Our client, one of the largest companies in the German and European energy market, had a problem: their status as industry leaders had caused their cloud infrastructure to become large and unwieldy. With thousands of people working remotely, onsite, and in offices across the globe, the company’s virtual machines, microservices, databases, serverless applications, web applications, and storage, and their management, were driving wasteful time, making new digital initiatives and subsequent efficiency gains more difficult to attain and driving cost.

At the same time, the increased complexity and growing demands of the energy sector required the organization to become more efficient and agile in the way they deployed and used their technology solutions. This gap between increasing cloud-computing requirements and stagnant cloud-computing capabilities was leading to networking problems, storage security risks, and governance issues, as further outlined in the next section of this case study.

Key Obstacles and Challenges

One of the biggest challenges associated with large cloud infrastructure is dealing with storage on a large scale. This is evident in the energy sector, where the ability to securely store confidential data in a cost-effective, compliant manner is essential. Our client identified storage security and cost-optimization as major concerns early in the process.

Another major area of concern was the amount of time devoted to manual database management and performance tracking. The company was working with outdated virtual machines and software implementations that required significant manual efforts to maintain. This negatively impacted overall efficiency, accuracy, and performance.

The Axelsson Solution

Leveraging decades of combined cloud-computing expertise and multiple Azure certifications, our team was able to create a cost-effective cloud-native solution that automated key business processes using low-and no-code tools including Logic Apps, Web Apps, Azure SQL, and Azure DevOps and its REST APIs.

The first thing we did was gather data to gain adequate insight into the problems our client was facing with their cloud infrastructure. We ran KQL queries and SQL queries in a serverless, easily configurable Logic App to grab the data we needed, aiming to engineer the high-level requirements into granular and refined technical requirements, while working closely with technical experts at the client, to ensure a delivery that meets and exceeds. From there, we prepared the data by refining the requirements and creating a common database that compiled further information on the owner of each resource.

Next up, we created Azure DevOps work items to correct the issues uncovered during the data gathering and preparation stages. These actionable work items outlined the corrective measures, contact person, and all other information required to address each problem. During this phase of the project, there was external work that needed to be executed outside of Azure. To accomplish this, we built business application ASP.NET Core MVC-based websites, secured through deny-be-default security concepts in practice through non-public connection security configurations, virtual network integrations and private links and endpoints, and attached them to the Azure DevOps work items via deep linking.

Throughout the process, we used a database to centrally document and report every step taken along the way. In addition to improving transparency, this also provided management with a useful tool for assigning tasks and tracking in-progress issues in real-time, and quickly and conveniently viewing closed work items.

Project Outcomes

The solution implemented in Phase 1 of this project enabled our client to automate key cloud infrastructure management tasks without sacrificing security, accuracy, or storage capabilities. Instead of troubleshooting networking issues or spending valuable time tracking databases manually, employees can now devote more time to their primary, mission-critical tasks, increasing business agility. The ability to execute key infrastructure maintenance processes faster than their energy-sector industry peers has translated into a measurable competitive advantage for our client.

The best part? This is only Phase 1. Look back here soon to find out how we adapted our automated solution to incorporate major policy changes in the Phase 2 case study.

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