Key Stats

• Enhanced the delivery of dependable digital experiences to a customer base of over 50 million

Highlights

• Modernization of a datacenter ecosystem with DC & DR capabilities and central controllers, improving overall performance and reliability.
• Implemented a highly secure zero-trust network, providing robust protection for enterprise’s data
• Enabled seamless connectivity across all locations, including other data centers, near-site DCs, and public clouds like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Overview

The client is one of India's most diversified and leading non-banking financial companies (NBFC) and caters to more than 50 million customers across the country.  

As a rapidly growing organization, they needed a reliable and experienced partner to address the evolving demands of their expanding customer base and stay ahead in the competitive market.

Requirements

The client needed to modernize its data centre to keep up with the demands of its growing business. They wanted a next-generation data centre that could recover quickly in case of any problems (DC & DR capabilities). The new data centre had to be flexible, highly available, and scalable.  

Additionally, they wanted their data center to securely handle the east-west traffic of modern applications.  

However, they faced several challenges with its existing system:  

1. Their current system was designed for north-south traffic could not handle east-west traffic adequately, which led to poor user experience

2. They had limited visibility into their data-centre ecosystem and needed help finding ways to fix problems

3. They had to manually configure each switch, which was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. This also made recovering from network configuration failures more difficult, as they had to log into multiple switches to roll back the configurations.

4. Updating the software was a challenge because they had to upgrade each device individually, adding to the complexity and management overhead.

5. The client faced issues with centralization of their network resources due the presence of physical segmentation. This not only led to wasted money on extra switches but also made it difficult to support or secure different business lines effectively within the existing architecture.

6. Due to their current architecture and policies, they could not use hybrid cloud solutions

Solution

Velocis stepped in to help overcome their challenges and meet their requirements by providing a comprehensive solution:

• We installed a Cisco APIC Controller and Nexus Spine & Leaf switches at both the main data center (DC) and the backup site (DR). This new equipment improved the data center's performance and optimized it for east-west traffic.
• The Nexus Dashboard provided a single view for managing the entire ACI fabric across the main data center, near-site DC, and DR. This made it much simpler to monitor and control the entire infrastructure.

• We introduced Automated Policy Translation, providing consistency across the entire DC and DR. This made it easier to manage and troubleshoot problems, as well as discover and understand what was happening in the system.
• Implementation of a Multi-Site design ensured connection of multiple APIC cluster domains with their associated pods. This allowed Bajaj Finserv to keep their main data center and backup site separate, ensuring better security and reliability.
• ACI Anywhere extended the benefits of Cisco ACI to other locations, including other data centers, near-site DCs, and public clouds like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. This allowed Bajaj Finserv to have a single policy and seamless connectivity across all their locations, supporting any workload, any hypervisor, and any cloud.
• We set up ACI Multi POD for a near DC site, allowing multiple networks (Pods) in a single Availability Zone (Fabric)

By implementing these solutions, Velocis helped modernize their data center, improve security and performance, and streamline management, overcoming their challenges and meeting their requirements.

Business Outcomes

With the introduction of the Cisco APIC Controller and Nexus Dashboard, the client gained better visibility and control over their entire system, enabling faster app deployments for app architects, and improving security for Security Ops.

The optimized infrastructure helped reduce operational costs by eliminating the need for excess switches and manual configurations. The implementation of highly secure zero-trust networks provided robust protection for the enterprise’s data, regardless of its size, form, or location. As a result, they could deliver more reliable digital experiences to their customers, enhancing their reputation as a leading financial service provider

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