Caylent Services
AWS Foundations & Migrations
From rehosting to replatforming to rearchitecting, Caylent will help you leverage AWS to its fullest potential to meet your business objectives.
William O’Neil + Company Modernizes Proprietary Capital Markets Research Infrastructure on AWS While Building In-House Cloud Capability
Migrations
Infrastructure & DevOps Modernization
Solution Implemented
→ Migrated 432 virtual machines and 75 TB of critical financial data from aging on-premises infrastructure to AWS as part of a time-bound datacenter exit strategy.
→ Built a secure AWS foundation with AWS Control Tower, AWS CloudWAN, AWS Network Firewall, AWS Direct Connect, AWS Security Hub, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Config, and centralized logging to strengthen governance, security, and global connectivity.
→ Delivered an extended knowledge transfer and enablement program spanning more than a month to help newly hired cloud talent and existing engineering teams adopt, manage, and scale the new AWS environment.
Outcomes Expected
→ Reduce infrastructure risk by eliminating a critical single point of failure for a 1.2 PB data warehouse supporting time-sensitive research and trading operations.
→ Enable a successful, low-disruption transition to AWS with on-time delivery and minimal downtime during production cutover.
→ Establish a modern, automated cloud foundation expected to improve disaster recovery posture, reduce manual processes, and support faster innovation across the business.
→ Equip William O’Neil + Company’s internal team to independently manage and evolve its AWS environment through hands-on knowledge transfer, documentation, and practical training embedded throughout the engagement.
Establishing a Modern Foundation for Continuous Access, Real-Time Data
William O’Neil + Company is a Registered Investment Advisor founded in 1963 that helps institutional investment managers improve portfolio performance through timely buy and remove recommendations, customized equity research, and market insight. Delivered through the PANARAY® research platform, the company’s proprietary O’Neil Methodology supports clients across more than 70 markets and 70,000+ equities, funds, and indices. In a business built on timely market intelligence, infrastructure resilience is essential to client value. For William O’Neil + Company, long-term success also depended on building the internal capability to support a modern cloud platform after the migration was complete.
Business Challenge
William O’Neil + Company’s clients depend on continuous access to real-time market data, deep historical context, and timely research to make high-conviction investment decisions. As demand for scale, speed, and reliability grew, the company’s on-premises infrastructure faced growing operational demands that required greater flexibility, resiliency, and scalability. The organization needed to modernize quickly, while also preparing its teams to successfully operate within a new AWS-based model.
The modernization effort was driven by several operational and business continuity challenges. Existing infrastructure constraints and facility-related power events increased the importance of improving resiliency and availability, while a core data warehouse environment highlighted the need for a more fault-tolerant architecture with greater redundancy and recovery capabilities. At the same time, William O’Neil + Company faced a datacenter exit deadline, SQL Server licensing constraints, and complex dependencies across multiple global locations, making the migration both business-critical and technically demanding.
“This was our first production cloud migration, and we needed a partner that could execute successfully, with no room for error,” said Gary Bedell, VP of Technology Operations at O’Neil Digital Systems (DAI). “Additionally, we needed a team that could help newly hired talent and existing engineers gain the practical knowledge required to adopt, manage, and extend the platform after go-live.”
“By helping us through our first move to the cloud while enabling internal teams to take ownership of the new environment, Caylent delivered both immediate modernization outcomes and long-term operational readiness. That combination of technical execution and practical enablement is what made the engagement shine.”
Gary Bedell
VP of Technology Operations
Solution
William O’Neil + Company partnered with Caylent to migrate 432 virtual machines and 75 TB of critical financial data from on-premises environments to AWS, enabling a successful datacenter exit while modernizing the infrastructure behind its research and trading systems. Caylent began by designing and implementing a strong AWS foundation for governance, connectivity, and security. This included AWS Control Tower for multiaccount governance, AWS CloudWAN for global networking, AWS Network Firewall and FortiGate for protection, AWS Direct Connect for hybrid connectivity, and a broader security posture supported by AWS Security Hub, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Config, and centralized logging.
Caylent then executed a hybrid migration approach using AWS Application Migration Service together with native database tooling to preserve integrity across SQL Server clusters. The resulting environment used Amazon EC2 for compute, Amazon FSx for file storage, Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora Serverless PostgreSQL for database services, and SQL Server on EC2, where bring-your-own-license was appropriate. Caylent also implemented Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, Terragrunt, and GitLab CI/CD to create a more consistent and automated operating model.
What made the engagement stand out was how closely Caylent connected delivery with enablement. Rather than treating knowledge transfer as a final handoff task, Caylent embedded it throughout the migration. The team worked alongside both newly hired cloud talent and existing William O’Neil + Company engineers so they could learn the platform in real time, build familiarity with AWS services, and gain hands-on experience supporting the environment long term.
“The level of collaboration between Caylent's architects and our internal teams was excellent,” said Bedell. “They accommodated multiple scope changes gracefully while maintaining our aggressive timeline.”
The project went live in production with zero critical downtime during the transition. By moving to AWS, William O’Neil + Company eliminated the single point of failure that had threatened a 1.2 PB data warehouse, improved disaster recovery posture, and gained the scalability needed to deliver real-time insights more reliably across global markets. Just as importantly, the company emerged from the migration with a stronger internal foundation for cloud operations.
Working with Caylent
Caylent supported William O’Neil + Company through the full migration journey, from assessment and AWS foundation design through production cutover and stabilization. What differentiated the engagement was Caylent’s commitment to helping William O’Neil + Company truly adopt the new AWS platform, not just migrate to it. Caylent extended knowledge transfer for an additional month, supporting both newly hired personnel brought in to help with the AWS deployment and existing engineers transitioning into a cloud operating model.
That enablement program included more than 15 hands-on sessions covering networking, security, Infrastructure as Code, database operations, backup and disaster recovery, and AWS account management. William O’Neil + Company’s engineers worked directly alongside Caylent during live deployment and migration activities, gaining practical experience while building confidence in day-to-day operations. Sessions were recorded for future onboarding, Infrastructure as Code served as living documentation, and post-cutover support helped reinforce learning during the transition into steady-state management.
“By helping us through our first move to the cloud while enabling internal teams to take ownership of the new environment, Caylent delivered both immediate modernization outcomes and long-term operational readiness,” said Bedell. “That combination of technical execution and practical enablement is what made the engagement shine.”
Technologies used
AWS Control Tower, AWS CloudWAN, AWS Network Firewall, FortiGate, AWS Direct Connect, AWS Application Migration Service, Amazon EC2, Amazon FSx, Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora Serverless PostgreSQL, SQL Server on EC2, AWS Security Hub, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Config, centralized logging, Terraform, Terragrunt, and GitLab CI/CD.
