Software Provider Eases Use of Product by
Offering Oracle-Based Application in Cloud
Overview
Customer:Redknee
Customer Website:www.redknee.com
Customer Size:1,700 employees
Country or Region:Canada
Industry:Professional services— Software
Customer Profile
Redknee provides billing and customer care software for telecommunications, utilities, railways, and other service providers, helping them market new services and deliver an advanced customer experience.
Business Situation
To meet the needs of utility customers, Redknee needed to offer its Oracle-based Redknee Connected Suite using a cloud deployment model, to provide lower costs and easier scalability.
Solution
When Microsoft and Oracle announced better support for customers running Oracle applications in Windows-based environments, Redknee migrated its application to Microsoft Azure.
Benefits
Faster, less expensive, lower-risk
deployments for customers
Improved data scalability Better ability to expand business
“Because we’ve moved our Oracle-based application to
Microsoft Azure, our customers can deploy it much
faster than they could by deploying an on-premises
infrastructure, which requires a significant investment.”
Daniel Franz, Senior Solutions Manager for Vertical Markets, Redknee
Redknee makes software that helps communications service
providers deliver flexible billing options and great customer care
experiences. When Redknee entered the utility market with its
Oracle-based Redknee Connected Suite, it discovered that
utilities desired a cloud-based rather than on-premises
deployment model, to keep costs down while evaluating new
services. When Microsoft and Oracle announced a partnership
that made it easier to run Oracle software in Windows-based
environments, Redknee was one of the first customers to move
an Oracle-based application to Microsoft Azure. With the move,
Redknee removed the cost and deployment-time barrier for
customers who wish to use its product. It can also provide nearly
limitless scalability to utilities as their data volumes grow. With a
cloud-based offering, Redknee can also more easily deploy its
product in any part of the world.
Situation
Established in 1999, Redknee provides business-critical software to some of the world’s largest communications service providers. It offers converged billing, charging, policy management, and customer care solutions for voice, messaging, and data services provided by more than 200 service providers to 2.4 billion end customers in 90-plus countries. Redknee is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and employs 1,700 people.
Redknee’s Connected Suite was built on the same technology foundation that the software provider used for its
telecommunications offerings: the Linux operating system and Oracle Database 11g (version 11.2) database software.
The Redknee Connected Suite gives utilities a flexible and easy-to-use billing solution that can manage data from smart meters, incentivize customers to save energy in real time, and minimize customer complaints, all while improving cash flow. It provides dynamic rating and billing for electricity, water, gas, and even energy creation. Subscribers can use their smartphones and other mobile devices to gain a real-time view of their consumption patterns and utility bills and pay for electric vehicle charging stations.
Redknee’s software solutions for the telecommunications industry provide the ultimate flexibility for service providers through its on-premises, cloud-based and software-as-a-service deployment models. Redknee discovered that an on-premises deployment model did not suit the rapidly changing utility industry. In the past, utilities sent meter readers to homes and businesses once a month or annually to record end-customer energy consumption. Data volumes and transactions were predictable and static.
But today, utilities are grappling with an abundance of data coming from smart
meters that capture and transmit energy consumption data in real time. Utilities are also bracing for a potential influx of machine-to-machine communications (for example, a refrigerator sending a message to a smartphone reporting that the milk is expired), electric vehicle charging (e-mobility) initiatives, and many other “smart energy” and mobility-enabled ideas. Utility companies are busy transforming their IT infrastructures to support real-time, online data collection and customer information. Thus, most utilities were hesitant to invest significant up-front sums for an on-premises infrastructure until their smart meter, e-mobility, and other services were established and generated higher data volumes. Utilities wanted the ability to start small with the Redknee Connected Suite and scale gradually.
“The utilities industry is in the midst of deep transformation, and our product needed to be able to accommodate this uncertainty and flexibility,” says Jens Voigt, Chief Technology Officer Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Redknee. “Utilities are searching for new ways to handle the real-time nature of their business. They don’t want to invest heavily in on-premises equipment for services that are still in their infancy. They are looking for the flexibility of cloud-based deployments that allow them to test products like ours without making a significant up-front investment.”
Solution
Redknee looked at both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services as cloud hosting options for the Redknee Connected Suite. Microsoft Azure is the Microsoft cloud operating system that provides compute, storage, hosting, and management services for customer-developed applications and services.
In June 2013, Microsoft and Oracle announced a partnership to help customers develop and run Oracle-based software in Microsoft Azure. The partnership gives
“[Utilities] want
cloud-based deployments that
allow them to test
products like ours
without making a
significant up-front
investment.”
