Customer Profile
Customer
Rand Water
Country
Republic of South Africa
Industry
Utility Services – Water
Organisation Size
400 Employees
Software and Services
– Microsoft Azure
– Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
– SUSE Linux
– Windows Server
– Microsoft Azure Backup
– SAP on Azure
Customer Challenge
The customer was looking for a scalable and secure cloud platform to deploy their new production environment within an extremely short timeframe. The aim with the solution was to provide primary services within the cloud and the QA and DR deployments to remain on-premise.
Key criteria specified by the customer for the solution:
- Local to South Africa
- Able to meet current system needs while being scalable for future growth
- Enabled with security to protect company data
- At an affordable price
The Answer
Gijima with Microsoft assisted in the design and deployment of a scalable cloud solution to host the required SAP environment which adheres to both SAP and Microsoft best practices for SAP on Azure. The following technologies were selected for the components of the solution;
- Azure SAP Virtual Machines
- Azure Storage Account
- Azure Backup
- Azure Defender (Security Center)
The process was started with workshops to understand the exact requirements to allow for action in the shortest possible time. The architecture and governance documents as well as the environment designs were the outcome of these technical and business sessions.
Outcome
The Azure environment was deployed the South African datacentres which allow for the data to stay in-country and to be covered by South Africa’s data governance and protection laws.
The servers have been sized to deliver optimum performance while staying within budgeted amounts. They have been deployed using technology to keep the latency between the servers as low as possible to enhance the user experience and system operation.
Rand Water’s Azure subscription has been enabled with a next-generation security component which provides a single pane of glass view for security-related risks and awareness. This includes validating that the servers are up-to-date in terms of patches but also to make sure that the selected relevant regulatory policies are being adhered to.
Reserved Instances have been purchased on the servers so that large savings (up to 80%) on the compute costs are enabled of the servers.
Rand Water Stakeholder Petronella Singo: “The process of implementing the solution was made very easy by Gijima as they understand the solution very well.
Rand Water enjoyed several sessions of Gijima transferring of skills of the new environment, even when Rand Water did not have the understanding of the knowledge and skill required, Gijima ensured that the Rand Water team was empowered.
Jason was committed all the way and made sure that Rand Water is not exposed to any financial risks. It was wonderful working with Gijima.”
This customer story underlines Gijima’s ability to successfully execute on Azure and SAP engagements, providing true value to our customers.
Contact Gijima for any further information on how we can assist you in your digital journey