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Tepco Glass Migrates to Azure, Increasing Reliability and Setting the Stage for Future IT Modernization

Faced with aging on-premises servers and an unsupported operating system, Tepco Glass moves all applications to Microsoft Azure with help from Lightstream.

Business Challenge

Tepco Glass is one of the top glass and glazing contractors in the United States. Founded in 1982, the Dallas-based company specializes in commercial glazing and architectural design, as well as the installation of curtain walls, window walls, storefronts, entrances, motor operable windows, glass railings, and other façade enclosures.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the construction industry stalled. Many projects were postponed, delayed, or canceled. And the global slowdown cascaded to suppliers and contractors, including Tepco, negatively affecting revenues and cash flow.

Although business was slow and cash flow was tight, Tepco’s business did not stop. The company continued to operate, serving its customers and addressing operational challenges. One challenge they faced involved the company’s IT infrastructure.

Tepco’s core business applications ran on Windows Server 2008 R2 servers located in the company’s small data center in Dallas. The hardware was over five years old, and Tepco’s IT manager was concerned that the aging hardware could lead to equipment failures. In addition, Windows Server 2008 R2 had reached end of life, and the company was no longer receiving support from Microsoft.

Solution

Company executives knew they needed to address the issues. But given the economic realities during the pandemic—business slowdown, a global microchip shortage, and supply chain constraints—they did not want to incur a large capital outlay to purchase new hardware and upgrade to a supported operating system.

They decided to explore the cloud. Moving to the cloud would eliminate the need to refresh hardware. And Microsoft offered an added incentive: if they migrated their Windows Server 2008 R2 environments to Microsoft Azure, the company would receive an additional 36 months of extended security updates for free.

The solution seemed viable, but the company wanted to ensure that it would work. Tepco’s IT manager knew one of Lightstream’s account executives from a previous working relationship, and reached out for help.

The first step was to assess the plan. Lightstream linked Tepco’s VMware environment to Azure Migration to evaluate the feasibility of moving it to Azure. This showed that the migration was viable and that Tepco could save money over the long term. Tepco’s executives were pleased with the findings and approved the project.

Over a period of 12 weeks, Lightstream experts worked with Tepco to plan, configure, and test their Azure environment. Finally, when all testing had been completed and issues resolved, Lightstream moved all of Tepco’s core applications from on-premise servers into the new environment. For ongoing support and optimization of their Azure environment, Tepco will use Lightstream Cloud Managed Services (CMS).

Business Outcomes

Increased Reliability and Availability

Tepco Glass has four locations—two in Dallas, one in Carrollton, Texas, and one in Oklahoma City—as well as other remote users who need access to applications. The Dallas headquarters is located in a section of the Dallas area that doesn’t have the most reliable power or internet service. Consequently, when the headquarters site suffered a power or internet outage, no one could connect from any locations, and their business was disrupted.

By moving all applications to Azure, Tepco no longer has this problem. Even if the Dallas location experiences an outage, users from the other sites are not affected. They can continue working without interruption.

Shift to a Consumption-based Operating Model

Tepco no longer maintains on-premise server hardware. By moving to Azure, they eliminated the need for large capital outlays in the future to address product upgrades and hardware refreshes. And they now have a more predictable operating expense model for IT.

Better Positioned for Future IT Modernization

Tepco is no longer limited by their data center environment. With all server infrastructure now in Azure, they have more flexibility, making it simpler for them to pursue future modernization efforts like virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and others. For example, with all workload in Azure, they don’t need to buy high-end gaming computers for people to do product designs anymore—the heavy processing can now be done in the cloud.

Ongoing Infrastructure Management and Cloud Optimization

By moving to Azure, Tepco no longer has to worry about infrastructure management. Lightstream Cloud Managed Services supports the company’s infrastructure, ensuring servers are patched and maintained, and oversees the company’s Azure environment to make sure it is optimized both for cost and performance.

