. This approach provided high availability, enhanced performance, and scalability for the bakery’s growing IT needs.
The Migration Took Place in Three Phases:
- Environment Preparation – Setting up the cloud infrastructure and ensuring all security measures were in place.
- Test Migration – Running a trial migration to identify and resolve any potential issues.
- Final Migration – The full transition was executed over a weekend to minimize downtime. On Saturday afternoon, after business operations had concluded, a final incremental backup was taken and restored to the new cloud environment.
The migration was completed within eight weeks, balancing urgency with a structured, low-risk approach to ensure a seamless transition.
Key systems migrated:
- Main production server
- Remote Desktop (RDP) access server
Challenges & Optimisations
The cloud migration involved a significant volume of data, which initially presented time constraints when using traditional copy methods from on-premise servers. To streamline the process, we opted to utilise the client’s existing cloud-based backup infrastructure, enabling a faster and more resource-efficient data transfer.
Following the migration, we identified and addressed several optimisation points:
- VPN Performance: Initial reliance on VPN access led to slow performance for some users and applications. To mitigate this, selected users were migrated to RDP-based workstations, resulting in improved usability and speed.
- Office Suite Integration: Minor compatibility issues were observed between the production system’s email functions and Microsoft Office. These were resolved through configuration adjustments to ensure stable and reliable performance.
Overall, the migration was delivered with minimal disruption, and post-deployment optimisations ensured a stable and responsive working environment.
Results: How Cloud Migration Transformed Polish Village Bread’s IT
The move to the cloud delivered tangible benefits, reinforcing the decision to migrate.
✅ 90% Reduction in Performance Issues – The new cloud infrastructure provided a significant boost in speed and reliability, eliminating nearly all previous performance bottlenecks.
✅ Business Continuity Ensured – The facility relocation had no impact on business operations, thanks to the flexibility of the cloud-based infrastructure.
✅ Scalability for Future Growth – The cloud setup allows for seamless expansion, ensuring the IT environment can grow with the business.
✅ Improved Remote Work Capabilities – Employees can now securely access company systems from anywhere, enhancing operational efficiency.
The only minor challenge post-migration was employee adaptation to working on a remote desktop system, but with training and support, the transition was smooth.
Conclusion: A Future-Ready IT Strategy
By migrating to the cloud, Polish Village Bread has ensured its IT infrastructure is scalable, reliable, and optimized for its future growth. The move has provided a more stable environment, reduced performance issues, and supported remote work, all while maintaining business continuity during a major facility relocation.
This case study highlights how a carefully planned cloud migration can transform IT operations, reducing downtime, increasing efficiency, and preparing businesses for long-term success.
Interested in our IT services? Contact Operum today and get started in 3 simple steps.