IT Infrastructure Solutions for Energy Industry

Client Information

The client is one of the leading municipally-owned energy and natural gas providers. With an experience spanning more than 150 years, it has been providing efficient electricity solutions and is a part of social causes that cater to the society in general, the education, employment, and the oil and natural gas sectors. The client has serviced about 100,000 electric customers and close to 350,000 natural gas customers.

Client Requirements

As part of the client requirement, Veritis team of IT Infra experts are involved in an ongoing new project “myID2” with the objective of deploying new applications such as SAP Hana, IBM WAS, and others. Being part of the build team, our team’s primary task is to customize Linux servers as per the application requirement and support all activity related to the build until it is deployed into the production stage.

Additionally, our client requirement also includes a reduction of two of the four available data centers. Veritis personnel is assisting the client by migrating the existing systems to the remaining data centers. Veritis is also taking up and resolving tickets for the Dev and Prod environments.

Challenges Faced by the Client

1) Shortage of Resources for the Server Build Team

The client was experiencing a resource shortage within their Build team, leading to delays in server build projects. This resulted in neglected server tasks and a backlog of support activities, which delayed the deployment of crucial applications.

2) Complex Customization of Linux Servers

The client needed to customize Linux servers to support deploying new applications such as SAP Hana and IBM WAS. Due to the complexity and technical specifications involved, ensuring these servers were built to meet specific application requirements posed a challenge.

3) Data Center Consolidation and Migration

The client required reducing the number of data centers from four to two, which involved migrating existing systems to the remaining data centers. This large-scale migration presented challenges in minimizing disruptions and ensuring a smooth application and system transition.

4) Ongoing Support for Development and Production Environments

The client needed ongoing IT support to resolve tickets related to the development, quality assurance, and production environments. These tasks required continuous monitoring and prompt issue resolution to maintain smooth operations.

Solutions Provided by Veritis

1) Resource Augmentation for Server Build Team

Veritis provided the necessary expertise and personnel to support the client’s Build team. This ensured that server builds and related support activities resumed at the required pace, enabling the client to move forward with critical projects without further delays.

2) Customization of Linux Servers for Application Deployment

Veritis customized Linux servers (primarily Red Hat and Ubuntu) to meet the requirements of the client’s new applications, such as SAP Hana and IBM WAS. Our team installed and configured necessary components, including Oracle ASM disks and Java, ensuring the servers were fully prepared for deployment.

3) Seamless Data Center Migration

Veritis supported migrating the client’s systems to the remaining two data centers. Our team ensured the migration was conducted with minimal downtime, maintaining the integrity and performance of the client’s applications during the transition.

4) Comprehensive Support for Dev, QA, and Production Environments

Veritis provided continuous support by resolving tickets and handling issues related to the client’s Development, QA, and Production environments. Using tools like Cherwell Service Management, our team ensured efficient ticket resolution and provided ongoing support until each server was fully deployed in production.

Veritis Approach

Veritis team of experts are overseeing infrastructure customization and maintenance, which includes tailoring Linux servers to implement database management applications into the system and supporting build-related activity until deployment.

Key Responsibilities Held

The following are the key responsibilities being held by our experts:

• Assisting in gathering requirements for server builds
• Building Linux (mainly Red Hat, Ubuntu) as per the requirements
• Installing and configuring necessary applications and components (Some of which are configuring oracle ASM disks for Oracle server, configuring JAVA, Splunk, etc.)
• Providing all the required support after the server is handed to the application team
• Extending continuous support until the server is being utilized by the application team and deployed in the production environment
• Working on assigned service tickets, which may be related to Dev, QA and Prod environments

Environments Used

Main Tools include VMware, vCenter for server builds, Cherwell Service Management for service tickets, Red Hat Satellite Server and Infoblox.

Value Delivered

Veritis team of IT Infra experts are actively involved in customizing the IT framework to introduce the database applications and oversee migration works. The team is also assisting in servicing tickets raised by Dev and Prod environments. Overall, Veritis is offering a full-fledged client IT Infrastructure services support to the client.