2 Speed ITPowered by Microsoft Azure

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Michael Stephenson

About• Azure and Integration Architect• Community Activities

• Microsoft MVP for 7+ years• Pluralsight Author• Azure Insider/Advisor• Integration Monday

• Worked on 30+ projects that have leveraged Azure

Contact• Personal Blog: http://

microsoftintegration.guru

• Twitter: @michael_Stephen

• Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstephensonuk1

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Today

Agenda• 2 Speed IT• Example Projects• Thoughts

Outcomes• Make you re-think about some

Azure • Show some cool demo’s• Take home some ideas to inspire

the kids

IT’s Customer Satisfaction

Perception• 15% of business users completely satisfied

with IT department• 33% of business users think IT is important to

business innovation• 60% of business users think IT department is

integral to the business

Effect• Stealth IT• IT perceived to be holding the business in the

past• Business doesn’t value IT

(Perception) Source: Information Week IT Perception Survey

“By 2017, 75% of organisations will have a 2 speed IT capability”

The 2 Modes of IT

Marathon Runner – Mode 1• Mission Critical Systems• Conventional Approaches• Stability• Reliability• Low Risk• Slow & Safe

Sprinter – Mode 2• Take Risks / Safe Enough• Agility & embrace change• Remove bureaucracy• Deliver Value Fast• Fail Fast• Aggressive customer focus

Types of Systems

Systems of Record• Mission Critical Systems• Conventional Approaches• Stability• Reliability• Low Risk• Slow & Safe

Systems of Engagement• Take Risks / Safe Enough• Agility & embrace change• Remove bureaucracy• Deliver Value Fast• Fail Fast• Aggressive customer focus

Combining System Type & IT ModeSystem of Record System of Engagement

Mode 1 – Traditional CRM SystemERP SystemHR System

Mode 2 – Agile Customer PortalStaff PortalB2B API

Cloud Relationship to 2 Speed ITMode 1 – Traditional Mode 2 - Agile

IT Leadership IT Operations Enterprise Architect

Drivers • Cost Reduction• Risk Mitigation• Keep the operation running• Protect the assets• Protect the customer

• Developer Productivity• Deliver Business Change• Keep the customer happy• Innovate• Beat competitors• Take risks

Cloud Opportunities • Move commodity servers off site• Turn off when not in use• Off Premise Test environments• Cloud Disaster Recovery

• Quick & Cheap IT Provisioning• Delivery Empowerment• Delete resources if project fails• Reduce operations requirements

Super Charging Mode 2 IT

Mode 2 Architects

“As an architect, the cloud offers me new ways to solve problems and opportunities to excite the business and super charge my mode 2 IT teams”

Example 1 - Seasonal Load

The Challenge

Business Context• Key seasonal business event• Expected 10k users all want something at

the same time• Normal load is small• Key load spike expected to last less than 2

hours • Increased load for approx. 1 day• User only needs to do 1 small simple

activity

Traditional Approach• Scale SharePoint from 2 – 6 servers = $20,000

approx.• 4 x New On-Prem VM Servers = $4,000• Extras

• Server build costs• Testing costs

• Total• $40,000• 10 days

Architecture

SharePoint would retrieve PDF’s from Line of Business App

What we did

If the user load gets beyond a Threshold, load balancer would route traffic out to Azure

PDF’s pre-loaded to Azure storageThe night before

User can redirect back to SharePoint, but during burst 95% of traffic stays in cloud

Outcome

Azure Features Used• VS Online Load Testing• Application Insights Monitoring• Azure Web App

• 3 instances• Large• Scheduled auto-scale

• Azure Blob Storage• VS Online Automated Build & Deploy

Info• Key Points

• Challenging the way we typically solve problems opened a new opportunity

• Duration• Solution built in 2 days• Solution performance tested a number of times

over 4 days (up to 12k users)• Solution deleted after a week

• Costs• Cloud cost approx. < $100

Example 2 – Staff HR Self Service

The Challenge

Business Context• Current State

• SAP is the system of record for Staff• Staff do not use SAP the HR system directly,

only HR• SAP changes are difficult and expensive• SAP is complex to train users

• Desired Outcome• Create a Staff Portal system of engagement• Portal should be within SharePoint based

intranet

Technical Challenge• If we host services in the cloud to increase

our agility can we use hybrid integration to connect to services on premise?

