Case Study: Transition To Open-source Cloud Solution

Background

A large U.S. Government Security Agency was experiencing significant delays and excessive program costs associated with using the Data Centers 1 and 2 for their IT infrastructure. Overall costs associated with program resources, times to provision, management control, and numerous IT management-related challenges significantly affected the CIO organization’s ability to effectively deliver responsive and consistent services to mission customers.

The inability to manage the competing demands of scope, schedule, and budget was mainly due to factors outside the control of the OCIO. Updates to the existing systems proved to be costly, and any discernible changes would take several months to execute. Due to the limited operational capabilities of the Data Center setup, the agency employed the services of Simple Technology Solutions to develop a robust Cloud Solution that will be compatible with both AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Solution

Simple Technology Solutions implemented a custom-tailored GSS solution to fit the unique requirements of the client. Drawing on years of experience leading the “Infrastructure as Code” (IaC) movement, STS developed an AWS/Azure proof of concept (POC) to transition the Data Center 1 and 2 environments to a faster, more reliable cloud setup.

Our engineers automated the design/build of the new cloud infrastructure solution via the development of Cloud Formation Templates (CFT). This allowed for dynamically spinning up new virtual machines and whole fully intact IT environments configured to accepted GSS specifications. The STS solution produced a repeatable process in a fully-automated Development environment. The final result? Secure, fully functional “GSS in the Cloud” solution that stands up IT environments in minutes instead of weeks.

Benefit

The introduction of IaC into the client’s IT environment makes it possible to rapidly and easily change their existing system configuration in a safe and reliable manner. Simple Technology Solutions engineers used code to automate the process of setting up and configuring a virtual system, generating a fast and repeatable solution for replicating the process. Now, the client, will only have to build the virtual environment once and repeat the process of generating a virtual server by simply running the same code. Streamlining the process garnered significant savings in both time and resources.

Simple Technology Solutions generated a fast and repeatable solution for replicating the process for future use.

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Though the need for cloud security is clear, many agencies don’t have the necessary skill sets in-house to deal with sophisticated, constantly evolving threats. Learn more on how you can best prepare your agency’s security by downloading the Guide to Achieving Cloud Security for Federal Agency.