- DEKRA chose a cloud-first strategy with Microsoft Azure, to lay a secure foundation for the company's digital agenda
- The prerequisites in the cloud had to be created, including a cloud landing zone, a cloud competence center and the development of expertise among employees
- Fast implementation should support project progress and prove the associated benefits of the cloud
Approach
DEKRA’s “Cloud first” strategy is an important foundation of the company’s digital agenda, in which both existing services are improved and new digital services are developed. Key topics are “Vehicles & Mobility in the Future”, “IT & Cybersecurity Services”, “Remote Services”, “Data-driven, AI-enabled Services” and “Sustainability Services”.
In order to lay such a foundation, the know-how of DEKRA’s Global Integrated IT in Azure Cloud Solutions found fertile ground and, with the introduction of the glueckkanja Azure Foundation, a proven and secure solution could be used to set up an Azure Landing Zone. The template- and pipeline-based deployment guaranteed a fast and secure implementation. Intensive training of DEKRA employees in Terraform and DevOps at the Cloud Competence Center enabled the customer to support itself. Since then, glueckkanja has supported the further development and maintenance of the landing zone as well as the cloud onboarding of workloads such as the setup of an automated AVD infrastructure for the operation of 5,000 remote desktop users as an extended member of the DEKRA Cloud Competence Center.
Solution
First, a collection of glueckkanja best practices for building secure and scalable Azure Landing Zones was compiled with the Azure Foundation. Here, a landing zone includes elements such as networks, name resolution, automation tasks, remote access, log processing, auditing, platform security, data protection and host anti-malware. All Azure Foundation components are developed and deployed as Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to ensure rapid time to value, industry standard product development, quality and security.
By establishing its own Cloud Competence Center, DEKRA was able to accelerate application development through IT automation, DevOps and PaaS services. In addition, the reliability of IT services was increased through robust public cloud platforms. Applications were also modernized through the introduction of new technologies. Security controls were improved through deployment automation and security monitoring, and financial benefits were achieved.
Outcome & Conclusion
Thanks to the Azure Foundation approach, the Landing Zone was built in just 3 months. It is based on Infrastructure as Code and was launched in 8 Azure regions. This enables fast onboarding for all cloud services. In addition, employees benefit from an existing and well-functioning solution from which they can learn and evolve.
About DEKRA
DEKRA has been active in the field of safety for almost 100 years. Founded in 1925 in Berlin as Deutscher Kraftfahrzeug-Überwachungs-Verein e.V., it is today one of the world’s leading expert organizations. DEKRA SE is a subsidiary of DEKRA e.V. and manages the Group’s operating business. In 2021, DEKRA generated preliminary sales totaling almost EUR 3.5 billion. The company currently employs around 46,500 people in approximately 60 countries on all continents. With qualified and independent expert services, they work for safety on the road, at work and at home. These services range from vehicle inspection and expert appraisals to claims services, industrial and building inspections, safety consultancy, testing and certification of products and systems, as well as training courses and temporary work. The vision for the company’s 100th birthday in 2025 is that DEKRA will be the global partner for a safe, secure and sustainable world. With a platinum rating from EcoVadis, DEKRA is now in the top one percent of sustainable businesses ranked.
