October 7, 2018 at 21:33IaaS for developing services: who and why switched to virtual infrastructure
We already wrote about how IaaS are used by companies from the financial sector and e-commerce , as well as manufacturing organizations . Today we’ll describe how the IaaS provider can help companies involved in application development and system integration of services. / photo NTNU CC
As IBM notes , SAP HANA has a pretty steep learning curve. Therefore, in many companies that want to deploy this ERP solution for themselves, there are no in-house employees who can help with integration. The solution can be the service of SAP hosting in the cloud of the IaaS provider.
We went this way at the MIRBIS business school , implementing a system for managing student enrollment based on SAP solutions in the cloud. It consists of three components: the SAP S / 4HANA 1610 ERP system and the SAP Solution manager and SAP Content server administration utilities.
Backups cannot be stored in the same place with the backup data. There are risks even if the “reserve” lies within the same data center. For example, several years ago, lightning struck a transformer in an Irish data center and completely de-energized it. This affected the performance of a large number of services. In order not to lose data in such an absurd situation, backups should be kept at different remote sites. The IaaS provider is able to help with this.
To work with corporate information, customer data and smart reservations , City-call resorted to working with an IaaS provider. She specializes in integrating contact centers with CRM systems and sites of her customers. A year ago, City-call processed about 350 thousand calls per day, but today this figure has only increased. The virtualized environment in the IT-GRAD cloud acts as a testing ground and backup solution and provides new capabilities for the company's IT projects.
At the same time, IaaS provider is also able to help with backups to integrators. On such a project, we worked with Scorocode , a BaaS (Backend-as-a-service) backup service provider.
In a BaaS-system, all requests of end applications are divided between the corresponding clusters (API, DBMS, files, statistics). API clusters are responsible for the distribution of tasks - they process about 25 thousand hits per second.
Several Scorocode elements “live” at once in the IT-GRAD cloud. The IaaS service is responsible for maintaining the operation of the application user registration service and storing their personal data. Also, under the control of the virtual infrastructure, functions for developers work: a JavaScript code editor and analytical services. All this helps the BaaS service cope with high loads.
IaaS also uses the KUBIT integrator in its work. Last year, they deployed a disaster recovery site for one of their customers.
It was necessary to migrate four portals and associate them with a proprietary CRM-system in PHP. To complicate the task, these portals worked on the old version of MS Dynamics Axapta (it supported Windows 2003). KUBIT decided to leave only two portals, and then deployed the circuit inside the network and in the cloud. This allowed us to save client money and ensure uninterrupted operation of services.
During the tests, it is important that the environment in which the applications are run is as close as possible to the actual operating conditions. So developers can get the most accurate picture of product performance. But reconfiguring your own hardware environment for a large number of services is quite expensive (in terms of money and time).
IaaS through virtualization allows you to quickly raise a new environment without buying additional servers. This opportunity was taken by Spearline Labs, an international company that helps to troubleshoot telephone services, compiles statistics on sound quality, DTMF tones, etc. The virtual test environment allows organizations to evaluate the quality of services in more than fifty countries (including Russia).
Another case is the Speech Technologies company. It uses the virtual infrastructure as a test environment and platform for a number of its developments. One of them is VoiceFabric. The service allows you to synthesize text into speech directly in the browser. Speech processing is carried out in the IT-GRAD cloud, the user only accesses the system via API and receives the result via HTTPS.
The IT infrastructure has many levels, each of which has to be monitored. It is important to monitor the "health" of servers and their components, to control the performance of microservices and database queries. For these purposes, IaaS providers install monitoring systems and help configure them for their clients.
An example is the content company Zed Russia, which develops entertainment and information services for mobile operators. Using IaaS, it scales monitoring services to a large number of applications and estimates the load on virtual machines. The IT-GRAD cloud also contains an SMS payment system, a content delivery system, and company CRM solutions.
Another case: DocsVisionIs a SaaS solution for electronic document management. The development company of this Andok system turned to IaaS, since it was important for her to protect user data.
We deployed a Windows Server OS and a SQL and mail server to the client virtual machine. Then we set up monitoring systems at the data center level and organized additional protection through the built-in VPN. IaaS has reduced the cost of ownership of the product and more effectively control the operation of the electronic document management system.
From store chains to unique SaaS solutions, from large industries and airports to large-scale call centers and small online stores, IaaS solves hundreds of diverse tasks every day. It turns out that for IaaS there is a place in almost every business, and in some companies virtual infrastructure is the "heart" of all work processes.