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Hospitality Software Company Successfully Launches in China with Help from Lightstream

Lightstream’s Professional Services team supports Quore in boosting revenue potential by entering a new market

Business Challenge

For the past decade, Quore’s award-winning digital hospitality solutions have been helping hotels improve the quality of their guest services. The company’s focus on relentless innovation has enabled it to provide approximately 78,000 hotel owners, management and staff at 4,300 properties throughout 31 countries with the tools they need to streamline daily operations.
With so many hotel professionals around the world relying on the company to make their jobs easier, Quore’s leadership knew right from the start that such high stakes would require only the best technology partner. That’s why as the company grew from a fledgling software startup to an industry-leading solutions provider, Quore’s IT team depended on Lightstream’s expert guidance in overcoming technological challenges and improving the efficiency, reliability and security of their operations. During that time, Lightstream assisted Quore in establishing its initial on-site data center, then later moving its infrastructure offsite to CenturyLink, and most recently in its migration to the AWS cloud.
When Quore’s largest hotel group client requested its services at three new properties in China, the software company recognized the tremendous opportunity for growth and sprang into action. China is an important market for global companies and as such, leadership once again turned to Lightstream for help in reproducing and reconfiguring Quore’s platform to operate in this complex and disparate cloud environment.

Solution

Lighstream’s Professional Services team applied their technical expertise to begin the process of deploying Quore’s cloud-based applications inside of China with the same APIs, protocols and de-facto operating standards in use at their other worldwide locations. This established the groundwork necessary to successfully navigate China’s rigid regulatory requirements for market entry and operation.
First, they needed to replicate the platform’s large database using native AWS migration tools and custom scripts. Once that process was complete, underlying dependencies required the use of custom automation to migrate the compute platform.

In just three weeks, the Lightstream team had Quore’s East-Asian platform up and running for beta testing. After the solution passed all functionality testing, Lightstream’s Cloud Managed Services professionals got to work on carefully considering this unique environment and optimizing it to meet high availability, resiliency and security requirements.

Business Outcomes

Quore’s hospitality solution successfully went live in this brand-new market at the end of 2021. As a result, the job of providing positive guest experiences has been made easier for about 100 more housekeepers, engineers, front desk agents and managers at three properties. And for Quore, an entirely new market and stream of revenue has been established. Quore can now market their software to other hotels throughout China with confidence and proof of its successful operation in the country.
The company continues to rely on Lightstream as its single point of contact for AWS cloud operations and best practices. And Lightstream’s Cloud Managed Services team is providing the day-to-day administration and management necessary to ensure that the environment is optimized from a security, financial, technological and operational standpoint.

Contact Information

To find out how Lightstream’s technological expertise can help transform your business and implement the digital innovation you need to successfully grow and expand here in the United States and throughout the world, visit www.lightstream.tech.

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A Streaming Video Platform & Production Company Cuts Costs and Enhances the User Experience with Help from AWS CloudFront and Lightstream

The company achieves financial and performance optimization via CloudFront and Lightstream Cloud Managed Services

Business Challenge

A budding streaming content and production studio with a growing number of subscribers based throughout the world is dedicated to providing customers with the best viewing experience possible while keeping an eye on its bottom line. Company leadership made the right choice in utilizing content delivery networks, or CDNs, to take advantage of their high availability and performance benefits. CDNs put the streaming content physically closer to subscribers via a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers.

The company had many of its workloads housed in AWS  but was using a competing CDN provider to deliver its streaming content. Around 2016, it became evident to the organization’s leadership that they were spending an exorbitant amount on CDN services. Moreover, performance in certain areas of the world wasn’t as fast or efficient as it could be due to the nature of the CDN provider’s edge locations. On the brink of launching a new global streaming series, the company was looking for new ways to streamline content delivery as well as improve the day-to-day management of its multi-cloud environment.

Solution

Lightstream’s specialized engineers analyzed the company’s AWS environment against technical and operational best practices and identified areas for financial, operational and security optimization. Lightstream is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and provides the company with ongoing cloud advisory services through its Cloud Managed Services offering.

