The Doppler Quarterly Fall 2019 | Page 74

Kleinschmidt first started working with HPE in October 2018. It had selected the Microsoft Azure public cloud plat- form, in part because of Microsoft’s strong B2B messaging product portfolio and native integration capabilities. But as the company had not yet pursued any tangible public cloud initiatives, Kleinschmidt needed HPE to onboard it to Azure. This included extending its existing cutting-edge transac- tional processing logic into the cloud, as well as establishing a sustainable hybrid cloud that would take advantage of future cloud-based technology innovations, while maintain- ing the robust processing power of the HPE NonStop ecosystem. Laying the Groundwork To lay the groundwork for a four-phase cloud enablement plan, HPE worked with Kleinschmidt on some introductory issues. A team of six started with a round of discovery ses- sions. They met with IT staff to understand the technical facets of the existing NonStop processing architecture, so HPE could translate the on-premises processing and mes- saging operations to the cloud. Next, the team set up all the subscriptions, then moved on to implement the PaaS active directory, security and monitoring. The team used native Azure PaaS components – rather than infrastructure as a service (IaaS) elements – to allow for easier management and scaling. Conducting the project in four phases enabled the team to manage the transition of technical know-how to the cloud, and operationalize it. It also reduced risk. Kleinschmidt’s NonStop processing platform has been developed, refined and iterated over three decades. Along the way, custom software and a cutting-edge logic engine added a complex web of dependencies to account for. Shifting resources in chunks and repeatedly testing capabilities in a phased approach avoided disruptions in ongoing operations. In the first phase, the team implemented a system that exe- cuted transactions between one customer and one trading partner. HPE developed specific web services for just a few transactions – working in the development environment first and then creating a template for expanding into other segments. Second, HPE introduced web-based authentication and authorization through the use of an Okta cloud identity and access management platform. The team also administered connections to trading partners from the back end–creat- ing one-to-many connections for widespread cloud-based data exchange. Conducting the project in four phases enabled the team to manage the transition of technical know-how to the cloud, and operationalize it. It also reduced risk. 72 | THE DOPPLER | FALL 2019 2019