The Challenge
Ströer needed a solution to reduce the cost of managing applications in house. Their previous application was hosted and managed in-house, generating substantial (relative) hosting and maintenance cost. There also weren’t resources readily available in-house for the application, for example through refactoring and introducing a SQL cluster.
The Solution
The solution utilises the high availability design strategies that AWS allows you to build upon. The system is a two tier solution that spans across two availability zones (AZ) within the Frankfurt region. It is designed so that one availability zone is able to handle requests at all times, with a backup being available if one AZ is experiencing outage.
To achieve this, a combination of various solutions was utilised such as AWS Route53, AWS Load Balancers, Microsoft Active Directory, and Microsoft AlwaysOn AvailabilityGroup cluster just to name a few. Because of AWS’ Managed Services such as AWS VPN Connections and AWS Load Balancers, Ströer and Cloudreach were quickly able to create a solution that was highly available and accessible both internally to the organisation and publicly via the internet.
Because all infrastructure deployments were accomplished by usage of AWS CloudFormation, this allowed Ströer to create highly consistent and replicable environments that are not only version controlled, but mitigated against technical drift. AWS’ KMS service allowed Ströer to easily create a solution that implemented data encryption at rest with ease, without worrying about it’s impact on the application level.
“Ströer needed a solution to enable business-critical applications to evolve to quickly changing business and resource requirements. AWS Services fitted the bill perfectly. We chose Cloudreach as a partner due to their status as a leader in Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting according to Gartner as well as their personal touch they provide in all areas.”
Lars Reimann, Senior System Operations Manager
The Outcome
- Increased availability of applications – After migration from on-site to AWS Cloud, the availability of Ströer’s applications increased from 98% to 100% within 6 months. Ströer are confident that this KPI will stay close to 100%.
- Improved security – The Cloud Developers from Cloudreach implemented a high security standard which is constantly reviewed. The physical security was also tackled with the move to a public cloud provider.
- Rose the bar for email delivery – Prior to the project, Ströer had issues with rejected customer emails. By embracing SES, they are now at a stable 0% reject rate.
Refined the cloud adoption plan – Cloudreach have helped shape a cloud adoption plan by enabling consolidation of AWS assets throughout the several Ströer subsidiaries and positioning those assets in a long term strategy.
About Ströer
Ströer is a leading digital multi-channel media company and offers advertising customers individualized and fully integrated end-to-end solutions along the entire marketing and sales value chain. Ströer’s strategic goal is to be Germany’s most customer-oriented media company.
Ströer is a leading digital multi-channel media company and offers advertising customers individualized and fully integrated end-to-end solutions along the entire marketing and sales value chain.