Client Background

Our client is a leading European telecommunications enterprise, actively exploring the feasibility of moving to cloud as part of a broader digital transformation strategy.

Challenge: Cloud Business Case Lacked Infrastructure-Driven Urgency

The organisation believed its on-premises infrastructure remained stable and capable of supporting operations for several more years. Cloud discussions internally, and with their hyperscaler partner, were focused on application sequencing and commercial modelling rather than infrastructure risk.

This left material gaps in the cloud business case, with no structured assessment performed to quantify:

  • End-of-Service-Life (EoSL) exposure
  • Imminent hardware refresh requirements
  • OEM maintenance risk
  • Replacement cost liability

As a result, the cloud business case lacked infrastructure-driven urgency, creating significant gaps in financial planning and migration strategy.

Solution: Deep Dive Assessment (DDA) to Quantify Lifecycle and Financial Exposure

RTK delivered a structured Deep Dive Assessment (DDA) to quantify lifecycle, financial, and contractual exposure.

The DDA included:

  • Full lifecycle mapping against OEM EoSL bulletins
  • Classification of assets already unsupported or reaching EoSL within 48 months
  • Scenario modelling of like-for-like replacement vs consolidation
  • Enterprise-scale refresh cost estimation including deployment and programme effort

Key Findings: Hidden Risk and a Material Capital Inflection Point

The Deep Dive Assessment (DDA) revealed material lifecycle, financial and timing risks that had not been previously quantified. While the infrastructure estate was perceived as stable, the analysis identified significant exposure that fundamentally altered the economic case for cloud.

The findings highlighted both immediate operational risk and a looming capital inflection point.

Significant Hidden EoSL Exposure

A substantial portion of the estate was already beyond support or approaching EoSL within 24–36 months, creating escalating operational and security risk.

Major Refresh Liability

If the estate were refreshed:

  • Like-for-like replacement exposure exceeded €100M
  • Even under consolidation scenarios, capital requirements remained material

Without intervention, the organisation would have required major capital approval within 12–18 months.

Critical Timing Inflection Point

Delays to the project would likely have resulted in a large-scale on-premises reinvestment, pushing cloud transformation out by several years and inflating spend.

Outcome: Capital Redirected from Refresh to Transformation

Following executive review of the DDA findings:

  • A €75M multi-year cloud programme was approved
  • €100M+ refresh exposure was avoided
  • OEM renewal commitments were not extended
  • Capital was redirected from infrastructure replacement to digital transformation

By undertaking the DDA, our client transformed cloud from strategic ambition into economic necessity, driving IT innovation efforts while curtailing infrastructure spend.

Conclusion

This engagement demonstrates how a DDA quantifies hidden lifecycle and refresh risk, strengthens CFO-aligned cloud business cases, prevents reinvestment cycles that delay transformation, and converts infrastructure liability into acceleration leverage.