Case Study
UST supports a global supply chain automation leader with multi-cloud adoption, dramatically expanding its ability to acquire and serve new clients
OUR CLIENT
Headquartered in the U.S., this company designs and implements automation solutions that streamline supply chain operations and construction management as well as mechanical and structural engineering processes. With operations in over 25 countries and a global workforce of 10,000 people, our client helps organizations optimize complex workflows through innovative materials handling and intralogistics technologies.
THE CHALLENGE
Creating a more scalable IoT analytics solution with GCP and DevOps
The client’s IoT analytics platform collects vast amounts of data to deliver deep, intelligent insights and automations to its customers. Since the platform was built on Azure’s serverless technologies, customers with systems hosted on non-Azure infrastructures, such as GCP and AWS, often struggled to use the platform efficiently. To overcome these limitations and facilitate growth, company leaders decided to embark on a transformative multi-cloud strategy and also enhance the IoT platform with machine learning (ML) analytics capabilities. This initiative would be a catalyst to consolidate products onto a single codebase, reduce the number of production versions, and establish standardized CI/CD development pipelines. This approach would allow developers to build and package products once with seamless deployment to the cloud of choice. However, the ambitious project presented several challenges, including:
- An open-source footprint without a clean upgrade path and compatibility issues
- Critical integrations with the company’s analytics workflows would require an extensive testing effort
- Data security and compliance requirements made the migration complex and challenging
- Maintaining code consistency across the multi-cloud estate with no configuration drift
- Ensuring no downtime and no data loss during the transition
The client required a technology partner with the expertise and scale to manage this daunting project.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Deploying a common codebase for multi-cloud IoT analytics and data-driven decision-making
UST designed, ported, and deployed a comprehensive IoT analytics solution using edge and serverless technologies across a multi-cloud infrastructure. We developed a common codebase core with a cloud-specific shim to accommodate both Azure and GCP environments. The solution was engineered to handle the lifecycle of IoT analytics. Data is seamlessly ingested into the platform from various connected devices, while advanced device management capabilities ensure all IoT devices are securely monitored, updated, and managed across the new multi-cloud environment. UST’s solution delivers:
- Efficient, scalable storage—that can handle vast amounts of IoT data with high performance and accessibility
- Real-time analytics and comprehensive reporting—using GCP data processing tools, providing company leaders with deep IoT-based insights
- Operational visibility—from integrated monitoring and logging capabilities, enabling proactive management and quicker issue resolution
- Synchronized releases and feature updates across Azure and GCP environments—thanks to the standardized codebase, ensuring consistency while reducing the complexity of managing applications across multiple clouds
- Enhanced security and compliance—using DevSecOps pipelines with quality gates for build, test, and promotion of applications and infrastructure across multi-cloud environments
THE IMPACT
Improving operations, supporting expansion, and accelerating time-to-market
The solution leverages real-time data processing and advanced analytics tools in cloud-native environments, allowing the client to make informed decisions more rapidly, while maintaining robust security and compliance across its entire infrastructure. The engagement also empowers the company to capture greater value from its IoT data, and the embedded DevSecOps practices help the company maintain compliance throughout development and deployment processes to protect sensitive data. The company realized these substantial benefits:
- 100% automated CI/CD pipelines—This functionality removes the risks associated with manual processes and delivers robust, consistent releases across environments. Now, development teams can focus on feature development by eliminating non-productive support activities associated with release management.
- 75% faster incubation of new multi-cloud applications—The new composable architecture, predefined templates, and single unified codebase combined with automation helps the client overcome the rigidity and bottlenecks of its previous IoT analytics platform, accelerating time-to-market of new products and services.
- 40% more efficient release and maintenance processes—The solution eliminates redundant processes, streamlines maintenance workflows, and reduces the client’s overall total cost of ownership. By driving efficient operations, resources are free to focus on feature development and more strategic initiatives.
Does your company need to transform its data analytics platform, or does your company want to implement a multi-cloud, cloud-native strategy simultaneously? Learn how UST can help unlock meaningful insights.
RESOURCES
https://www.ust.com/en/insights/enabling-data-driven-decision-making
https://www.ust.com/en/insights/data-migration-with-metadata-driven-data-interface-mddi