With the launch of the new streaming series in mind, it was determined that part of the financial and performance optimization involved creating a pathway from the company’s original CDN to Amazon CloudFront to accommodate large data transfer at a lower cost and integrating it with other AWS services. Lightstream worked with the company to understand the benefits of switching to CloudFront for the streaming series’ future traffic, which delivers content to end users with lower latency using a global network of 225+ Points of Presence (215+ Edge locations and 13 regional mid-tier caches) in 90 cities across 47 countries. Using CloudFront on AWS lowers customers’ data-out charges in comparison with competitors. It also leverages Amazon’s highly resilient, fully redundant, global backbone network for superior performance and availability for end users.

Partnering with Lightstream for CMS also allows the company to tap into Lightstream’s expertise on the latest and greatest AWS offerings. AWS is constantly adding new capabilities so users can leverage cutting-edge technologies to experiment and innovate more quickly. Staying on top of this became burdensome and time consuming for the company’s in-house IT professionals. With Lightstream Cloud Managed Services, a team of cloud and security experts helps continually optimize the financial, security, technology, and operational aspects of a company’s AWS cloud. When specific issues like CDN optimization arise, the Lightstream team is already on hand to recommend best practices and drive successful outcomes.

Business Outcomes

Since CloudFront is an AWS solution, the service is bundled into the company’s overall AWS usage. Supported by Lightstream, this gave the organization leverage to negotiate better rates than it had been paying with its previous CDN. CloudFront’s cost-efficient and customizable pay-as-you-go model resulted in greater financial optimization since the company no longer had to pay high data-out transfer fees to deliver the new streaming series globally.

With Lightstream, the company was able to successfully re-route the streaming series’ content to CloudFront. Thanks to the success of the series, CloudFront’s monthly usage has grown from 2 PB to 10 PB without an exponential increase in cost the company would have experienced with the competitor’s CDN. CloudFront’s global network of edge locations has also improved content delivery and performance to certain areas of the world. Its flexibility enables the company to easily scale up and down with subscriber demand.

With Lightstream Cloud Managed Services, a team of experts consistently analyzes the company’s technology spend and performance and guides them toward greater financial savings as well as enhanced operational and security measures.

Contact Information

To find out how Lightstream can help your business implement Amazon CloudFront and integrate it with other AWS services or to learn more about how Lightstream Cloud Managed Services can support the successful migration and optimization of your cloud environments, fill out the information-request form on this page.

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High-Stakes Software Company Optimizes its AWS Cloud Environment with help from Lightstream

Lightstream’s Cloud Managed Services empowers the company with enhanced visibility, security, configuration and a 20% savings in overall cloud spend

Business Challenge

A leading developer of governance, risk management, and compliance software solutions was housing most of its infrastructure within Amazon Web Services (AWS). Migrating to the cloud made it easy for the company to procure and spin-up resources quickly in real time, increasing their agility and innovation and giving them an edge over the competition. Security was of utmost importance, with high-profile customers frequently exchanging extremely confidential documents and assets. The cloud gave the company a secure global portal and facilitated communication and collaboration between customers and IP.

While the focus on advanced technology and security had always been a top priority, service procurement and spending visibility had become increasingly challenging as the company’s cloud usage expanded along with its global footprint. Employees across all areas of the company utilized AWS cloud services for their daily operations, resulting in a high monthly expenditure that was exceeded only by payroll. The organization was using dozens of AWS services and constantly flexing up and down to meet ever-changing demands.

Getting an accurate picture of their cloud spend had become very difficult as their cloud infrastructure had become more complex. Despite a broad client base and significant investment into multiple cloud services across AWS, the company received a single monthly invoice offering no insight into what cloud resources were being used and who was using them. This inability to delineate costs and analyze spending made for a hugely complicated client billing process. Moreover, the lack of visibility and control was causing the company’s financial and IT leaders to question the efficiency of their cloud usage and spend.

