EHC Consulting uses Azure to power a healthcare cloud migration

November 10, 2025

Around the world, healthcare organizations are trying to modernize their infrastructure and reduce capital costs, especially when it comes to hosting and maintaining their electronic health record (EHR) systems. For many, the traditional on-premises model has become unsustainable, requiring frequent hardware refreshes and limiting flexibility. At the same time, the shift toward cloud-native care delivery and AI-powered analytics is accelerating, creating urgency for modernization without sacrificing control.

For healthcare companies looking to capitalize on this opportunity, a knowledgeable partner can be invaluable in a digital transformation—and EHC Consulting is helping them navigate that path. A Microsoft Solutions Partner with deep expertise in cloud architecture and healthcare modernization, EHC specializes in guiding complex migrations for large-scale providers.

With their knack for solving difficult infrastructure challenges with creativity and precision, EHC is a natural fit for an industry like healthcare, where security and minimal disruption are paramount. When Community Health Network looked to upgrade their aging on-premises Epic environment, they turned to EHC to lead a strategic, first-of-its-kind migration to Microsoft Azure.

Aging infrastructure and high costs prompt a bold shift

Based in Indianapolis, Community is one of Indiana’s largest nonprofit health providers, with more than 200 sites of care. Like many large providers, Community uses Epic, an EHR platform, to manage patient data, clinical workflows, and hospital operations. Epic is central to the organization’s care delivery, and its performance directly impacts clinicians and patients across the network.

Historically, Community hosted Epic on-premises. But as the environment aged, the cost and complexity of maintaining it grew. A major refresh of the hardware could have cost them up to $9 million. With this looming on the horizon, leadership saw an opportunity to modernize. Rather than reinvest in legacy systems, Community wanted to shift Epic to a cloud-native model that would support long-term growth. And they had other ambitious plans that required upgrading their digital foundation—like launching a $300 million cloud-native hospital.

A first-of-its-kind migration, built from the ground up

From the outset, the project was designed as a collaborative effort. EHC embedded deeply with Community’s strong in-house IT department, partnering with them through every phase of the migration while supporting Community’s efforts to manage and scale the environment long-term.

“We didn’t want this to be a situation where a vendor just builds it and hands it off,” said Chris Stewart, Vice President of Technology Services at Community Health Network. “It was truly a co-build.”

The engagement began with a full infrastructure and environment assessment, followed by a phased deployment strategy that included non-production, training, disaster recovery (DR), and, finally, production. Microsoft played an active and pivotal role throughout the project, providing ECIF funding to support the implementation and validating the solution through Well-Architected Framework and Go-Live Readiness assessments. The migration also included hands-on training for Community’s teams in Terraform and Azure provisioning, ensuring they could take full ownership of the cloud-hosted Epic environment after go-live.

Ultimately, the collaboration yielded a series of industry firsts (as reported by the project team). EHC architected the solution using InterSystems’ Enterprise Cache Protocol (ECP) for Epic, making it the first known use of this architecture in native Microsoft Azure. The team also introduced Azure Ultra Disk for Epic production workloads, a first-of-its-kind implementation that delivered better-than-expected performance during DR testing, eliminating the need to failback to on-premises systems.

Together, EHC, Microsoft, and Community built a secure, scalable foundation for future-ready care—one that preserved operational control while enabling long-term innovation. And all along the way, the teams worked hand-in-hand to troubleshoot challenges, validate architecture, and transfer knowledge in real time. “We trusted Microsoft, and Microsoft trusted [EHC Consulting],” said Stewart. “That trust chain worked.”

A modern foundation to support future, AI-enhanced care

When the project concluded, the results were felt immediately. Community avoided a $9 million hardware refresh, enabling them to reinvest that money in more advancements and patient care. They also improved Epic response times by 20% and reduced exception rates by 50%, all without any business disruption or failbacks during the 12-month migration. The organization now operates its Azure-hosted Epic environment independently, with full operational ownership and hands-on expertise in Terraform and Azure provisioning.

Since the migration and solution implementation, Community has expanded their use of Microsoft Azure across the enterprise. They moved analytics to Azure Databricks, selected Microsoft Dynamics, and began migrating VMware workloads to Azure in response to licensing changes.

In anticipation of continued modernization and improved AI-powered capabilities, they also appointed a Director of AI & Governance, adopted Nuance DAX Copilot, and began building automation and analytics tools using Azure Machine Learning, Power BI, and PowerApps. Now, they are actively exploring large language model (LLM) use cases and have initiated efforts to move to Azure Virtual Desktop.

The transformation reshaped Community Health Network’s entire digital posture. From analytics and automation to AI and virtualization, Community is building the infrastructure to support smarter, more connected care. And with EHC Consulting and Microsoft as strategic partners, the team is well-positioned to lead the next wave of cloud-native healthcare delivery.