ShipServ delivers new solutions and features quickly on its new platform by using Azure DevOps pipeline automation

CHALLENGE

To deliver better services through an enhanced Platform.

In 2019, various initiatives were made to modernize ShipServ’s platform and upgrade their offering to customers as part of their digital transformation journey.

ShipServ decided to move their on-premises platform to the Cloud to achieve scalability, ease of maintenance and support. At the same time, they also built a new platform to cater to the everchanging business and customer requirements. ShipServ chose Microsoft Azure as their cloud solution provider. ShipServ engaged with LogicEra, a Microsoft partner with in-depth understanding of Azure, to start the migration process. They successfully migrated their on-premises legacy platform, which currently is processing over USD 4 billion annual trade, to Azure over only 1.5 months. This was achieved by a strong collaboration and cooperation between ShipServ IT Operations team and LogicEra with high determination and motivation.

SOLUTION

Microsoft 365 Business Premium for office productivity and Azure DevOps, Azure API Management and Azure Kubernetes Services for ShipServ’s flexible and performing platform.

ShipServ used Microsoft 365 Business Premium for office productivity. They are using Azure DevOps for the development pipelines automation and Azure event hub for streamlining transaction data in the new platform along with Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) for the application containerization and CI/CD with automated routine tasks and set up a canary deployment strategy. They also used Azure API Management for traffic diversion plus managing their API solution suite. ShipServ deployed different solutions on their platform which include high availability clusters and containers, cloud native microservices, PaaS (Kubernetes, Kafka HD Insights and MS SQL) and IaaS which provide high performance and availability. Geo-replication / redundancy, active sync, Azure site recovery, cross regions restore to provide business continuity. They also implemented Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Endpoint Manager and Microsoft Defender ATP for protecting end users’ equipment. All these implementations are aiming to ensure that their customers can safely transact on their platform.

IMPACT

ShipServ enhanced their platform security and improved collaboration and productivity in the virtual environment.

• Provision of a simple and sustainable solution - ShipServ is able to deploy new solutions and features quickly on their new platform by using Azure DevOps pipeline automation. ShipServ has been continuously releasing various new features on their new platform. In order to support their sustainability objectives, ShipServ recently released a new feature to enable suppliers to display their environmental related credentials.
• Enhanced platform security - Being ISO 27001;2013 certified, security is one of their top priorities. With the use of different Microsoft security solutions, ShipServ is able to further enhance the platform security.
• Improved collaboration and productivity in the virtual environment - With the use of MS Teams, Planner, SharePoints etc they can immediately benefit from the collaboration required across the globe Business continuity - It has been proven that ShipServ has made the right decision on the migration from on-premises to Cloud. There were only a few simple and quick adjustments when they moved to remote work arrangement without affecting any of their operations during the pandemic. - Their DR and backup solutions employ Microsoft latest technology such as redundancy and active synchronization, which enables them to provide high availability to their customers.
• Employee, partner and customer engagement - ShipServ actively engage their employees on different projects, company updates and news via Teams - A number of their customers and partners are on various project Team channels for discussion, project management and support.
• All this provides effective communication and engagement increased scalability and improved efficiency - With the flexibility and ease to perform resources scaling up or down or with auto-scaling, ShipServ have a scalable solution based on real time demand.

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