Dockerizing Cloud Blue PSA
London-based business, Cloud Blue PSA (formerly HarmonyPSA), approached Philo for help with getting their application container-ready. With their current hosting model using hundreds of virtual machines, administrators had a huge job on their hands keeping up with updates and maintenance. Containerization was the way forward to get everything stored on one virtual machine.
Date:
June 2021
Technologies Utilised
windows, azure, kubernetes, aks, docker
Challenge / Strategy
Cloud Blue PSA’s challenge was the fact that their existing hosting model was no longer keeping up with the increasing demand and growth of their customers. Philo’s challenge was to take these mature applications (.net 3) and progress them to .net 5 so they could be better integrated into the Kubernetes hosting model. This needed to be done without disrupting existing frameworks and the flow of business.
Philo’s Solutions
Working with Cloud Blue PSA’s lead developer, Philo was able to dockerize the existing application and reconfigure it for Docker so they were ready to run in a Kubernetes Cluster. The needs of the business and customers were taken into consideration throughout each step and all new data was set up in a way that it was able to smoothly transition to the new hosting model. Philo also trained the team of developers so that they would know how to work with Kubernetes in the transition.
Outcome
With the work complete, Cloud Blue PSA was able to transition over to a newly automated network. There were a number of obvious benefits from doing this including the reduction in time and money spent on monitoring over 1000 systems. With them all sitting on the new Kubernese hosting model it meant an improved, standardised approach to the security and auditing infrastructure. Now, if one container detects a threat it can be simply deleted without affecting any other data. That container can then be re-built using a clean slate and with all issues eliminated. Blanket updates can also be rolled out and monitored with ease.