Solution

Lightstream tailored its service package with the goal of achieving four main objectives for the organization: cloud optimization, in-depth spending visibility, waste management, and cost reduction. They began by negotiating a contract with AWS and the software company to resell its cloud services in order to gain visibility into the organization’s spend and identify opportunities for optimization.

The organization also contracted with Lightstream for its Cloud Managed Services (CMS). Using its proprietary tool Lightstream Connect, Lightstream took a holistic view of the company’s technology spend and performance to gain a clear vision of how the cloud resources were being allocated. Lightstream identified several areas for optimization which would allow the company to take advantage of greater financial savings as well as enhanced operational and security measures.

Since its inception, Lightstream’s experience with organizations of all sizes and across all sectors led its leaders to the understanding that “advanced optics of spend” is a continuous challenge for everyone. In fact, 80% of enterprises struggle with cloud spend management.[i] That’s why the provider developed Lightstream Connect, a system that provides advanced visibility of cloud service usage. From the very simple instance all the way up to a macro pie chart of how a company spends money across AWS services, Lightstream Connect translates bills and tags into data that provides real-time clarity and accountability for consumption. This allows customers to gain a deep understanding of how their budget is being allotted as opposed to the single-line invoice they previously received.

Partnering with Lightstream for CMS has also allowed the company to tap into expertise on the latest and greatest AWS offerings. AWS is constantly adding new capabilities so users can leverage cutting-edge technologies to experiment and innovate more quickly. In addition, AWS frequently modifies its savings plans to offer more flexibility and cost savings for customers. Instead of blindly renewing their cloud services, Lightstream’s procurement team identifies and applies the appropriate new AWS offerings to the organization’s cloud environment in order to deliver the greatest performance, security and efficiency.

Business Outcomes

Lightstream’s in-depth understanding as to which AWS services would deliver the most value for this particular customer has allowed the organization to experience increased flexibility of service usage. When Lightstream first began working with the company, they were less than 10% optimized across their AWS usage. In less than six months, Lightstream has helped the company to achieve 64% cloud optimization, and is continuously working to improve upon that number.

The organization has been saving more than $50,00.00 per month through procurement optimization and waste management, i.e., the identification and elimination of unused services. Lightstream has also applied identity and access management best practices in order to enhance the company’s cloud security.

Once cloud optimization was achieved, Lightstream entered the organization into the AWS Enterprise Discount Program to reduce costs by an additional 10%. Lightstream is in the process of negotiating a private pricing offering that has the potential to cut the organization’s overall spend by an additional $40,000.00 per month over the next three years.

Lightstream directly supports the organization’s C-level executives, meeting with them regularly to report on efficiency enhancements and new opportunities for technical, financial and security optimization. Going forward, Lightstream plans to continually perform security assessments in order to routinely upgrade its configuration, identity and access management, and overall cloud performance.

Contact Information

To learn more about how Lightstream can support and optimize your cloud deployments on major platforms like AWS and Microsoft Azure with technical and operational best practices and cost optimization, visit www.lightstream.tech.

[i] https://www.informationweek.com/cloud/10-tips-for-managing-cloud-costs/d/d-id/1332242?

 

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Global Retailer Trusts Lightstream for Network Connectivity Project Management

Lightstream coordinates and manages network connectivity services installation for all new warehouse openings, maintains corporate-wide network inventory, and oversees network modifications at over 800 existing sites.

Business Challenge

This company is a global, members-only retailer, with over 800 stores (i.e. warehouses) and a large membership base. Business projections are strong, and the company continues to grow, adding new members every month and opening 25-30 new warehouses per year globally.

Each warehouse is connected via a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, with the recent addition of SD-WAN (software-defined wide-area networking) and broadband for highly-available multi-path networking capabilities.

Overseeing such a large network is complicated. Every change needs to be carefully planned and coordinated with the telecom provider to ensure project timelines are met and service is not disrupted.

