The website migration to the AWS platform was successful because Goodman reduced costs, improved scalability, and extended its redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities. Migrating to SharePoint 2013 on AWS eliminated performance issues for Goodman and enabled it to extend its search capabilities without infrastructure resources providing a bottleneck. In addition, AWS Direct Connect has enabled Goodman to deliver on its performance benchmark requirements, including a three second or less response time for sending small documents across its internal network.

By using AWS and optimizing processes, Goodman reduced the time required to fully search and index SharePoint by 90 percent — from 60 hours to six hours. “This process is crucial because it helps ensure that the index does not become corrupted and complements the daily incremental updates that capture new content,” says LaFontan. “We’ve achieved near 100 percent availability for the knowledge management application on AWS and now have the ability to scale up the infrastructure to support business growth.”

Since the migration, the volume of data managed by the system has grown from one terabyte to 1.3 terabytes without compromising performance, and is increasing at a rate of 60 to 80 gigabytes per month. Moving to AWS also helped Goodman avoid spending $400,000 for a new storage area network. Goodman plans to use the funds for operating expenditure instead.

To meet demand from employees, Goodman is planning to make SharePoint accessible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as desktop computers. “The number one request we get today is for access to the knowledge management system on employees’ iPads,” says LaFontan. “Once we provide this, property managers will be able to show invoices, property investment plans, and other documents to customers on the spot, improving productivity and Goodman’s image as a dynamic, responsive business.”

Goodman is now looking at its next steps, including moving its core infrastructure and all business applications into