Turning legacy apps into legendary performers
Client
GlowCell
Sector
Telecommunication
Region
South Africa
GloCell is one of South Africa’s largest prepaid airtime and data distributors in South Africa, dispensing over 40 million airtime transactions monthly. The company distributes all mobile network prepaid products, and also supplies electricity for hundreds of local municipalities. Other Value Added Services (VAS) provided by the company include DSTV vouchers, Hollywoodbets and other ticketing services such as sports events, buses, trains, fashion, exhibitions, and festivals.
The challenge
In order to gain efficiencies across the business, GloCell migrated its entire data centre to AWS. While most of the company’s existing environment could be moved easily, GloCell had a number of legacy applications that weren’t web-ready, which users were accessing via remote desktop services. During the planning phase of the migration, iOCO suggested the creation of a site-to-site VPN connection for the users to access these applications in AWS, but network restrictions were discovered at an advanced stage of the migration.
This was further complicated by the fact that the network was not owned and operated by GloCell. As a result, iOCO and GloCell were unable to make the necessary changes to the network to implement the site-to-site VPN.
This was further complicated by the fact that the network was not owned and operated by GloCell. As a result, iOCO and GloCell were unable to make the necessary changes to the network to implement the site-to-site VPN.
The solution
To overcome the challenges caused by the network restrictions, and to avoid having to recreate the legacy applications, iOCO proposed the deployment of AWS Workspaces. Amazon WorkSpaces is a great alternative to traditional desktops or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. It uses AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, to store user and WorkSpace information. The Directory can be either configured in the cloud or connected to an already on-premises directory using AD Connector which is a directory gateway with which you can redirect directory requests to your on-premises Microsoft Active Directory without caching any information in the cloud.
Amazon WorkSpaces is essentially a cloud service that replaces complex VDI deployments and eliminates the CAPEX infrastructure investment. Highly secure, WorkSpaces delivers a managed desktop to every GloCell employee’s device, allowing them to continue to use their legacy applications while gaining the benefits of an AWS environment.
Amazon WorkSpaces supports a multiplicity of devices, including Windows and Mac computers, iPads, and Android tablets, enabling GloCell’s remote workers to access their desktops and applications wherever they are. Thanks to the WorkSpaces implementation, the GloCell IT team can easily configure a desktop computer in real time with exactly the right processor, memory, and storage options, on demand and for as many workstations as need to be deployed. The IT department can also dynamically modify them with additional power or capacity as the use case demands.
Benefits
GloCell has lowered its operational costs and has gained improvements across the business with the deployment of the AWS ecosystem. All of GloCell’s network traffic is now contained within the AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), with AWS WorkSpaces, AWS VPC and AWS EC2 forming the backbone of the environment. As a result, GloCell has seen an improvement in the performance of its legacy applications, and because the WorkSpace implementation provides a dedicated Virtual Machine with dedicated resources, the company has also seen an improvement in the user experience.
In addition, desktop delivery and management has been simplified. Application compatibility is no longer a challenge, and software updates and security patches are no longer time consuming or challenging.
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From an Information Technology perspective the change to AWS from a private cloud infrastructure has introduce the ability for cost management, and allowed the engineers to work in an agile approach.
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Some of the key benefits are rapid deployment of EC2 Instances , Workspaces and other services within Glocell’s Virtual Private Cloud. Workspaces has help Glocell achieve a dynamic network architecture , allowing users to connect from any device , from any network provided the network has an internet break out.
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With the introduction to AWS , application downtime has been reduced ,server performance has increased at lower cost. What more can you ask for?
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Due to the rapid deployment of Workspaces through a Golden Image. User creation and setup has reduced from 1 week to 1 day. Allowing engineers to focus on more critical projects, and allowing users to start working earlier instead of later.
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My work experience has improved dramatically, all my work is saved in a central location. The critical business application can be accessed centrally without login via VPN Client.