Hybrid Integration Proof of Concept

Microservices Router

Service Bus Relay

API

Microservices

Relay powered Hybrid SAP Integration

SharePoint Provider Hosted AppIn Azure Web App

Microservices Router

Service Bus Relay

API

SAP Microservices

Other Microservices

Linq To SAP

Outcome

Azure Features Used• Application Insights Monitoring• Azure Web App • Azure Service Bus Relay• VS Online Automated Build & Deploy

Info• Key Points

• Light weight API based integration

• Duration• End to end features developed in hours/days• Project focusing on features not plumbing• Architecture from POC suitable for production and

used by real project

• Costs• Cloud cost approx. $20 per month (dev, test & prod)

Example 3 - Organisational Telemetry

The Challenge

Business Context• Find a free PC

• We have 3 locations and 20+ buildings• In these buildings are 5000+ computers• How can a student know where is best to

go to get a PC to use• Drivers

• Positive Student Experience

Business Context 2• How utilised are our Rooms

• We have hundreds of rooms• How do we know how utilised they are• How do we track how energy efficient

they are• Drivers

• Reduce Costs

Proof of Concept

The building has a sensor which detectsWhen you enter the building

Stream Analytics processesEvent Hub Data into Power BI

User views dashboards of usefulInformation via Power BI

Power BI

Stream Analytics

Event Hub

Proof of Concept

Agent on PC pushes PC usageAnd application telemetry to cloud

Sensor/Reader telemetry sent to cloud

Stream Analytics processesEvent Hub Data into Power BI

User views dashboards of usefulInformation via Power BI

Power BI

Stream Analytics

Event Hub

Demo

Outcome

Azure Features Used• Azure Service Bus Event Hubs• Azure Stream Analytics• Power BI

Info• Key Points

• Cloud back end would support high scale production usage “as is”

• POC is something the sprinters could easily take forwards

• Duration• Demo created in < 3 hours

• Costs• Cloud Approx. < $40 per month

Example 4 – Simulating Business Processes

The Challenge

Business Context• We have an existing business process

which is reliable and has been around for ages

• We need to feedback status to customers quicker or risk losing them to competitors

• We are not 100% sure the business idea will work but we want to try it

Desired Outcome• Minimize risk to existing process• Avoid extensive re-testing or existing

processes (potentially expensive)• Win or fail fast• Use Reference Architecture to evaluate the

impact of the project

Enrolment Process

BizTalk orchestrates across line of businessSystems to process enrolment

Line of Business Systems

Student can enrol for a course via multiplechannels

API in Azure

Service Bus Messaging

API solution has exposed existing processTo new channels

Demo

Notifications

BizTalk Server

Line of Business Systems

Student gets an alert in near-realtime when theirEnrolment is approved

API in Azure

Service Bus Messaging

SQL

Twilio Connector

SQL Connector

Logic App

Demo

Outcome

Azure Features Used• New Channels

• Azure Service Bus Messaging• Azure Web Apps• Application Insights

• Notifications• Azure Logic Apps• Azure API App Connectors

• SQL• Twilio

Info• Key Points

• Notification feature had no impact to existing process

• Notification feature very low cost• Alert drives student to re-engage with us

• Reference Architecture• Used to evaluate solution options• Used to simulate and demo to business

• Costs• Reference Architecture Approx. < $100 per month• Notification Feature = $0

• No additional cost uses existing App Service

Thoughts

Hold on you cant start the next

race yet…..

Challenges of 2 Speed IT• At some point the Marathon Runners need to look after the thing the sprinters built• Sprinters become too externally customer focused and lose sight of IT Strategy or IT Operations• Sprinters make significant stealth architecture changes• Can the organisation really afford 2 IT departments? We need to be able to do sprint projects

within an organisational journey

Disconnected 2 Speed IT

?????

Its ok we will use DevOps and it will all be fine

Embracing the Cloud

I have a platform with loads of

features to help me build awesome

Apps

I’m comfortable we can govern

solutions because Azure is core to our architecture

Many of our solutions use Azure

so I have lots of reusable

troubleshooting skills

Managing Azure is

Business as Usual

We get great visibility of our

actual costs and have enterprise

agreements

Questions