The company wanted to move its applications to the cloud as part of its transformation. It required a robust and secure connectivity platform from digital workspaces to cloud-based applications to support its global workforce. At the same time, it wanted to simplify its IT ecosystem partner landscape to operate more efficiently.
Challenge in managing a multi-vendor environment
The multinational was finding it a challenge working with many vendors in its IT estate and was looking to streamline to a handful of trusted, strategic partners that could help it become more agile and reach its business goals. Orange Business was selected to support its IT teams with its enhanced cloud networking capabilities.
At the same time, the company wanted guidance in putting an infrastructure in place to support a cloud-first strategy going forward to overcome performance issues it had.
The multinational was also looking at cost efficiencies and how it could move from a legacy to a digitally-based company and incorporate acquisitions and new business opportunities into its IT scope.
Connecting to the cloud
The solution began with a Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN, a cloud-based SD-WAN that provides a suite of Azure connectivity, routing and security services. Azure Virtual WAN has also been designed to interconnect with secure access service edge (SASE) technologies and services.
The multinational hosted its SAP enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations across three global Azure regions. Due to the complexity of implementing native Azure networking and security functions, IT teams had hit a roadblock and were experiencing performance and productivity issues.
Long-term partner Orange Business provided cloud networking support to create a solution that would deliver on scalability, cost reduction and accelerated time to market.
Removing the complexity
Unlike traditional networking architectures, cloud networking is designed to be cloud native. It has been created to deliver scalability and simplicity via infrastructure-as-code (IaC) automation and multicloud visibility, which maximizes both uptime and the quality of the user experience.
Interdependencies between clouds, the network and cybersecurity inevitably create complexity. To combat this, Orange Business developed the Evolution Platform methodology, which goes beyond technical building blocks, creating an agile, open and composable platform, simplifying cloud connectivity and automation. Evolution Platform played an essential role in the design of the multinational’s infrastructure.
Aligning cloud strategy with the business roadmap
Orange Business has worked with its close partner Microsoft to ensure that Azure Virtual WAN aligns with the multinational’s objectives. This has enabled robust, secure cloud connectivity, seamless performance to its SAP solution across the globe and improved maintenance capabilities.
The Orange team of experts assessed the deployment and found flaws in the design, which it could correct. To help minimize the complexity and increase agility, network and security configurations were automated on Azure vWAN components.
Zscaler Secure Internet Access was integrated into the environment to help combat cyberattacks and data loss. As a fully cloud-delivered SaaS solution, new capabilities can be added in without any additional hardware or lengthy deployment cycles. Through URL filtering, the company can also limit exposure to liability by actively managing access to web content based on a site’s categorization.
Cloud-enabled business transformation
The move has enabled the multinational to connect, protect and innovate within its IT ecosystem in the best way possible.
As well as infrastructure flexibility, simplified operations and avoidance of technical debt, the move has enabled the multinational to refocus its internal resources and transform to meet its business outcomes.