Background: Germany’s largest telecommunications carrier undertook an ambitious project to consolidate and modernize its IT infrastructure. The project required merging different headquarters in Munich, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, each with a distinct history and a diverse landscape of operating systems, procedures, standards, and setups. The primary objective was to standardize these disparate systems and evolve towards a unified standard.
During our tenure, the client decided to outsource all IT operations to a leading global IT services provider specializing in digital transformation, infrastructure, and business processes. Our team rapidly adapted to the new requirements and assisted the client in successfully performing the necessary actions.
Project Objectives:
- Consolidate IT infrastructure across different headquarters with diverse systems.
- Establish a unified standard for operating systems, procedures, and setups.
- Support both bare metal and virtual machines (VMs) in the infrastructure.
- Set up networks, Superdome X partitions, and manage operating systems and applications.
- Assist in the outsourcing process, including designing and blueprinting, as well as lift-and-shift strategies.
Tools and Technologies Used:
- Configuration Management: Puppet, Ansible
- System Management: Red Hat Satellite, Red Hat Identity Management, Satellite Capsules
- Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) (multiple versions)
- Hardware: HPE ProLiant Servers, Superdome X servers on RHEL, VMware
- Virtualization: VMs from different vendors, addressing multi-cloud in the form of several private VM clouds
Project Execution: The project began with the goal of consolidating IT infrastructure across multiple headquarters, each with its own unique systems and standards. The team employed Red Hat Satellite and Puppet to manage and standardize configurations across these diverse environments.
One of the most challenging tasks was to consolidate the varying standards and gradually evolve to a common standard. The team meticulously captured the existing system configurations and transitioned to a centralized configuration management system. They defined and implemented new processes to match the unified methodology, ensuring consistency and efficiency across the board.
The project involved both bare metal and virtual machines (VMs), including notable hardware such as Superdome X servers. The team was tasked with setting up networks, Superdome partitions, the operating system (RHEL), and the mediation application running on them. Additionally, many Unix and non-RHEL payloads were migrated to RHEL, further streamlining the infrastructure.
As the client decided to outsource all IT operations to a leading global IT services provider, our team adapted rapidly to the new requirements. We assisted in the outsourcing process with engineering, architecture, interim management, and more. This included designing and blueprinting, as well as lift-and-shift strategies to move the payloads to the new datacenter of the outsourcing partner.
The team size included a permanent dedicated engineer/architect over 24 months, assisted by two other engineers who rotated duties.
Challenges:
- Consolidating different IT standards and setups across multiple headquarters.
- Ensuring high availability and redundancy with multiple Satellite Capsules.
- Managing both bare metal and VMs from different vendors due to historical reasons, addressing multi-cloud in the form of several private VM clouds.
- Setting up networks, Superdome partitions, and managing RHEL and mediation applications.
- Migrating Unix and non-RHEL payloads to RHEL.
- Adapting to the client’s decision to outsource IT operations and assisting in the transition.
Solutions and Innovations:
- Implementing inclusive and generic configuration management standards.
- Using custom scripts and automation techniques to standardize configurations.
- Ensuring redundancy and high availability through more than 10 Satellite Capsules.
- Emphasizing automation and fast VM creation.
- Defining and implementing processes to match the new centralized configuration management methodology.
- Designing and blueprinting, as well as lift-and-shift strategies for the outsourcing transition.
Outcomes and Benefits:
- Improved system performance and reliability.
- Reduced maintenance costs through automation and efficient management.
- Streamlined maintenance processes and standardized configurations across different RHEL versions.
- Successful transition to a centralized configuration management system, enhancing overall efficiency.
- Enabled the operations team to provide a service catalogue with services that could be performed in a fraction of the time it took before the project.
- Smooth transition of IT operations to the outsourcing partner, ensuring continuity and efficiency.
Lessons Learned:
- The importance of inclusive and generic configuration management standards for handling multiple systems.
- The need for effective collaboration between teams to ensure seamless project execution.
- The adaptability required to support clients’ evolving needs, such as transitioning to outsourcing.
Conclusion: The project to consolidate and modernize the IT infrastructure for Germany’s largest telecommunications carrier was a significant success. Through meticulous planning, innovative solutions, and seamless collaboration, the team achieved high availability, standardized configurations, and enhanced operational efficiency. The transition to a centralized configuration management system significantly reduced maintenance costs and enabled the operations team to deliver services in a fraction of the time. Additionally, the team’s rapid adaptation to the client’s decision to outsource IT operations ensured a smooth transition, setting a benchmark for managing complex IT infrastructures.