The following Case Study illustrates the benefits of new, agile, on-demand microservices.
The hybrid computing world of today is built on the concepts of flexibility, agility and capacity on demand. This case study shows how one customer leveraged Subscription Microservices to launch their business securely and efficiently on an entirely cloud based software and infrastructure.
SITUATION
The customer is a new organization with approximately 450 employees and contractors with offices located in multiple North American regions. They have no formal data center presence and intended to launch the business upon a greenfield Office 365 and Azure environment. End user access to applications and infrastructure would be virtual desktop based with both the virtual desktop and line of business applications hosted in Azure with tightly controlled access to back-end resources primarily from the virtual desktop platform. In addition to the core infrastructure and software platforms, the customer would use a cloud-based HR system leveraging Azure single sign-on and related access control capabilities.
PROBLEM
Client needed to build a new infrastructure quickly, accurately and securely for a successful launch. The client required services with a high degree of flexibility and deep expertise in order to handle unforeseen issues.
HOW THESE MICROSERVICES WORK
Subscription Microservice based statements of work are designed to allow for customers to quickly shift the focus of their consulting services with no more than a phone call,
an email or the click of a button on a web-based portal.
Customers purchase a pool of credits that replenishes monthly and can be exchanged for services selected from a growing catalog of remotely delivered hybrid cloud-based offerings.
SOLUTION
With a very short time frame to build this environment and launch the company, the customer contracted with Hybrid Pathways for monthly Subscription Microservices with a 35 credit per month entitlement.
The first month of the service went very much according to plan. With the assistance of skilled Hybrid Pathways resources, the Office 365 and Azure environments were built out and security controls were designed and implemented to match the customers internal and regulatory security and compliance standards. The virtual desktop environment was built and deployed to Azure, and the security controls were set to limit the majority of infrastructure and application access to that platform. From a roughly 130 item microservice catalog, the customer utilized 14 units across 12 distinct microservices as shown in Figure 1. This included an initial analysis of the customer environment, infrastructure and security configuration assistance for network, software and other platforms as well as tier 3 support when unexpected issues were encountered.
The second month of the service saw a departure from the original plan on several fronts, and an adjustment to both the service catalog itself as well as the service consumption pattern of the customer. The security and network configurations of the Office 365 and Azure platforms were completed according to the initial specifications, but evolving business requirements shifted the focus of the client configuration from virtual desktops to a more traditional full Windows 10 model.
Hybrid Pathways accommodated this change with the addition of new Windows 10 microservices to the catalog and the delivery of many of those new services to the customer, allowing for both the immediate deliverable to be achieved and long-term strategic planning to be completed in parallel. From the now roughly 150 item microservice catalog, the customer utilized 9 units across 9 distinct microservices as shown in Figure 2. This included security and device management configuration assistance for Windows 10, as well as tier 3 support for components including Microsoft Intune, Azure Conditional Access, and Azure AD Domain Services. Most of these needs were unknown when the initial agreement was established only one month prior.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
“Hybrid Pathways targeted microservices became an agile extension of my team and enabled us to quickly shift cloud-based priorities from month to month to meet the demands of a fast-moving business.”
SVP, Chief Information Security Officer
The customers initial launch was successful, and while there was the occasional glitch that any new endeavor of this sort would experience, all were quickly solved, many with the assistance of tier 3 support microservices. The environment continues to mature and evolve, but this case study hi-lights that even with a major shift of business requirements and the corresponding consulting services needs to support them within the first month of the agreement and in some cases only days before the official launch, the flexibility of the subscription microservice
model combined with the skill of Hybrid Pathways resources helped to facilitate a highly successful company launch. This was all accomplished without scope change requests and without lead times for new resources with specific skill sets that matched the new requirements. Leveraging subscription microservices as an extension of their own IT teams, the customer simply requested a different set of services from the catalog, and those services were delivered immediately and effectively.
BENEFIT
The flexible microservices reduced delays, ensured high quality infrastructure and accomplished business goals. Client was able to launch on schedule with solid and secure infrastructure.