Complexity can make this work cumbersome and frustrating. In the network connectivity space, relevant data such as circuit IDs, locations, circuit types, IP addresses, bandwidth, and more is vast and detailed. On top of that, provider billing systems are often inaccurate. Without near-constant attention to detail and a solid tracking system, network inventory can quickly get out of control, resulting in project delays and wasted money on unused services.

Before a new site can be operational, all network connectivity services must be installed and new circuits burned-in and tested. This requires coordination with contractors, telecom providers, and IT personnel with proper focus on project dates, milestones, and lead times in order to ensure a successful opening.

Solution

With network connectivity services such a complicated but vital part of its business operations, the company needed an organization with demonstrated expertise in the network connectivity industry that could manage and coordinate services with all of its service providers both for new installations and for changes at existing sites, coordinating with company facilities management, construction teams, and other third-party resources.

Today, Lightstream provides three client engagement managers (CEMs); two are dedicated to new warehouse openings, and the third focuses on existing facilities. For new warehouses, the CEMs are responsible for overseeing all project activity involving network connectivity services. This includes monitoring site surveys, ordering MPLS, internet, and voice circuits, testing circuits, coordinating with construction companies, coordinating with power companies, communicating project status, escalating issues, managing contract approvals, and all other tasks required to ensure network connectivity services are ready prior to a new warehouse opening. “Both Lightstream (CEMs) have been amazing in driving our network connectivity services work streams for new locations,” said one of the company’s IT IMAC (installation, moves, adds, changes) analysts.

At existing warehouses, the CEM helps manage network modifications. When installations, moves, adds, or changes to the network are required, the CEM interfaces with the company’s service providers and ensures work is completed successfully. On occasion, the CEM has been asked to take on additional work, as was the case with the company’s recent broadband deployment. “She (the CEM) understands what it takes to do a major broadband deployment,” said one the company’s infrastructure services project managers, “and she helped us navigate those waters with structure and clarity.”

In addition to project management services, Lightstream tracks the company’s network inventory via its Lightstream Connect platform, which provides a single pane of glass into the company’s technology spend and network. With Lightstream Connect, the company’s network connectivity team can get near real-time visibility of their entire network inventory, order status for any telecommunications services, and all contractual and technical detail of each service. This relationship has evolved and expanded over more than a decade.

Business Outcomes

Successful Network Connectivity Services IMACs (Installations, Moves, Adds, and Changes) at All Warehouse Locations

Lightstream provides the company with dedicated client engagement managers who are experts in network connectivity services and are adept at working with telecom companies, contractors, and power utilities. This delivers high-quality project management services to the company, helping to ensure successful IMACs at all the warehouse locations.

Fewer Challenges Dealing with Telecom Carriers

Having worked in the telecom industry for many years, Lightstream project managers understand how to get things done. They provide a single point of contact for network connectivity work and are experts at navigating vendor bureaucracy and solving problems, which results in fewer network connectivity services challenges.

Fewer challenges results in many benefits. First, the company’s staff spends less time working through issues and more time on project activities. Second, warehouse openings go smoother. Third, speed to implementation is increased, which helps ensure new warehouses are opened on time.

Near Real-time Access to Network Inventory

Lightstream Connect provides the network connectivity team an on-demand, accurate, up-to-date view of network inventory. The application provides an easy-to-use, intuitive interface into the company’s inventory database, giving both consolidated and detailed views of all network connectivity services across the entire organization.

Increased Carrier Billing Accuracy

Lightstream specialists not only track the company’s network inventory in Lightstream Connect but also periodically reconcile the company’s billing against expected contractual rates. This exposes billing irregularities, ensures accurate billing, and prevents the company from paying for services that are no longer needed.

Contact Information

To learn more about Lightstream Managed Services, visit www.lightstream.tech.

