Client Profile
This client is an entertainment and media company that completed the acquisition of a television and media business unit from a larger parent organization. As part of the merger-and-acquisition transition, the acquired business needed to move into a newly established technology environment while maintaining operational continuity for employees, production teams, clients, and business-critical media workflows.
The project required the acquired organization to separate from the former parent company’s technology environment and begin operating independently under new ownership. Techmedics was responsible for the full infrastructure design, implementation, and migration, including the physical infrastructure buildout, network stack, server environment, domain migration, mailbox migration, endpoint transition, user profile migration, and post-cutover validation.
Executive Summary
Techmedics provided IT services to support a business-critical M&A technology transition for an entertainment and media company acquiring a business unit from a larger parent organization. The successful completion of the IT migration was a key condition for finalizing the acquisition, making the project essential not only to technology operations but also to the business transaction itself.
The engagement included the design and deployment of a new physical infrastructure environment, including network facilities, firewalls, routers, switches, access points, physical servers, storage, domain controllers, Microsoft Exchange servers, Microsoft SQL servers, DHCP, DNS, and Windows Server infrastructure.
Techmedics migrated over 350 endpoints from the former parent company’s domain into the newly created company domain. This included disjoining and rejoining systems, migrating user profiles, preserving user data, and reimaging devices where needed. The team also migrated over 500 mailboxes from the legacy Exchange environment to the new Exchange environment.
The migration cutover was completed over a 48-hour weekend window, with systems ready for users by 7:00 a.m. Monday morning. Following the cutover, Techmedics completed cleanup, validation, and issue resolution to ensure key production workflows, including business-critical live show transcription services, continued operating properly.
The result was a successful M&A technology separation that enabled the acquired company to close the transaction, operate independently, preserve business continuity, and maintain production-supporting services with minimal disruption.
Challenges
- Supporting a business-critical M&A deadline:
The technology migration was directly tied to the closing of the acquisition. The acquired organization needed to be operational in its new environment before the transition could be finalized.
- Building a new infrastructure environment from the ground up:
The project required a new physical infrastructure footprint, including facilities preparation, network equipment, servers, storage, firewalls, routers, switches, access points, and supporting systems.
- Separating the acquired business from the former parent company’s domain:
Over 350 endpoints had to be moved from the legacy domain into a newly created domain while preserving user profiles, corporate data, and business application access.
- Migrating a large Exchange environment:
Techmedics needed to migrate over 500 mailboxes from the former parent company’s Exchange servers to the newly deployed Exchange environment.
- Maintaining business continuity for media production workflows:
The environment supported business-critical entertainment operations, including real-time transcription services for live studio productions. These workflows required special coordination and validation.
- Coordinating across multiple organizations and IT groups:
The project involved stakeholders from multiple companies and departments, including general IT, post-production IT, infrastructure, network, desktop, and messaging teams.
- Executing the cutover within a 48-hour window:
The migration was performed over a single weekend, with rotating teams working through the cutover so users could return Monday morning to a ready environment.
Our Solutions
Full Infrastructure Design and Buildout
Techmedics was responsible for the full design and implementation of the new technology environment. The project began with discovery, site surveys, and stakeholder discussions to understand the existing infrastructure, operational dependencies, production requirements, and transition needs.
The infrastructure buildout included a mix of new technology infrastructure and existing user systems. Techmedics helped create the new environment from the facilities and network layer up, including a dedicated space for new rack-mounted equipment and the deployment of the network, server, storage, and security infrastructure required to support the acquired organization independently.
Network, Server, and Storage Deployment
Techmedics deployed the infrastructure required to support the new domain and business operations, including firewalls, routers, switches, wireless access points, physical servers, and storage. The environment included Microsoft technologies such as Windows Server, Active Directory domain controllers, DHCP, DNS, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft SQL Server.
The technology stack included Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Dell EMC, Lenovo, and other infrastructure components. This new infrastructure foundation allowed the acquired organization to transition away from dependence on the former parent company’s environment and operate under the new ownership structure.
New Domain and Directory Services
Techmedics built a new domain environment for the acquired business, including domain controllers and supporting services such as DHCP and DNS. This created the directory and identity foundation required to migrate endpoints, users, and systems out of the former parent company’s domain.
The new domain allowed the organization to establish independent control over its users, devices, authentication, policies, and core IT services.
Endpoint and User Profile Migration
Techmedics migrated over 350 endpoints from the former parent company’s domain to the newly created domain. This process included disjoining and rejoining systems, migrating user profiles, preserving corporate and user data, and addressing endpoint-level issues during the transition.
Where systems had operating system corruption or required remediation, Techmedics reimaged computers using the corporate image to keep the migration moving and ensure users had working devices after the cutover.
Exchange Mailbox Migration
Techmedics migrated over 500 mailboxes from the legacy Exchange environment to the newly deployed Exchange server. This migration was critical to preserving communications continuity for employees and business stakeholders.
The team planned and executed the mailbox transition as part of the broader weekend cutover, followed by post-migration cleanup and validation during the week after go-live.
Business-Critical Production Workflow Support
The migration also covered production-supporting services used in the entertainment environment, including real-time transcription for live studio programming. Because this service depended on external connectivity and coordination with other organizations, Techmedics created the necessary connections and worked with the relevant technical teams to validate that the service remained functional after the transition.
This portion of the work was especially important because the client’s operations depended not only on standard corporate IT systems, but also on specialized media production workflows.
Weekend Cutover and Post-Migration Validation
The end-to-end project lasted approximately six months, with a significant portion dedicated to discovery, planning, stakeholder coordination, infrastructure preparation, and migration readiness.
The final cutover was completed over a 48-hour weekend window. Techmedics coordinated rotating technical teams to migrate endpoints, profiles, mailboxes, systems, and data into the new environment. By 7:00 a.m. Monday morning, the environment was ready for users.
After go-live, Techmedics continued cleanup, issue resolution, and validation to confirm that users, mailboxes, endpoints, and production-related services were functioning as expected.
Outcomes
The project enabled the acquired entertainment and media business to complete a successful technology separation from its former parent organization and operate independently under new ownership.
Most importantly, the migration helped support the closing of the acquisition. Because completion of the IT transition was a key requirement for finalizing the transaction, Techmedics’ successful delivery directly supported the business outcome behind the M&A initiative.
The project also preserved business continuity for employees, clients, and production teams. Over 350 endpoints and over 500 mailboxes were migrated into the new environment during a 48-hour weekend cutover, with systems ready for users by Monday morning at 7:00 a.m.
By building a new infrastructure environment and migrating users, systems, data, and mailboxes into the new domain, Techmedics helped the organization establish independent IT operations. The new environment gave the business control over its own domain, servers, storage, Exchange environment, SQL systems, network infrastructure, and supporting services.
The migration also protected key entertainment production workflows, including real-time transcription services for live programming. Through careful coordination and post-cutover validation, Techmedics helped ensure that business-critical production services continued functioning after the transition.
Overall, the project demonstrates Techmedics’ ability to manage complex M&A technology transitions involving infrastructure design, endpoint migration, messaging migration, production workflow continuity, multi-vendor coordination, and compressed cutover execution.
Partners Involved
