PRODUCTS & SERVICES

• Eriez needed a solution to update and migrate their existing on-premise datacenter and aging infrastructure to Microsoft Azure.

• To manage its new infrastructure on Microsoft Azure, Eriez needed managed support in three tiers for incident management, advanced insights and optimization management.

For Data Center Modernization

• SNP performed an intensive datacenter assessment, providing a clear strategy for leveraging a hybrid infrastructure.

• SNP worked with the Eriez team to identify critical business applications such as Active Directory, DNS and other propriety applications crucial to creating a modernized datacenter in the cloud.

• SNP is currently migrating the customer’s email infrastructure with geographical users to Office 365, one country at a time.

• SNP leveraged Azure Virtual Network and Azure storage services based on the design plan of Azure hybrid cloud.

• SNP configured a multisite VPN for various customer location across the globe.

• As a part of the network design, SNP implemented virtual network peering to avoid latency between geolocations connecting the Azure infrastructure.

• SNP expanded Active Directory and DNS to Azure IaaS.

• SNP migrated the customer’s line of business application with MSSQL backend to Azure.

• SNP leveraged the recovery services on Azure for seamless backups of the infrastructure running on Azure.

• SNP leveraged Azure Security Center for its consolidated application infrastructure.

For Azure Managed Services

SNP provided cloud managed services for the client in three tiers: incident management, advanced insights and optimization management.

Incident Management:

Incident management is a service defined by SNP’s service level agreement (SLA), focusing on key Azure  Managed Services components:

• Alert monitoring, management and validation - SNP configured a system that keeps track of the defined infrastructure to monitor and alert the client to any abnormal behavior. This service includes defining thresholds and setting up alert rules for abnormal activities. After receiving an alert, SNP validates and categorizes the severity, then manages accordingly.

• Prioritization of Incidents - SNP prioritizes each incident, so that the best course of action can be taken to remediate each problem as per the potential and actual impact of the incident.

• Alert notification based on escalation matrix - SNP determines which parties need to be notified about an issue, and we escalate the alert as per the predetermined escalation matrix.

Advanced Insights:

The focus of the advanced insights was on:

• Root cause analysis of major and chronic problems- If an incident occurs, SNP determines whether the issue has the potential to repeat and provides advanced insights on the root cause of the issue.

• Corrective action plans-  After identifying the root cause, SNP defines and sets up corrective action plans to remediate the cause.

• Reporting- The advanced insights services include monthly recurring reporting which shows the current state of the managed workloads. The discovery reports of the Azure environment provide better visibility of what’s running on the customer subscription, and whether any changes have occurred. Visibility of change is especially important in a growing infrastructure to understand: 

1. Who has access to the customer environments?

2. Customer service plan levels.

3. Any services added to or removed from the customer environment.

4. Price points based on service types.

5. Current utilization of Azure services.

6. Health status of the Azure workloads.

Optimization Management:

Optimization management focuses on understanding the current infrastructure and providing best practices suggestions on achieving better utilization and optimization of Azure services and workloads, including:

• Optimization recommendation for Azure workloads- Based on the advanced insights reports, SNP will assess the current utilization of the Azure resources and help determine whether any areas need to be optimized. Azure performance trend resources allow decisions to be made for changes and modifications at service levels and resource levels and SNP provides such recommendations to the customers.

• Timing and impact assessment of changes- After providing recommendations, SNP will assess the impact and prepare a timeline to make the changes.

• Audit of optimized workloads to ensure conformity with best practices- SNP will ensure the changed workloads conform to best practices and are compliant and highly available.

• Using a hybrid approach for the client’s infrastructure enabled SNP to migrate Eriez’ infrastructure without any interruptions.

• Azure network security helped enhance network security for groups, a virtual network, subnets, and computers.

• The multisite VPN made Azure the central hub for hosting the customer’s infrastructure server and provides secure access to the client’s remote offices.

• The customer now has an inexpensive single solution for backing up workloads on Azure faster and more securely than its previous backup solution.

• No upfront investment in datacenter hardware.

• The new datacenter platform is scalable on demand and offers easy and efficient storage management.

• The client incurs zero management and maintenance costs for Exchange servers.

• Eriez now has improved security and governance across people, data and devices with the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS) suite.

• Incident management helped the client define thresholds and set up alert rules for abnormal activities.

• Advanced insights provided root cause analysis of chronic problems and set up corrective action plans to remediate the cause.

• Detailed reporting helped track infrastructure changes in terms of managing customer subscriptions, security in terms of who has access to the customer’s environments, current utilization of Azure services and overall health status of the Azure workloads.

• Optimization management helped the client understand its current infrastructure by following the suggested best practices for utilizing and optimizing Azure.

• Discovery and advanced insights reports give Eriez a clear visibility of its infrastructure and help optimize best practices to achieve better utilization and optimization of Azure services and workloads.

"SNP took the time to sit down with me and develop a long-term plan utilizing the latest technology and helped determined how to leverage it the best for our application.Rarely do you find a partner willing to go the extra step to really learn how you operate and align the technology with the business"

J.R Farrar, Director of Global Technology at Eriez