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Success story
MD: story of organic and solid growth.
Deda Cloud included the analysis of existing infrastructure, identifying the most suitable type of Cloud to be implemented by the customer.
MD is one of the most dynamic players in Italian retail, a business that runs fast, always on, geographically distributed and among the Italian pioneers also in e-commerce, with a portal dedicated to non-food.
One of the challenges it faces every day is to guarantee its services and the continuous distribution of products with highly innovative technological solutions.
Turnover 2020
2.9 bn
Employees
~8.000
Points of sale
800
THE CLIENT.
He has been depicting Italian beauty and courage since 1994. Founded in 1994 by entrepreneur Patrizio Podini, it has a history that truly depicts Italian beauty and courage and today represents the third largest discount store network in Italy.
Distributed throughout the country, including the islands, it has reached with its stores even the most difficult territories in terms of networking and logistics.
Distributed throughout the country, including the islands, it has reached with its stores even the most difficult territories in terms of networking and logistics.
Since its inception, it has developed its distribution network in two macro areas, northern and southern Italy, initially growing very rapidly in the south, and following the 2013 acquisition of LD Market, in the north as well.
In this increasingly business growth-oriented environment, the need to ensure seamless
a connection between the market and logistics, because the continuous processing of data flows is increasingly a key element in the control and operability of the various facilities.
MD wants to use technology to improve and enhance its efficiency and thus play a social role in a supply chain that ideally unites producers, suppliers and customers throughout Italy.
MD wants to use technology to improve and enhance its efficiency and thus play a social role in a supply chain that ideally unites producers, suppliers and customers throughout Italy.
Evolution
Launch of Managed Services for IT infrastructure management following the merger and incorporation of the Lombardini Discount (LD) chain-which will double the number of stores in the territory. A process that left the client’s resources free to take care of the point-of-sale integration with the transfer of data from LD’s Mersy ERP to the Linfa system in MD.
Migration of the operating environment to the Rome Data Center with retention of the Gricignano facilities as the second Plant. Expansion of IT infrastructure and initiation of Business Intelligence project to govern active outlets throughout the country.
Networking development of CeDi’s to connect with more peripheral branches (e.g., Macomer- NU) with the start of the experience, still active today, on Emisphere wired antennas Launch of the first SAP project on IaaS delivered in Deda Cloud Data Centers.
Expansion of infrastructure Cyber Security services and launch of active monitoring services. Cedi network upgrading of Bitonto, Dittaino, Santa Giusta and Verdellino. The networking of the CeDi in Gricignano (the main one) is adjusted.
Start new IAAS services to go to storage needs (file servers) or for specific projects (Hadoop). Started Business and Consumer WiFi connectivity on the first 30 stores in the network (expanded to an additional 80 in 2020) and put the linux systems update service (sms4prm) into full operation.
New upgrades on CeDi and activation of SAP Hana services in IaaS. Complete and transparent switch of all MD IT from a predominantly on-premises logic to an entirely as a Service and Multicloud model.
SCENARIO
MD needed to revamp its core systems, ensuring full operability of the facilities. To pursue its growth goals, MD needed to revamp its core systems, ensuring full operability of facilities without incurring downtime in the relationship between locations and logistics.
The widespread presence in hard-to-reach territories due to the Digital Divide was a huge obstacle to overcome, with the challenge of simultaneously optimizing the connectivity and efficiency of the MD network in Italy.
The widespread presence in hard-to-reach territories due to the Digital Divide was a huge obstacle to overcome, with the challenge of simultaneously optimizing the connectivity and efficiency of the MD network in Italy.
To continue to ensure the development of its network MD needed to implement evolved architectures capable of supporting the capillary needs of the entire sales network in “as a Service” mode, with a focus on scalability, geographical resilience of the network.
Therefore, the ability to ensure Business Continuity even in the event of a disaster or network node default is crucial.
Not the least of which is the need to allow for expansion over time, in line with the supermarket chain’s growth goals.
Proposal and solution
Renew core systems to help customers achieve important business goals.
Revamping the core systems of a large-scale retailer and, more broadly, of any company, is a challenge that requires courage, speed, skills and a unique ability to innovate, not only for the customer. The partner with whom one tackles digital transformation must be able to look to the future and help the client achieve important business goals, without remaining anchored in technology integration alone. To address the need for new and substantial upgrades to its infrastructure infrastructure, Deda Cloud evaluated the feasibility for MD to deploy its entire IT ecosystem in Multicloud to take advantage of all the benefits this type of model offers. This was an ambitious and complex project that required a significant joint effort, but could rely on the historic relationship with the client in its now 30-year growth process. The proposed development model had the goals of:
- Enhance the enhancement of production data
- Ensuring safety and speed at the highest level
- Increase the efficiency of costs and processes
- Convert investments from CAPEX to OPEX
- Optimize daily workload automation operations
- Allow access to new developments that are easily scalable and customizable
- Ensuring that the customer has full freedom in future development technology choices
A strategic and value-based solution even before a technological one that initiated the transformation of MD’s IT infrastructure services from on-premises to as a Service, making a monolithic infrastructure dynamic toward a cohesive, scalable set of services that were always up-to-date in terms of security and contingency management. The project ensures resilience and uptime in case of network link failure, security from cyber attacks, and fast restart even in case of natural disasters.
