cloudEQ is working with this global Fortune 500 client in the Retail Service industry to lead a POC, Pilot and subsequent global roll out of Azure SCCM CMG (Cloud Management Gateway) global deployment.


Challenges & Mitigation

  • Concerns over changing technology and the criticality of delivery – Proved no impact
  • Package delivery latency – delivery improvements
  • Change management, training and education – little to no training
    required
  • Security restrictions at the endpoints and the cloud – addressed
    through Security appliances
  • Resource availability in country – Mitigated through reducing the effort
    to testing

Client’s Goals

The client was in the process of a cloud migration lead by cloudEQ to consolidate services and retire physical data centers throughout the globe. As the client migrated the SCCM and SCOM environments to Azure they began encountering Intermittent MPLS (WAN) network service interruptions affecting other applications while deploying large packaged applications.

POC AND PILOT

To meet the initial goals, cloudEQ setup an Azure CMG – PaaS solution both domestically and internationally, establishing the initial footprint necessary for a POC. Working in conjunction with the local counties we established initial locations, security requirements, evaluation / success criteria, communication and testing timelines. Established a communication and risk mitigation strategy that includes:

Technical
  • Evaluation and Success criteria
  • Architecture documentation
  • Implementation guide
  • Pre-requisites
    – Firewall rules
    – Bandwidth requirements
    – Configuration requirements
    – Additional security requirements
    – Deployment guide
  • Technical training & adoption material
  • Operationalization model & runbook
  • Monitoring, Support & troubleshooting guide
Non-Technical
  • Road show overview presentation
  • Project plan for global rollout
  • Communication matrix and strategy
  • Nonfunctional evaluation & success criteria
  • Training & adoption material

Results

The successful POC and Pilot solution took 6 months for requirements, build, evaluation and pilot deployment. The full This implementation gave them the capabilities to deploy packages via the store internet connection to Azure, increased efficiency of the deployments, in some cases upwards of 5 times faster. With this now deploying via the internet, we have eliminated the possible of MPLS network saturation.

Successes

  • We delivered the POC, Pilot and subsequent implementation of the global CMG solution in Azure domestically and internationally.
  • 86% improvement in package speed delivery
  • Annual $2M WAN upgrade – Cost avoidance