Synopsis
The client wanted to set up a separate IT estate to support their IT requirements. Future-readiness and environment sustainability were key objectives. The challenge was to set up a software-defined data center in a multi-vendor environment within a stringent timeline of 9 months. Coforge was contacted to drive a technology-led business model change. A future-proof data center was set up that will remain at the technological forefront for the next 10 years. The solution ensured increased agility, efficiency, cost savings, security, energy savings, and environment sustainability besides increased integration and productivity through digital technologies.
About the Client
The client is the IT subsidiary of a leading cement manufacturing company in South-East Asia. They provide end-to-end IT and digital services to the parent company’s subsidiaries, helping them leverage technology in their operations to create a competitive edge in the cement and construction materials manufacturing domain.
Business Challenge
The client was going through a demerger and wanted a new data center that was reliable, flexible, and secure to meet the present and future business needs. The main objectives were:
- Set up a next generation data center aligned to the digital roadmap
- Lower the cost of ownership following the demerger
- Reduce the maintenance time and costs with the new setup
- Increase the speed of the data center
- Get the new IT estate within a strict deadline of 9 months
- Maintain environmental sustainability
Our Solution
A futuristic solution was provided that went beyond the client’s requirements using a private cloud infrastructure with a software-defined data center. The process enabled reduction in application deployment time from 2 months to 4 hours, and improved IT alignment with business objectives and policy requirements. It also provided for scalability and converged infrastructure. The project was completed within six months, which was three months ahead of the deadline. The key highlights of the solution were:
- Collaborated with industry leaders for all hardware components of the private cloud setup and setup of unified communication and collaboration infrastructure
- Implemented Service Integration and Management (SIAM) approach where transparent collaboration was conducted with all other service providers who would present their solutions for collaborative mitigation
- Applied the fail fast approach with the following steps:
- Showed intent through proof of concept and proof of value before the contract
- Launched the data center in the first 3 months, where the outcomes were adjusted as per the contract in an iterative mode
- Tested the data center for failure before making it live within a span of 6 months
- Migrated to SAP HANA environment with significant increase in SAP modules and non-SAP applications
- Deployed integrated automation with a manager of manager tool using Vistara IT
- Enabled integration of SAP Solution Manager and gave visibility to all networking and server applications for integrated monitoring
- Provided for a single-pane view with centralized and customizable dashboards for monitoring
- Provisioned for SMS alerts with consulting team and e-mail integration
- Enabled auto-generation of tickets from alerts
Delivering More Value
- More Time Savings: The server provisioning lead-time was reduced from 8 weeks to 4 hours for new requirements. The data center setup was made four times faster with speeds clocking from 1200 milli-seconds to just 300 milli-seconds for critical SAP production application.
- More Efficiency: The maintenance window was reduced from 4 hours every month to 3 hours every quarter.
- More Scalability: Scalability was ensured by delivering a data center where the current capacity can support the system growth for the next three years without additional racks.