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Large West Coast Bank Engages Lightstream and Saves Millions on WAN Costs

Lightstream helps the bank optimize its MPLS network configuration, renegotiates vendor contracts, and saves the bank millions of dollars a year.

Business Challenge

As a large banking institution, the company serves customers at over 80 locations in seven states, all connected to the headquarters site in California via a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) wide-area network (WAN). Each location has diverse-carrier, dual MPLS circuits for redundancy and load balancing.

When a new deputy CIO arrived at the company in 2018, he began looking for ways to improve service delivery and to lower operational costs. And he quickly zeroed in on the WAN.

At the time, the company had contracts for network services with AT&T, Lumen, Verizon, and Comcast. The IT team was holding four meetings a week—one with each provider—to review orders, discuss network issues, and get status updates. The deputy CIO felt this process was disjointed and inefficient and was causing savings opportunities to be overlooked.

The deputy CIO believed using an outside firm to review their network contracts could help the company get better pricing and save money. Having worked with Lightstream before, he had confidence in Lightstream’s technical expertise, so he brought the team in to review the bank’s network environment.

Solution

When Lightstream personnel engaged, their first action was to collect a complete inventory of the network. This included MPLS, dedicated internet access (DIA) connections, private lines, voice, POTS lines, broadband, and data center connectivity. The team pored over the bank’s invoices, compared charges with the circuit inventory from the carriers, and documented their findings.

The effort was immediately fruitful. Reviewing the invoices and comparing them against the inventory, the team checked expiration dates, flagging resources that were no longer being used but for which the bank was still paying.  This optimization led to immediate cost savings.

With an accurate inventory, Lightstream then submitted requirements back to the vendors, revised quotes for services, and worked as a liaison between the bank’s IT team and the vendors to ensure the company received optimal pricing and contract terms.

Business Outcomes

Millions in Annual Network Cost Savings

By taking a broad view of network services and bringing in an objective perspective, Lightstream was able to find ways to save the company money. Lightstream reconciled billing issues and worked with the telecom companies to renegotiate contracts. This effort saved the company $3.5 million annually on one vendor contract and nearly $3 million another, resulting in almost $6.5 million in total annual network cost savings.

Single Point of Contact for Vendor Communication

Prior to Lightstream getting involved, vendor communication was a challenge. At the time, the company held separate meetings with each vendor. This was time-consuming and inefficient, and it often led to miscommunication between service providers.

Engaging Lightstream solved this problem. The company now holds only one meeting a week with Lightstream technicians to review all orders, discuss status updates, explore pricing concerns, and resolve disputes with their providers. Lightstream represents all vendors and acts as the single point of contact, simplifying communications for the company and providing an advocate to help the organization get the best services possible at the best rates.

Consolidated Dashboard View of Network Inventory

When Lightstream was engaged, the first step was to collect an accurate network inventory. This information was then loaded into Lightstream ConnectTM, an industry-leading proprietary inventory management system that stores all of a customer’s telecommunications inventory data and provides a dashboard-driven interface for access to the information.

Connect allows the bank’s IT team to get an accurate, consolidated view of all their network inventory, making it easier for them to manage their network installation and to track updates.

Next Steps

Like most organizations, the bank plans to migrate many of its IT systems to the public cloud. While some workloads have been migrated already, the majority of the company’s applications still run on infrastructure in on-premises data centers.

To assist this effort, Lightstream provides Cloud Managed Services to assist the bank in technical, financial, and security optimization of its cloud assets. Lightstream cloud experts, acting as an extension of the company’s AWS team, are analyzing the bank’s current cloud financials, identifying cloud resources and costs, and recommending optimization steps that will enable the company to buy resources at lower cost and save money.

Today, the company spends nearly $250,000 per month on cloud infrastructure; and that amount is growing. Although Lightstream’s optimization work has just begun and results are pending, early projections are that the company could save $400,000 to $500,000 on its cloud spend annually.

Contact Information

To learn more about how Lightstream Managed Services can help you reduce network costs and improve service delivery, visitwww.lightstream.tech.

