“The symbiosis of our IT team and Mainstream as an external partner is the key to a successful project. Relying on Mainstream not only relieved internal resources but also ensured knowledge sharing and continuous support for security enhancement, ad-hoc problem solving, and 24/7 infrastructure monitoring.”
As a future-oriented business, Fashion Company continuously invests in the development of internal IT staff and digital initiatives, including the Fashion&Friends online store launched in 2018 and its namesake app. For its application solutions, the company relies on Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) software in key business segments, from sales tracking to inventory management. This software, along with other applications like Document Management System (DMS), was hosted in an internal data centre.
When it was time to replace the existing IT equipment, the company’s management decided to explore an alternative – migration to a cloud environment. This technology was not new for the retail leader; their Fashion&Friends e-commerce was already hosted in the cloud.
“In the context of core business applications, moving to the cloud was a logical option,” explains Dušan Brdar, IT Director, Fashion Company.
After evaluating various options, including public cloud platforms, Fashion Company decided to engage Mainstream for the project. Mainstream Enterprise Cloud, which was offered as part of our Management Environment service, was chosen for hosting its ERP and accompanying applications.
“Mainstream stood out as the best partner for several reasons: we have a history of successful collaboration; they offered us a custom setup within the Enterprise Cloud platform and are providing us local support. For me personally, besides technological expertise and quality of service, the key factor in choosing a partner is teamwork. In other words, a partner should be an extension of our internal resources – someone can rely on to provide continuous support.”
In line with Fashion Company’s goals, Mainstream Enterprise Cloud provides guaranteed resources in an isolated environment that can be easily scaled up or down as needed. The platform is designed for high availability and allows the client to accelerate new digital initiatives, such as a Disaster Recovery solttion, without capital investments in building a secondary location.
A detailed migration approach was created in agreement with the client’s internal team for the transition to the new environment. Most services, including the ERP solution, were built on Mainstream Cloud from scratch, while the lift & shift approach was identified and utilized for four applications.
Based on a detailed analysis, Mainstream experts created a personalized setup with a specific network topology for communication between the Fashion Company HQ and the Mainstream data center.
A total of 27 new virtual machines were built, of which 23 were created from scratch within 10 days. Additionally, at the client’s request, all production databases were migrated overnight with zero downtime.
The project required a wide range of technical expertise; Mainstream’s team included a network architect, network engineer, cloud engineer, windows system engineer, database expert, and system architect, while the client’s team consisted of a senior system administrator, development manager, and service level manager with their teams.
In addition to the migration itself and post-migration support, Mainstream took over the complete 24/7 infrastructure monitoring and system maintenance up to the application level, thereby relieving the client’s internal resources. As part of the Managed Environment service, Mainstream experts maintain regular communication with the Fashion Company’s IT team, provide recommendations for improving security and inform the team about resource usage and scaling needs.
New Steps in Collaboration
Following the successful application migration, Fashion Company will continue its cloud journey with Mainstream support by implementing a Disaster Recovery solution on the Enterprise Cloud platform. According to Dušan Brdar, other joint projects are also planned, including optimisation of a transactional system.
“We have many improvements ahead, and based on our collaboration so far, I believe that we will solve all the challenges on the way quickly and efficiently. We are a business that doesn’t stand still, constantly growing and looking for ways to be even better, even more efficient. We are focused on the future and working with partners who will support our development. We have found such a partner in Mainstream.”
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