Google Cloud Platform Infrastructure

Executive Overview:

Converge led the design and implementation of a multi-cloud environment to facilitate the POC. Establishing a secure cloud foundation in GCP, connectivity between AWS and GCP as well as GCP and the customer’s on-premises data centers.

The Challenge:

CIO directive to exit the datacenter and move 100% of workload to the “cloud”. We assisted the client with a POC of IBM Power on Google Cloud helping to plan, migrate and test a variety of LPAR/workloads into GCP.

Converge Solution:

The long-term solution would have been to migrate an initial 82 LPAR’s of AIX which make up the clients Non-Production environment from on-premise to GCP. The client did also review and evaluate Power on IBM Cloud concurrently.

The Result:

The client continues to run some of the POC workload and additional small instances in GCP. This was a great example leveraging the IBM Power on GCP capabilities to support the client’s move out of the data center and into the cloud.

Executive Overview:

Google brought Converge Technology Solutions into this deal as an option for the software client. Converge was able to show our value and expertise to gain their business by building a phased migration plan to transfer a warehouse management system to the Power Cloud aided by IBM.

The Challenge:

The software client needed assistance with one of their customers, a national grocery company. The grocer uses a specific warehouse management system that runs on IBM AIX that needed to be moved to the cloud. We were selected amongst a number of partners due to our extensive skills on the IBM Power Platform and integration capabilities of Power to GCP.

Converge Solution:

The Converge team built a phased migration plan to transfer the grocery company’s warehouse management system to the Power Cloud aided by IBM. Converge also built and deployed the Landing Zone, so that grocer could operate their servers in the cloud.

The Result:

Converge is deploying additional phases of the project and has a monthly managed service contract in place. Converge has built a great relationship with the software and grocery companies’ teams that has the potential to bring in more GCP consumption.

Executive Overview:

A global corporate trade company needed to improve their media buy process. Converge Technology Solutions wrote and migrated a custom suite of intelligent Machine Learning applications that allows the client to automate optimized media buys.

The Challenge:

The company offers advertisers cost-effective national coverage at aggregated local rates. Their buying team runs multiple scenarios to meet customers’ specific criteria. Speed of execution, turn-around time, and operational costs are paramount to client’s business. As their business grew, they needed a better way to plan and make their media buys.

Converge Solution:

Converge migrated several Machine Learning algorithms to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and deployed them across clusters of GKE instances, Google’s Kubernetes cloud services. Converge data scientists optimized several machine learning models, deployed on GCP using a genetic algorithm configuration for maximum insight. This migration directly addressed the client’s challenges.

The Result:

With the custom-built Machine Learning programs, the client increased what-if scenario computation from two per day to over 200, ultimately increasing productivity and profits. Their switch to GCP resulted in significant operation cost savings of more than five times what they would have seen with their previous platform. Cost per prediction were reduced by 5x as a result.

Executive Overview:

Converge and Palo Alto Networks worked with a global ride-hailing company to propose a solution to provide them support on remaining Firewall estate while getting them into an ELA/ESA on their new backbone environment.

The Challenge:

The client’s challenge was optimizing their massive PAN estate and figuring out how to best accommodate keeping the decommissioned, smaller FWs at their offices under support while migrating to the larger FWs in the new backbone data centers. All of this needed to be done while being cost-effective with increased security challenges and new associated licensing. Converge recommend using GCP Marketplace.

Converge Solution:

The solution provided the company’s Procurement and Finance teams predictable OPEX pricing over the next three years while they expand and deploy their new environment. Converge was also able to recommend using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace as the procurement vehicle to execute this ELA/ESA.

The Result:

By taking advantage of the GCP Marketplace as the procurement vehicle for this ELA/ESA, the client was able to see a substantial benefit to their proposal. GCP provided additional PAN support services in the deal.

The Challenge:

A multinational enterprise software company needed assistance moving a customer’s warehouse management system running on IBM AIX to the cloud. We were selected amongst a number of partners due to our extensive skills on the IBM Power Platform and integration capabilities of Power to GCP. Additionally, they wanted to build IBM Spectrum Protect on GCE to backup the Power environment on GCP. To start the buildout on GCP, we need to provision a landing zone including network, IAM, jump host, and proxy host.

Converge Solution:

The Converge team identified HashiCorp Terraform Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool to provision the landing zone. The Terraform scripts were developed by Converge DevOps engineers and version controlled in Gitlab. The Terraform scripts were used to deploy the landing zone per client requirements with speed, accuracy, consistency, and auditability.

The Result:

Converge used Terraform to automate the creation of the landing zone and speeded up IBM AIX migration and GCE buildout. In addition, it improved the maintainability of the environment and reduced the time to restore/reproduce the environment in case of disaster recovery.