Executive Summary
Bauer operated decentralised technology teams across the UK, Germany, and Poland, each managing legacy on-premise infrastructure and security independently. That fragmentation created inconsistent security governance across regions, slowed the deployment of new products against ageing infrastructure, and increased compliance exposure from managing data sovereignty across multiple borders.
Bauer engaged Epitechnic to migrate more than 200 critical applications from legacy on-premise data centres to AWS, and to replace fragmented, region-by-region security with a single, consistent standard the whole group could operate under. Epitechnic designed and delivered a centralised Hub-and-Spoke architecture, routing traffic through a single Inspection Hub so every workload is assessed against one corporate security standard rather than whichever standard its originating region had applied. Resilience was built in directly: redundant data pathways and geographically distributed backup zones give the estate automatic failover, and Infrastructure as Code replaced manual configuration so disaster recovery is fast, repeatable, and not dependent on any one person's memory of how a system was built.
The result is a centralised, cyber-resilient cloud estate, consistent security controls across AWS and Azure, and clearer ownership through a new Cloud Centre of Excellence operating across all three countries, delivered alongside a reduction in Total Cost of Ownership of up to 40% on some migrated workloads, achieved through architectural efficiency rather than at the expense of security.
Business Challenge
Bauer's technology function had grown the way its brands had: independently, by country. UK, Germany, and Poland each ran their own infrastructure and security decisions on legacy on-premise data centres. That independence served each region well individually, but it meant Bauer had no single, consistent security standard across the group, and no group-level view of where its actual risk sat.
Three specific pressures made this unsustainable. Legacy infrastructure created scalability bottlenecks that slowed the deployment of new products, at a time when speed to market mattered. Managing data sovereignty across three separate jurisdictions increased compliance exposure with every system added. And because Bauer's revenue depends on continuous media operations, any weakness in resilience, a data centre outage, an inconsistent recovery process, was a direct threat to revenue and to consumer trust in Bauer's brands, not just an internal technology risk.
Success Criteria
- Consistent security standards applied across every application, regardless of country of origin
- Migration of critical applications off legacy on-premise infrastructure onto a scalable cloud foundation
- Automatic failover, so a single data centre failure does not take media operations offline
- Disaster recovery that is fast, repeatable, and not dependent on manual configuration
- Clear, cross-country ownership of cloud security going forward
- A reduction in Total Cost of Ownership, not a security uplift bought at higher cost
Epitechnic Approach
Epitechnic treated this as an architecture and governance problem together, not a migration with security bolted on afterwards. The starting point was designing a single security standard that could be enforced centrally, rather than negotiated separately with three regional teams, each with their own priorities and legacy constraints.
Ownership was treated as a deliverable in its own right, alongside the technical migration. A Cloud Centre of Excellence, operating across all three countries, was established so that security decisions had a clear, permanent home once the migration was complete, rather than reverting to fragmented, regional ownership once the project team moved on.
Solution
Centralised inspection architecture
Security was managed independently by each region, with no single standard applied consistently across the estate. Epitechnic decided to route all traffic through a single, centralised Inspection Hub in a Hub-and-Spoke architecture, rather than maintain isolated defences per application or per region.
Isolated, application-by-application defences are only as strong as the least consistent implementation across the estate. A single inspection point lets one security standard apply to every workload, regardless of which region built it. The result is that every migrated application is assessed against one corporate security standard, not whichever standard its originating region happened to apply.
Resilience by design
Legacy on-premise infrastructure left media operations vulnerable to a single data centre failure, directly threatening revenue and consumer-facing reliability. Epitechnic decided to build redundancy and automatic failover into the architecture from the outset, rather than treat disaster recovery as a separate process layered on afterwards.
Media operations generate revenue continuously; resilience that depends on a manual recovery process is resilience that fails exactly when it's needed most, under pressure and often outside business hours. The result is that critical media operations remain online automatically in the event of a data centre failure.
Infrastructure as Code and sustained ownership
Manual configuration made disaster recovery slow, inconsistent, and dependent on individual knowledge, and there was no clear, lasting owner for cloud security once the migration was complete. Epitechnic decided to replace manual configuration with Infrastructure as Code, and to establish a permanent Cloud Centre of Excellence to own cloud security across all three countries going forward.
Automation removes human error from disaster recovery at the moment it matters most. A permanent, cross-country ownership structure is what stops the security model reverting to the fragmented state it replaced once the project team moves on. The result is disaster recovery that is rapid, repeatable, and free from manual error, and clear, sustained ownership of cloud security through the Cloud Centre of Excellence.
Outcomes
Operational improvements: Over 200 critical applications migrated from legacy on-premise data centres to AWS.
Risk reduction: A fragmented, decentralised security posture replaced by a single, centrally enforced security standard across the UK, Germany, and Poland.
Governance improvements: A Cloud Centre of Excellence established, giving cloud security clear, permanent, cross-country ownership.
Financial impact: Total Cost of Ownership reduced by up to 40% on some migrated workloads, achieved through architectural efficiency.
Executive benefits: Leadership has a consistent, group-wide view of cloud security, and confidence that critical media operations remain online through automatic failover, rather than depending on manual recovery under pressure.
Why It Worked
The engagement succeeded because architecture and ownership were designed together. A centralised Inspection Hub only stays effective if someone is accountable for maintaining the standard it enforces, which is exactly what the Cloud Centre of Excellence was built to do. Treating resilience and disaster recovery as designed-in properties, rather than a manual process layered on afterwards, is what let automatic failover and Infrastructure as Code actually deliver when it mattered, rather than depending on a person being available at the right moment.
Client Testimonial
"Epitechnic helped Bauer strengthen cloud security during a key phase of our cloud transformation. Their work supported resilient architecture, consistent controls across AWS and Azure, and clearer ownership through a Cloud Centre of Excellence operating across countries. They brought a strong business focus to complex cloud security decisions." — Ed Watson, Chief Operating Officer, Bauer
Key Takeaways
Challenge: Fragmented, region-by-region security governance across the UK, Germany, and Poland, running on legacy on-premise infrastructure that constrained scalability and increased compliance exposure.
Approach: Epitechnic designed a centralised inspection architecture, built resilience in by design, and paired the technical migration with a permanent ownership structure, the Cloud Centre of Excellence.
Outcomes: 200+ applications migrated onto a consistently secured, resilient AWS estate, Total Cost of Ownership reduced by up to 40% on some workloads, and lasting, cross-country ownership of cloud security.
Lessons: A centralised security standard only holds once there is a permanent structure accountable for maintaining it; architecture and ownership have to be delivered together, not sequentially.