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A Global Automotive Supplier Implements SD-WAN, Lowers Costs, and Improves Service Delivery

Lightstream Managed Services designs and implements Fortinet SD-WAN and Lightstream Endpoint Defense built on Cortex XDR from Palo Alto Networks to help the company shift from MPLS, lower network costs, and improve endpoint security.

Business Challenge

A large global automotive supplier, like many organizations, faced uncertainty in March 2020. No one could predict the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic or estimate the effect it would have on the company’s global revenue. This put pressure on the company’s budgets, and leaders across the organization searched for ways to lower costs.

For the IT organization, this effort involved assessing the company’s global IT operations, identifying trouble spots, and exploring new technologies both to lower costs and to improve service delivery. One area that quickly stood out was the wide-area network (WAN).

The company relied on a private MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) wide-area network with centralized network-based firewalls, all managed by a large, global telecommunications provider. The provider staffed the network operations center (NOC) and owned service delivery for everything outbound from the routers at each site, including all network circuits and bandwidth.

When prioritizing projects to pursue, the WAN was a logical place to start. The MPLS network was expensive, and the company had been experiencing operational problems and network outages. For years, the company had two different service providers—one managing their WAN and another managing their security operations center (SOC)—and the two organizations often struggled to work together cohesively. Changes often were made by one provider without coordinating with the other, and these sometimes caused loss of service, degraded performance, or security gaps that lasted for weeks as the two providers tried to resolve the problems.

Solution

To address these challenges, the company sought proposals for an SD-WAN (software-defined wide-area network) solution. The company’s IT leaders believed SD-WAN technology offered many attractive benefits and would be a lower-cost alternative to their existing MPLS network.

At the beginning, the company wanted an SD-WAN proposal with centralized network-based firewalls similar to their current WAN configuration. But as Lightstream experts met with the company and discussed SD-WAN capabilities, they were convinced a centralized architecture wasn’t the best fit. Instead, the Lightstream team proposed placing firewalls at the edge. This allowed local access to internet and third party providers, as opposed to channeling traffic through a central site, which lowered the risk of bottlenecks and outages.

The company agreed with the design recommendation. Lightstream submitted a design placing Fortinet firewalls with SD-WAN at the edge in a high availability configuration, which included two firewalls and two circuits at each site, along with full managed services for the devices.

As discussions with the company continued, the topic of security came up. The company had struggled for years with problems caused by having two different services providers, one managing the WAN and the other managing security.

Lightstream solved this problem by proposing full managed services for the SD-WAN network. This included the network operations center (NOC), the security operations center (SOC), and the management of the firewalls. Doing this meant one provider would be responsible for coordinating changes, identifying problems, and resolving issues with the WAN.

The company liked the solution, and Lightstream was selected over several competitors. After six weeks of engineering work, the new SD-WAN architecture was implemented.

During this same time, the company decided to explore a new endpoint security solution for its 3,000 devices. Symantec was the company’s current provider. The contract with Symantec was nearing expiration, and the company was looking for a replacement solution that provided full endpoint detection and response (EDR) capability.

Lightstream proposed Lightstream Endpoint Defense built on Cortex XDR from Palo Alto Networks with full managed services as the replacement for Symantec and was awarded the contract, beating out several large EDR solution providers. The company required an aggressive implementation—3,000 devices across the globe in less than six weeks. Lightstream not only met the aggressive timeline, but also exceeded expectations by turning on all 3,000 devices two weeks ahead of schedule.

Business Outcomes

More Cohesive WAN Service Delivery

By reducing the number of service providers from two to one, the company was able to eliminate delays caused by conflicting actions and priorities. Since Lightstream is responsible for managing the network operations center (NOC), the security operations center (SOC), the Fortinet firewalls, and the Palo Alto Cortex XDR endpoints, changes are coordinated and problems are quickly identified and resolved. This has simplified service delivery for the company and eliminated problems caused by lack of communication.

