Case Study
Form I-9 Compliance is the premier provider of Form I-9 and E-Verify® solutions. Its business-critical documentation and identity verification services are used by thousands of client firms, employers, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and consulting firms. The company’s solutions have been described by the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies as, “Doing for I-9 and E-Verify what Turbo Tax does for tax filing.”
With a goal to make the I-9 process simple, Form I-9 Compliance sought a technology solution that would allow it to maintain focus on the growth of its core business while driving operational and cost efficiencies
Form I-9 had originally built out its own data centers for hosting the company’s services, including a remote failover site. As the company’s solutions are centered around personal identification information (PII), data integrity, security and compliance were top priorities, and this on-premise environment allowed the company to maintain full control. However, when the company entered a rapid growth phase, it faced the decision of whether to continue investing in its own data center for its production servers or migrate to the cloud.
Simple financial, technical, and operational analysis confirmed that moving its operations to the cloud was the right approach. A private self-managed cloud solution with managed storage services Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) on the back end would provide the control and security Form I-9 required, and its applications and database infrastructure were cloud-ready. Additionally, moving to a fully cloud-based architecture would allow the company to forego a major capital investment in its own data center and reduce its operating costs.
The Form I-9 IT team, led by CIO Chas Patterson, evaluated a range of options for migrating its production environment to the cloud, including major vendors in the cloud services space like AWS and Microsoft Azure.
The team realized quickly that hyperscaler solutions lacked the cost transparency, flexibility, and security capabilities that Form I-9 required. Additionally, working with a large public cloud provider would mean that support would primarily be provided through online forums and knowledge bases. No live assistance would be available if and when needed.
To overcome these issues, Form I-9 turned to Otava to modernize the infrastructure supporting its web-delivered service, improve the resiliency of its systems, and lower its operating and capital costs. Otava offers a range of hybrid IT and cloud solutions on a VMware Cloud Verified platform from private cloud to resource pooled to shared cloud environments. In this case it recommended that Form I-9 migrate its current environment to Otava’s self-managed private cloud platform, purpose-built for service providers. Utilizing its high touch, consultative approach to partnership, Otava quickly and efficiently moved several terabytes of data from Form I-9’s in-house data center to its Las Vegas cloud node, without any ingress fees, for the new self-managed private cloud environment. Offering greater visibility and control, the private environment was ideally suited for the company’s systems and PII data.
“Otava’s private cloud platform is secure and compliant which is of paramount importance to us as our business handles highly regulated information.” – Chas Patterson, CIO of Form I-9 Compliance.
To further protect its data, Otava added its Data Protection as a Service across all locations to maximize data storage integrity and resilience. The Otava team orchestrated the migration carefully so there was never a time when Form I-9 systems and data were unprotected. Together, Otava’s private cloud and Form I-9’s environment create a scalable, reliable, and fully managed solution.
Today, Otava’s private cloud powered by VMware provides Form I-9 with a compliant, efficient, cost-effective platform for its production environment. Migrating to the cloud has created significant cost savings for Form I-9 and allows the company to scale up as needed without requiring extra resources. The DPaaS solution provides Form I-9 with even greater protection. This resilient architecture coupled with the fact that Otava bakes compliance into every solution supports Form I-9’s compliance reporting process.
“Otava makes it easier for us to perform our SOC 2 Type 2 security reporting and gives us a great private cloud environment. Because everything is fully scalable and protected, we can better serve our customers.” – Chas Patterson, CIO of Form I-9 Compliance
Ultimately partnering with Otava has helped Form I-9 to significantly reduce its OPEX and CAPEX, substantially improve the performance and reliability of its systems, and achieve rock-solid data protection and compliance. All of this contributes directly to the ongoing happiness of its partners and customers.
The inherent scalability of Otava’s Private Cloud and DPaaS combined with its predictable operating costs means that Form I-9 is well-positioned to continue its rapid growth while maintaining excellent levels of support and performance for its customers and partners.
“Hosting our service with Otava’s private cloud has given us the ability to scale up as needed. We can now meet any transaction volume requirement to satisfy any amount of new clients and partners which gives us and our customers peace of mind.”
— Chas Patterson, CIO Form I-9 Compliance
OTAVA provides the secure, compliant hybrid cloud solutions demanded by service providers, channel partners and enterprise clients in compliance-sensitive industries. By actively aggregating best-of-breed cloud companies and investing in people, tools, and processes, OTAVA’s global footprint continues to expand. The company provides its customers in highly regulated disciplines with a clear path to transformation through its effective solutions and broad portfolio of hybrid cloud, data protection, disaster recovery, security and colocation services, all championed by an exceptional support team. Learn more at www.OTAVA.com.