A paradigm shift desired by MD to ensure that its customers always receive impeccable service that is capable of evolving rapidly, but also necessary in order to be able to
adapt to innovative scenarios and technologies and prepare for new business models fueled by digital transformation. The solution proposed by Deda Cloud involved analyzing the existing infrastructure, identifying the most suitable type of Cloud to be implemented by the customer based on the business criticality and lifecycle of the existing infrastructure. Once an initial analysis phase was completed, Deda Cloud also planned the deployment of the security and networking infrastructure, as well as MD’s access network executable from two TIER IV data centers located in Rome and in the province of Bergamo to ensure and protect the customer’s business continuity.
Having shifted from a Capex to an Opex investment rationale freed us from investment constraints and proved to be a key strategic choice, giving us a competitive advantage over our competitors and providing the flexibility we needed not to halt infrastructure development and ensure business continuity
IT Director - MD S.p.A.
THE TWO PHASES.
Called Tick Tock, subdivide the process to optimize operations. The subdivision of the project to enable the transition from managed Housing to Deda’s private Cloud solution (Cloud@Home) included two distinct phases, named Tick Tock, which allowed for optimal administration of operations, completing the handover within eight months.
Specifically, the two phases included: 1. TICK: The new systems were deployed in the Rome datacenter, preparing and testing the new configurations to proceed with the progressive migration of the environments, ensuring compatibility, reliability and performance.
The in-place migration was initially carried out at the virtual level, thanks to RecoverPoint technology.
Specifically, the two phases included: 1. TICK: The new systems were deployed in the Rome datacenter, preparing and testing the new configurations to proceed with the progressive migration of the environments, ensuring compatibility, reliability and performance.
The in-place migration was initially carried out at the virtual level, thanks to RecoverPoint technology.
The client had initially assumed that the machines would be moved with a weekend operational downtime, but thanks to the team’s expertise and organization, it was possible to cut down the timeline, accomplishing the first operational and network switch in a thirty-minute time frame on a Saturday night, ensuring that the stores would reopen on Sunday, and scheduling maintenance windows that were compatible for a company that works around the clock.
In this phase-continued over multiple weekends-the redraft of all architectures and facilities took place, reengineering all core applications and workloads to ensure scalability
2. TOCK: a phase that brings the project to a conclusion by geographically distributing the networking, firewall, and MPLS systems across the two data centers and linking them together via Wide Area Network.
This last point is made possible through the activation of the SDWan, which simplifies Wide Area Network operations by bringing companies, thanks to cloud support, to manage data flows differentially.
Achievements
Zero downtime and continuity of cash services.Thanks to the expertise of the Deda Cloud team, it was possible to manage this delicate transition while recording zero downtime and continuity of cash services.
The key elements in ensuring the result were collective coordination and the overall ability to balance a deep project organization with a fast and synergistic implementation phase.
In fact, for this project alone, six different project managers were involved, each of them specialized in a specific field and able to contribute to the realization of a customized, excellence-oriented solution.
At the end of the project, the MD infrastructure is now more resilient, secure, lightweight and distributed.
This is thanks to modern governance that looks to the future, intelligently selecting and using the best technologies to design IT that responds to the grand challenges that characterize an increasingly complex environment.
This is thanks to modern governance that looks to the future, intelligently selecting and using the best technologies to design IT that responds to the grand challenges that characterize an increasingly complex environment.
The skills deployed have held up to the challenge accepted by Deda Cloud, which has committed itself in order to co-design together with MD the new architecture, putting in place design, management, and migration skills, while maintaining a proper focus on costs.
Moving to a canon logic therefore more flexibility.
Moving to a canon logic therefore more flexibility.
radically MD, without interfering with the client’s business development plan and ensuring its full operation.
All made even more complex by the obstacles brought by the pandemic crisis that slowed down the initial phase of the project. Next step
All made even more complex by the obstacles brought by the pandemic crisis that slowed down the initial phase of the project. Next step
- Value of deda cloud not only as an IT provider but as a driver of technological innovation in MD.
- Project also continues to evolve by looking at Deda Group’s new skills such as AI
The success of the project confirms Deda Cloud’s role alongside MD as a driver of enterprise technology innovation and has laid the groundwork already for its future developments that look at AI and process automation with strong interest already in the coming months.
