Operationalizing Multicloud with VMware: Four Case Studies

This article was written by, Dan Flaherty Senior Multicloud Solution Architect at VMware

Organizations modernizing their IT strategy are standardizing on multicloud as the approach that offers the flexibility and agility to meet business and technology goals. But deciding on a multicloud strategy is only the first step to unlocking the full benefits of a dynamic IT environment. 

Operationalizing multicloud requires a strategic approach. Organizations that are successful see reductions in operational complexity, flexibility of choice, better security, strengthened business continuity, and access to innovative new technologies. 

On the way to achieving these benefits, they need to overcome obstacles unique to multicloud. Siloed technologies and specialized skills can lead to rising costs and barriers to projects. Establishing standards for data center usage and compliance becomes difficult across diverse cloud environments, especially for global enterprises. Many emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning can pose challenging workload requirements. And organizations must adapt to the changing role of IT, from a service provider to a service consumer. 

In our work with VMware Cloud customers, we find that successful organizations take on three IT initiatives on this journey: IT integration, cloud financial management, and security and compliance. Here are four success stories from organizations around the world that have operationalized multicloud and are now realizing the business benefits.

1. Discovery drives better health outcomes with efficient multicloud management 

As part of their mission to make people healthier, Discovery turned to multicloud for better business decisions and stronger security. Multicloud would produce more timely and accurate customer insights, flexibility for future growth, and better visibility into security vulnerabilities. 

VMware Cloud supported simplified multicloud management for better control of operations in the face of rapid growth. VMware CloudHealth offered a single view of cloud activity across 12 countries, enabling on-demand reporting about cloud performance and risk – ultimately leading to a 40 percent spending reduction. 

"CloudHealth by VMware, for the first time, creates a single view of our cloud activity, across multiple territories," said Johan Marais, senior platform services manager at Discovery. "We're no longer hunting for information. It's all there at the click of a button." 

2. Provident México brings consistency to operations while accelerating innovation 

Provident México, the leading provider of home personal loans in Mexico, was looking to achieve a trifecta of IT goals: consistent operations, reduced risk, and higher efficiency. This would require continuously monitoring capacity and performance for virtualized infrastructure on-premises and in the cloud. They also wanted a future-ready solution that would grow along with the organization's business. 

Provident México relied on VMware to meet all their business needs as they operationalized multicloud. They successfully moved all applications to the cloud in just five and a half months, cutting capacity requirements by 30 percent in the process. They also streamlined IT management, enabling two staff members to monitor and maintain over 300 servers. Rapid discovery of application and networking dependencies ensures lower risk as well. 

"It used to take me around a year and a half just to place an application in production. With VMware vRealize Cloud Management, I now do it within months. It's a game changer," said Néstor Rodríguez, director of technology and change at Provident México. 

3. Börse Stuttgart sees better service monitoring and faster troubleshooting with multicloud 

German stock exchange Börse Stuttgart needed to improve the speed and agility of their IT operations and security. They also needed visibility into costs, compute contention issues, and capacity. And finally, the IT team had to support all these requirements with a hybrid environment in order to process trading data on-premises and administrative data in the public cloud. 

With multicloud, Börse Stuttgart achieved better service monitoring and faster troubleshooting. They simplified IT management of their cloud proxy, enhanced management reports and dashboards, and shifted IT time from operations to innovation. The organization also monitored and adjusted capacity in response to remote working during the COVID-19 crisis. 

"VMware vRealize Operations Cloud works smoothly, without my influence," said Stephan Wiechert, IT system specialist at Börse Stuttgart. "I'm saving up to 10 hours a month on upgrades and troubleshooting. That's success to me." 

4. National Stock Exchange of India transforms IT operations to become future-proof 

The National Stock Exchange of India set out to transition to the cloud in order to simplify and streamline IT operations. They were drawn to the agility, scalability, and resiliency of cloud infrastructure. Moving to the cloud would allow the organization to future-proof their business with modern application technology. At the same time, they wanted to maintain security through micro-segmentation. 

The VMware vCloud Suite and VMware NSX enabled the National Stock Exchange of India to bring control and consistency to their IT operations. As a result of their project, the organization achieved faster time to market and scalability of financial applications while reducing IT infrastructure costs. 

"We have been able to simplify administrative tasks, automate manual processes, scale up on-demand, and improve our business agility," said Shiv Kumar Bhasin, chief technology and operations officer at National Stock Exchange of India. "This deployment has helped us to stay at the cutting edge of technology for years to come. Our infrastructure is now future-proof."