Client story Investment Management Company Adopts Modern IT Operations by Bringing Governance To Its Hybrid Multicloud Strategy
By Insight Editor / 26 Sep 2020 / Topics: Cloud Data center IT modernization
Facts at a glance
Client industry
Financial services
Insight provided:
- Strategic guidance on cloud, automation and container strategy
- Advice on laying the foundation for DevOps
- In-depth financial modeling for best-case use of Red Hat products
Insight services:
- Consulting services
Outcomes:
Download the client story
- Greater insight into current Red Hat environment
- Improved governance and controls of Red Hat consumption
- Cost-effective, value-added blend of subscription and services
- 3-year roadmap for consumption with scenarios, optimized for costs
- Ability to implement and grow a DevOps practice
- Readiness to scale without financial surprises
The client
For nearly a century, our client has provided trusted financial and investment services, as well as dozens of financial products to individuals and businesses. Today, the organization manages trillions of dollars in assets and employs more than 7,500 people across the country.
The challenge: Large, unscrutinized Red Hat investment with potentially underutilized tools
The company was on a hybrid multicloud journey and focused on building a container architecture. It needed the right technologies to enable this transformation, as well as the right governance to ensure cost control, security, compliance and ease of management.
As part of this strategy, the company was making multimillion-dollar investments each year to Red Hat® subscriptions. The client appreciated the security, scalability and reliability of Red Hat products and how the open source solutions supported the company’s modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
Due to the size of its Red Hat investment, however, the organization was effectively looking for a partner and advocate who could evaluate its Red Hat commitments and identify opportunities for financial and technical optimizations that aligned with its business and IT strategy, as well as with compliance and industry standard requirements.
The solution: Strategic organizational support, expert forecasting and ongoing program oversight
Over the course of a year, our team met with the client for biweekly conversations around cloud, hybrid cloud, DevOps and modernization strategies. We also engaged with Red Hat to foster a deeper relationship with the organization. These meetings were the bedrock for trusted relationships that put Insight in the position of representing our client’s interests when working through licensing with Red Hat.
Fundamentally, the client wanted to achieve the optimal licensing strategy to support a cloud consumption model, paying only for the licensing used, versus being obligated on a set limit. Although elasticity is a core feature of cloud, Red Hat’s model did not conform to this. To bridge this gap, our team built a robust financial model that detailed:
- The client’s current Red Hat footprint
- A three-year, annual Red Hat product consumption growth path
- Scenarios for remixing licensing between products in ways that would be most cost-effective
Of course, none of these efforts are worth it without adoption — a license that isn’t being used won’t offer a great return on investment. Insight is providing critical program management and oversight of Red Hat services (Linux®, Ansible® and OpenShift® Container Platform (OCP)) delivery to ensure consistent alignment between Red Hat and the client’s strategy.
The company also wanted to make sure it was evolving its culture for DevOps and cloud through modern IT operations. Thus, we recommended services over an 18-month period that would support these goals through effective utilization of automation and container tool sets.
The benefits: An optimized and managed Red Hat program built to stand the test of time
The client is now better positioned to leverage its technology investment in Red Hat and containers, using additional services and a larger footprint to support an overall cloud transformation journey.
The client’s developers can create modern solutions while the business retains proper governance and controls. We’ve helped the company fully automate infrastructure provisioning into its CICD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) pipeline. If and when the client needs to scale or make adjustments, documented roadmaps provide guidance on how to achieve such changes without incurring unanticipated costs or requirements. The company has also secured a reliable partner in Insight for continued support with key strategic IT initiatives.
