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Case study
Banking & Financial Services case study
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Cotality shifts to Google cloud – Tax GCP Migration

When one of Cotality’s highest-revenue business unit began to outgrow its on-premises IT infrastructure, it was time to migrate to Google Cloud.

At a glance

Industry
Banking & Financial Services

Location
Irvine, CA

Challenge

Migrate data and applications for one of the company’s most complex and high-revenue business units from existing on-premises servers to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Success Highlights

  • 500+ on prem servers eliminated
  • 150+ applications migrated
  • 150+ services migrated
  • 480+ databases migrated
  • 25% cost savings

The challenge

Based in Irvine, California, Cotality® is a leading provider of information services, business intelligence and cutting-edge analytics solutions to the real estate industry. The company unlocks value for the entire property ecosystem by empowering agents, lenders, carriers and innovators with integrated solutions that optimize and elevate how they serve their end-customers.

Cotality was incurring high costs on its existing on-premises server data center, due to system redundancies and expensive Oracle WebLogic middleware licenses, which were charged based on the number of Java Virtual Machines (JVM).

Migrating from on-premises to Google Cloud

An early adopter of digital technologies such as cloud, Cotality was seeking to transition the costly legacy on-premises infrastructure for its Tax Ecosystem business unit—which accounts for up to 40% of revenues for client business—to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

As a data and analytics firm, Cotality was looking to leverage GCP’s multiple business benefits, including:

  • Inherent analytics capabilities
  • Superior services for enhanced hosting and DR capabilities
  • Top-notch stability and resiliency

The project had a strict deadline of Q1 2024 to transition the Tax Ecosystem business unit from on-premises infrastructure to GCP or face significant overrun costs.

Our approach

Cognizant has managed Cotality’s Tax Ecosystem business unit for over a decade, overseeing both technology and operations. Given this extensive experience and proven track record, it was a natural choice for Cotality to entrust Cognizant with leading their cloud migration initiative. Among the scope parameters were the following:

  • Applications refactoring and re-platforming to Google Anthos KF
  • Migration of a highly complex Oracle database to Google Cloud, handling intricate data environments and leveraging advanced cloud technologies
  • Migration of custom COBOL applications running in Java environments to GCP to significantly enhance performance 
  • A 100% repavable applications migration to GCP using infrastructure as code (IAC) 
  • Lift-and-shift of windows/.NET-based applications and related infrastructure setup on GCP virtual machines
our approach

Throughout the project, Cognizant delivered exceptional program management support, not only to Cotality but also to multiple other vendors involved in the migration. In addition, the Cognizant team managed incremental migration cycles while simultaneously supporting existing releases, which required extensive coordination and meticulous planning.

The Cognizant-Cotality technology stack
  • Google Cloud
  • Terraform IaC
  • Java/Spring Framework
  • Dot Net
  • Angular
  • Anthos Kf 
  • Kafka
  • Jenkins
  • Imperva WAF
  • Mainframe Cobol
  • Shell scripting
  • JCL
  • Oracle 
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL

“I have been keeping a pulse on this complex migration over the last few weeks I have been very impressed with the teamwork, rigor, client care, planning and executional excellence that went into it.”

Patrick Dodd, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cotality
 

“Huge kudos to the team for a VERY successful Tax GCP migration this weekend. Flawless execution and huge step forward for the business.”

Jay Kingsley, President, Mortgage Solutions, Cotality
 

“Thank you, team, and well done in planning, preparing and now executing flawlessly! Great example of execution excellence despite all the challenges.”

Cheema Waqas, Chief Enterprise Operations Officer, Cotality

Business outcomes

In migrating the IT platform of Cotality’s Tax Ecosystem business unit to Google Cloud, Cognizant achieved multiple business benefits for the company, including:

  • Future-proofing Cotality’s infrastructure, hosting and content management capabilities, with faster scalability and adaptability to meet business needs
  • Enhancing security by providing robust protection against cyber threats
  • Increasing stability and resilience, so operations are better equipped to handle disruptions
  • Accelerating the pace of product development, to stay ahead of the innovation curve in a rapidly evolving landscape
  • Enabling Cotality to transition to another cloud and/or multi-cloud environment in the future
  • Automating upgrades to ensure compliance with security guidelines
Business outcome

Cognizant successfully delivered on Cotality’s 1Q24 deadline, avoiding delays and associated cost overruns. In addition, Cotality achieved dramatic cost savings by eliminating on-premises computing infrastructure costs, using GCP-native monitoring tools and creating infrastructure as code (IAC) for the cloud.

About Cotality

Cotality is a leading provider of property insights and innovative solutions, working to transform the property industry by putting people first. Using its network, scale, connectivity and technology, Cotality delivers faster, smarter, more human-centered experiences that build better relationships, strengthen businesses and ultimately create a more resilient society. www.cotality.com

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