Riding on a very successful Datacenter Virtualisation initiative, Deployment of an Enterprise-grade Kubernetes Platform for Modern Applications was on the next agenda.

5 DevOps Components Deployed	1 Private Cloud Environment with Orchestration	100+ Training Hours Conducted

Background

As one of the largest digital telecommunications and connectivity service providers in the country, the Client already had a dynamic team that came from different IT functions - each team architected, developed and deployed applications differently. In recent years. the Client also had also successfully completed an implementation of a Sofware Defined Datacenter (SDDC) with self-service capabilities a strong governance process put in place.

To leverage the potential of their success, as part of a Digital Transformation initiative, the next step was to extend the private cloud services by introducing a common enterprise-grade Kubernetes based platform capable of running modern applications to provide opportunity for their developers to explore application modernisation; and to harmonise and improve the process of application deployment.

The Journey

Virtuosity's original scope of engagement was to design and implement a Kubernetes platform capable of deploying modern applications to the client's private cloud. Upon a successful deployment, the next steps were to ensure each team could utilise the common platform for their applications. As there were some teams that were at a different application development maturity stage, Virtuosity took the extra step to advice and introduce basic DevOps tools i.e. CI/CD, logging; etc.; and processes into their application development.

The final step in the journey was a verification of the platform. Our definition of verification would be, not only that the platform technically functioned, but that the client would be able to experience and operate the platform independently. This was achieved with our ADIL (A-Day-in-Life) methodology by onboarding a couple of critical applications for the client to experience the process. This was done successfully and the client has been operating the platform on their own with minimum support from Virtuosity.

Today, the Kubernetes platform has become the mainstream platform for the Client and they have adopted a "Kubernetes-first" policy for all application development. This translates to the fact that the Client is very serious in their Application Modernisation movement but more importantly, they are comfortable with the technology and process put in place.

Client and Virtuosity are moving forward towards enhancing the DevOps process, including exploring new ways of doing application DR, and introducing more DevOps tools to promote standarisation, efficiency in their software development process. New tools and improved processes will provide great potential to develop powerful mission critical applications.