Case Studies/U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Cloud Migration
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

400TB Cloud Migration with Zero Downtime

Phased migration of FDA's enterprise eDiscovery system (FEEDS) from aging on-premises infrastructure to cloud -- maintaining 100% uptime for ongoing legal proceedings throughout.

400TB
Data migrated
100%
Uptime maintained
4+ Years
Phased migration
30%
Cost reduction
Challenge

Mission-Critical Legal System on Aging Infrastructure

The FDA's Enterprise eDiscovery System (FEEDS) supported mission-critical legal operations on aging on-premises infrastructure. The platform hosted Relativity (eDiscovery platform) processing over 400TB of legal data for ongoing FDA litigation, FOIA requests, and regulatory proceedings.

The agency needed to modernize infrastructure, reduce costs, and improve scalability -- all without disrupting active legal cases or compromising data security.

  • Zero tolerance for downtime: Ongoing legal proceedings couldn't be disrupted
  • Data sensitivity: Confidential legal and regulatory documents requiring FISMA High controls
  • Legacy infrastructure: Pivot3 hardware approaching end-of-life
  • Cost pressures: High operational costs for on-premises hosting and maintenance
  • Compliance requirements: Maintain Authority to Operate (ATO) at FISMA High level throughout migration
Solution

Phased Cloud Migration with Zero Disruption

Digital Charter executed a phased cloud migration strategy that transitioned FEEDS workloads to secure cloud environments while maintaining operational continuity. The approach combined infrastructure modernization, data migration, and strategic SaaS adoption.

Phase 1: Parallel Infrastructure

  • Deployed AWS S3 storage infrastructure alongside on-premises systems
  • Established secure data sync pipelines between environments
  • Validated data integrity and access controls in cloud environment

Phase 2: Data Migration

  • Migrated 400TB+ of eDiscovery data to AWS S3 using automated sync tools
  • Implemented incremental migration approach to minimize risk
  • Maintained real-time sync between on-premises and cloud during transition

Phase 3: Application Migration

  • Transitioned Relativity workloads to RelativityOne (SaaS platform)
  • Decommissioned on-premises Relativity infrastructure
  • Maintained backup and disaster recovery capabilities throughout

Phase 4: Infrastructure Retirement

  • Coordinated secure decommissioning of legacy Pivot3 hardware
  • Transferred all operational documentation to successor teams
  • Completed knowledge transfer for ongoing cloud operations

Migration Results

Migration Success

  • 400TB complete eDiscovery dataset transitioned to cloud
  • 100% uptime maintained -- zero disruption to ongoing legal proceedings
  • Seamless zero-downtime cutover from on-premises to cloud/SaaS
  • 30% operational cost savings from cloud efficiency

Infrastructure Modernization

  • Retired aging Pivot3 hardware
  • Eliminated on-premises hosting and maintenance burden
  • Scalable cloud storage for future growth
  • Reduced infrastructure complexity via SaaS adoption

Compliance & Security

  • Maintained FISMA High ATO throughout migration
  • Authored comprehensive security documentation for cloud environments
  • Ensured continuity of compliance controls during transition
  • Validated data security in cloud environment

Operational Benefits

  • Improved accessibility for remote legal teams
  • Enhanced disaster recovery capabilities
  • Reduced infrastructure management overhead
  • Positioned FDA for future cloud-native capabilities

Technologies Used

Cloud Infrastructure

AWS GovCloud (FISMA High)
AWS S3
AWS Storage Gateway

eDiscovery Platform

Relativity (Legacy)
RelativityOne (SaaS)

Infrastructure & Automation

Rubrik
Pivot3 (Legacy)

Monitoring

Daily Health Scans
Automated Alerting
Performance Monitoring

Compliance

FISMA High Controls
ATO Documentation
Security Assessment

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