Defence Digital
The Overview
Defence Digital Application Services Dev-Ops Tower (DD ASDT, now Core Enabling Services) required a Private Cloud Hosting solution to host business critical MOD applications within the MOD Core Network.
The requirement needed to replace and modernise a legacy hosting solution that was approaching end of service. The new solution needed to provide a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering, including application migration, deployment and secure access services supporting Remote Desktop Services (RDS).
This solution was to be named the MOD-Connected Platform (MCP).
The Challenge
From contract award, the new hosting environment had to be built, made ready and 18 applications transitioned onto the platform within a 12-week period. Each application needed to be analysed and a technical solution formulated to facilitate the baseline infrastructure required to support the migration within the new environment. The technical solution was project managed from inception to transition to ‘go-live’. Overall, 32 applications utilised the MCP platform during the contracted period.
The Solution
Prolinx delivered the MOD-Connected Platform (MCP) within the Prolinx Assured Cloud. It is scalable and provides a consumption-based ‘pay as you use’ model. Prolinx provision MOD applications on the platform which is a multi-tenant, MOD only PaaS. Alongside virtual machines, storage, network, firewalls, backup and identity management, Prolinx provides Disaster Recovery from 2 UK-Datacentres delivering 99.98% availability. A Service Catalogue is included, where the customer can provision VMs and on-board applications as required. High performance storage along with more economical capacity storage is available, all supported by defined Service Management levels.
The Result
During the transition, all application sets were delivered, and where possible, application servers combined. This generated a significant saving to the MOD on hosting charges. MCP was built and fully operational within the 12-week window and under budget. Users now connect into a high availability, high bandwidth, enterprise grade platform that provides consistent, secure remote access to business critical applications. Prolinx proactively monitor the entire platform and maintain, support and patch systems in the background. New applications can be on-boarded as and when required.
The Benefits
- OPEX model reduces CAPEX and expensive hardware maintenance or refresh
- Consumption model allows Virtual Machines, users and applications to be added or removed on demand, and catalogue allows for transparent costs
- Defined on-boarding and provisioning process allows for smooth, efficient transition of new applications onto the platform