Reduced Risk

Redesigning the WAN lowered the risk of outages to the business. By placing firewalls at the edge instead of centralizing them, the company was able to improve service performance and reduce the chance of an outage impacting a large number of users.

A More Modern, Lower Cost Wide-Area Network

The implementation of SD-WAN modernized the company’s wide-area network. The company can now take advantage of the core benefits of SD-WAN technology—lower-cost bandwidth, support for cloud-based apps, improved agility, and more—at each of the company’s global locations.

Enhanced Endpoint Security Protection

Selecting Cortex XDR from Palo Alto Networks enhances the company’s endpoint security. With Cortex XDR, the company receives a full detection and response solution, enabling them to leverage threat intelligence, identify threats early, and respond to them before widespread problems can occur.

Contact Information

To learn more about how Lightstream Managed Services can help you architect, implement, and manage an SD-WAN that meets your business needs, visit Lightstream.tech.

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Lightstream Helps Software Company Optimize AWS and Azure Cloud Environments

Lightstream Cloud Managed Services optimizes operational, security and financial aspects of cloud environments

Business Challenge

A software company specializing in ERP design, implementation and integration for life science organizations houses its solutions in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud environments. They choose to have a dual presence in order to take advantage of the best features each provider has to offer.

The organization was, overall, pleased with this architecture and the performance of its cloud-based applications and systems. The cloud gave the software company the agility to spin up resources as needed without the lengthy and expensive process of buying, installing and testing systems prior to production. However, its IT leaders knew they needed an additional set of tools in order analyze and make changes to their environments and to ensure optimal usage and cost control.

With the goal of maximizing cloud expenditures, the company’s CIO was considering offloading some of his department’s cloud management responsibilities after determining there was room for improvement in the financial, security and operational aspects of the company’s cloud environments.

Solution

The organization agreed to test out Lightstream’s Cloud Managed Services (CMS) with a 60-day proof of concept (POC). This is a low-risk option offered by Lightstream to organizations in order help them understand the long-term benefits of engaging in a CMS agreement. Using its proprietary tool called Lightstream Connect, Lightstream took a holistic view of the company’s technology spend and network performance to gain a clear vision of how the cloud resources were being allocated. Lightstream identified several areas for optimization which would allow the company to take advantage of greater financial savings as well as enhanced operational and security measures.

At the conclusion of the 60-day POC, the software company’s CIO had come to understand the potential savings and technical optimization his company was missing out on. He reviewed his options and agreed to a Platinum-level CMS contract with Lightstream, as it would provide the toolset to ensure the ideal management and optimization of the company’s cloud environments. This comprehensive advisory service would also lift some of the burden off of the internal IT department, as Lightstream’s partnership with and certified expertise on both AWS and Azure would provide the organization with the assistance it needed in managing its dual-cloud infrastructure.

Business Outcomes

In the short time since Lightstream took over the management and optimization of the company’s cloud environments, it has realized a nearly 10% savings on the total monthly AWS and Azure expenditures. In addition, the company is benefitting from stronger cloud security since becoming a Lightstream Cloud Managed Services customer with improvement of 15% of the scores generated through Lightstream’s security tools.

Part of the benefit of partnering with a provider like Lightstream is its deep affiliation and expertise in the latest technology offered by cloud service providers. Lightstream recommends opportunities for additional savings as well as security and performance enhancements as they become available. For instance, this organization is currently considering upgrading its AWS gp2 storage volumes to Amazon gp3, which is the next-generation general-purpose SSD volume for Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). With gp3, this software company can provision performance independent of storage capacity at a 20% lower price point per GB than with its existing gp2 volumes. With Lightstream as its trusted partner, the company can count on continued technological innovation and optimization well into the future.

Contact Information

To speak with a representative about having your environment assessed at no cost to you, or to learn more about how Lightstream Cloud Managed Services can help your business successfully migrate to and optimize your cloud environments, visit https://www.lightstream.tech/.