Deploy SAP HANA
As IBM notes , SAP HANA has a pretty steep learning curve. Therefore, in many companies that want to deploy this ERP solution for themselves, there are no in-house employees who can help with integration. The solution can be the service of SAP hosting in the cloud of the IaaS provider.
We went this way at the MIRBIS business school , implementing a system for managing student enrollment based on SAP solutions in the cloud. It consists of three components: the SAP S / 4HANA 1610 ERP system and the SAP Solution manager and SAP Content server administration utilities.
Set up backup
Backups cannot be stored in the same place with the backup data. There are risks even if the “reserve” lies within the same data center. For example, several years ago, lightning struck a transformer in an Irish data center and completely de-energized it. This affected the performance of a large number of services. In order not to lose data in such an absurd situation, backups should be kept at different remote sites. The IaaS provider is able to help with this.
To work with corporate information, customer data and smart reservations , City-call resorted to working with an IaaS provider. She specializes in integrating contact centers with CRM systems and sites of her customers. A year ago, City-call processed about 350 thousand calls per day, but today this figure has only increased. The virtualized environment in the IT-GRAD cloud acts as a testing ground and backup solution and provides new capabilities for the company's IT projects.
At the same time, IaaS provider is also able to help with backups to integrators. On such a project, we worked with Scorocode , a BaaS (Backend-as-a-service) backup service provider.
In a BaaS-system, all requests of end applications are divided between the corresponding clusters (API, DBMS, files, statistics). API clusters are responsible for the distribution of tasks - they process about 25 thousand hits per second.
Several Scorocode elements “live” at once in the IT-GRAD cloud. The IaaS service is responsible for maintaining the operation of the application user registration service and storing their personal data. Also, under the control of the virtual infrastructure, functions for developers work: a JavaScript code editor and analytical services. All this helps the BaaS service cope with high loads.
IaaS also uses the KUBIT integrator in its work. Last year, they deployed a disaster recovery site for one of their customers.
It was necessary to migrate four portals and associate them with a proprietary CRM-system in PHP. To complicate the task, these portals worked on the old version of MS Dynamics Axapta (it supported Windows 2003). KUBIT decided to leave only two portals, and then deployed the circuit inside the network and in the cloud. This allowed us to save client money and ensure uninterrupted operation of services.
Test applications
During the tests, it is important that the environment in which the applications are run is as close as possible to the actual operating conditions. So developers can get the most accurate picture of product performance. But reconfiguring your own hardware environment for a large number of services is quite expensive (in terms of money and time).
IaaS through virtualization allows you to quickly raise a new environment without buying additional servers. This opportunity was taken by Spearline Labs, an international company that helps to troubleshoot telephone services, compiles statistics on sound quality, DTMF tones, etc. The virtual test environment allows organizations to evaluate the quality of services in more than fifty countries (including Russia).
Another case is the Speech Technologies company. It uses the virtual infrastructure as a test environment and platform for a number of its developments. One of them is VoiceFabric. The service allows you to synthesize text into speech directly in the browser. Speech processing is carried out in the IT-GRAD cloud, the user only accesses the system via API and receives the result via HTTPS.
Monitor load
The IT infrastructure has many levels, each of which has to be monitored. It is important to monitor the "health" of servers and their components, to control the performance of microservices and database queries. For these purposes, IaaS providers install monitoring systems and help configure them for their clients.
An example is the content company Zed Russia, which develops entertainment and information services for mobile operators. Using IaaS, it scales monitoring services to a large number of applications and estimates the load on virtual machines. The IT-GRAD cloud also contains an SMS payment system, a content delivery system, and company CRM solutions.
Another case: DocsVisionIs a SaaS solution for electronic document management. The development company of this Andok system turned to IaaS, since it was important for her to protect user data.
We deployed a Windows Server OS and a SQL and mail server to the client virtual machine. Then we set up monitoring systems at the data center level and organized additional protection through the built-in VPN. IaaS has reduced the cost of ownership of the product and more effectively control the operation of the electronic document management system.
From store chains to unique SaaS solutions, from large industries and airports to large-scale call centers and small online stores, IaaS solves hundreds of diverse tasks every day. It turns out that for IaaS there is a place in almost every business, and in some companies virtual infrastructure is the "heart" of all work processes.