Google Cloud VMware Engine Migration: Transforming Infrastructure of a SaaS Enterprise
Technology Infrastructure ModernizationBusiness Impacts
Realized approximately 20% savings in infrastructure costs on Google Cloud.
Successfully migrated ~150 Virtual Machines and database servers to Google Cloud VMware Engine.
Customer Key Facts
- Country : San Francisco, US
- Industry : Technology
Problem Context
Our client develops a cloud-based platform providing CRM and email marketing solutions tailored for hotels. Their platform enables hoteliers to connect directly with guests, delivering exceptional guest experiences and driving direct revenue.
After acquiring a company that operated a data center, our client faced numerous challenges typically associated with such acquisitions. Consequently, they decided to move away from their traditional data center setup, and partnered with Quantiphi to facilitate the migration to Google Cloud. During the discovery phase, Quantiphi identified approximately 320 Virtual Machines and successfully migrated 146 servers to Google Cloud.
The primary goals of this migration were to enhance scalability, drive automation, and simplify networking while ensuring minimal disruption to operations.
Challenges
- Impending hardware refresh cycle, necessitating a swift data center exit.
- End-of-life OS versions (Windows 2003, CentOS 4/5) and unsupported CloudSQL features for SQL server.
- On-premise infrastructure complexities including next-generation firewall, F5 load balancing, on-prem active directory, etc.
- Lack of comprehensive documentation and setup information on the on-premise environment.
Technologies Used
Google Cloud VMware Engine
Palo Alto
F5
Virtual Private Cloud
Cloud IAM
Terraform
Cloud Operations
Cloud Interconnect
Solution
- Conducted a thorough assessment of the on-premise infrastructure, networking, Google Cloud fitment, IaaS/PaaS mapping, and total cost of ownership analysis. Delivered a Google Cloud onboarding workshop covering all foundational and infrastructure setup aspects. This resulted in a comprehensive migration plan with documented risks and a roadmap to the desired future state, highlighting cost savings and empowering the client with a solid foundation for decision-making.
- Established a comprehensive network and network security setup, configuring Google Cloud VMware Engine north/south and east/west firewall rules for all migrated applications and implementing F5 load balancers for efficient external and internal traffic management.
- Migrated Virtual Machines to Google Cloud VMware Engine using vMotion, set up new Microsoft SQL server clusters, and sequentially migrated the databases, ensuring minimal downtime and adherence to all application dependencies.
Results
- Established scalable, secure, and automated Google Cloud foundations, incorporating complex network and security measures such as a demilitarized zone (DMZ) setup and deploying high-availability (HA) pairs of Palo Alto next-generation firewalls with Panorama management.
- Successfully migrated applications from the data center to Google Cloud, ensuring business continuity and minimal disruption while enhancing performance and scalability across multiple environments.
- Mitigated risks by designing strategies to address issues related to on-premise active directories, SQL server feature support, and complex networking challenges.
"I have been working with Quantiphi for about six months now. They helped me win a database and application migration at a Greenfield customer from an on-prem Microsoft footprint over to Google Cloud. This customer was a 100% AWS shop and they allowed us to compete against AWS for this on-prem footprint. The biggest reason I was able to win this specific workload was due to Quantiphi. The customer absolutely loved the Quantiphi team, and felt like they were trusted advisors from the get-go. I cannot recommend Quantiphi enough. They are the best partner to work with, the customers absolutely love and trust them. They have the expertise, everything runs on time and within budget. I can't say enough great things about them."
Ashley Stasio, Field Sales Representative, Google Cloud