Jens Voigt, Chief Technology Officer EMEA, Redknee
customers the flexibility to deploy Oracle software—including Java, Oracle Database, and Oracle WebLogic Server—on Windows Server Hyper-V technology or in Microsoft Azure and receive full support from Oracle. This announcement, together with the fact that the Redknee Connected Suite client application runs on the Windows 8 operating system, caused Redknee to select Microsoft Azure as its hosting environment for the Redknee Connected Suite.
“The partnership between Microsoft and Oracle gave us the opportunity to get our application into the cloud very quickly without changing the application architecture,” says Daniel Franz, Senior Solutions Manager for Vertical Markets at Redknee. “Also, because of the transitional nature of utilities’ move to the cloud, regulatory agencies may require that utilities keep some customer data on-premises. By using Microsoft Azure, our customers can easily keep data on-premises in a Windows Server Hyper-V environment and have a compatible cloud environment in Microsoft Azure.”
The migration of the Redknee Connected Suite to Microsoft Azure, in October 2013, took less than two weeks. Engineers created the application image, which included Linux, Oracle Database, and the Redknee Connected Suite, and moved it to an on-premises Windows Server Hyper-V environment. When that environment was proven stable, Redknee transferred the Hyper-V virtual machines to Microsoft Azure. Additional storage, for long-term stored data, will be configured on request according to customer needs. The option to set up a virtual private network gateway opens the possibility of connecting the Microsoft Azure instance with the partner network and including virtual machines in the same network.
”We were really pleased at how easy it was to move our application from the Hyper-V environment to Microsoft Azure,” Franz
says. “We received excellent help from the Microsoft team.”
Redknee is currently offering the Redknee Connected Suite in Microsoft Azure for trial but expects to have customers fully operational in Microsoft Azure soon.
Benefits
By running the Redknee Connected Suite in Microsoft Azure, Redknee has made it much easier and less expensive for utility customers to deploy the Oracle-based Redknee solution, without the need for an on-premises hardware and software infrastructure. Customers can also scale their Redknee solution quickly and cost-effectively as business grows and data volumes increase. This flexibility not only helps utilities but also helps Redknee expand its business.
Faster, Less Expensive, Lower-Risk Deployments for Customers
“Because we’ve moved our Oracle-based application to Microsoft Azure, our customers can deploy it much faster than they could by deploying an on-premises infrastructure, which requires a significant investment,” Franz says. “Having a flexible back-end infrastructure lets us give our customers an easy way to get to market.” Anecdotal evidence from the trials have shown customers to have achieved savings from avoiding the up-front investments in on-premises infrastructure. “We estimate that utilities can deploy our solution in days rather than weeks by running it in Microsoft Azure,” Voigt says. “They no longer need to await server acquisition, deployment, testing, and other infrastructure-related delays and endure those costs.”
Improved Data Scalability
Microsoft Azure will provide the scalability needed to handle the growing data volumes that utilities face. Machine-to-machine communications and new smart meter reading services that involve millions of households providing energy data every
“The partnership
between Microsoft and
Oracle gave us the
opportunity to get our
application into the
cloud very quickly
without changing the
application architecture.”
Daniel Franz, Senior Solutions Manager for Vertical Markets, Redknee
“The partnership
between Microsoft and
Oracle gave us the
opportunity to get our
application into the
cloud very quickly
without changing the
application architecture.”
Daniel Franz, Senior Solutions Manager for Vertical Markets, Redknee
15 minutes will generate massive amounts of data.
“The new developments in the utilities industry are exciting, but we are yet to see how quickly these services will be adopted by consumers and businesses,” Franz says. “That’s why utilities want a way to incrementally grow their infrastructure. Microsoft Azure provides that incremental growth.”
Better Ability to Expand Business
The flexibility and scalability of Microsoft Azure helps Redknee expand its business. “The smart meter market is evolving differently in different areas of the world, and it’s much easier to address diverse geographical markets with a cloud-based offering,” Voigt says. “Our Microsoft Azure infrastructure makes it easy to deploy trials and tests in different parts of the world.” Lucas Skoczkowski, Chief Executive Officer of Redknee, says the Microsoft/Oracle partnership is helping his business be more successful. “Our strategy is to enable tier 1 service providers to use on-premises, cloud-based, and hybrid systems to support their growth strategies. The success of our strategy has enabled some of the world’s largest service providers to launch into new markets quickly and drive faster time-to-market,” says Skoczkowski. “A strategic and long-standing relationship with Microsoft and Oracle … will expand our addressable market for our solutions to tier 1 service providers in communications and other verticals such as utilities and machine-to-machine that are looking to take advantage of next-generation solutions with a low-risk investment strategy.”
“It’s much easier to
address diverse
geographical markets
with a cloud-based
offering. Our Microsoft
Azure infrastructure
makes it easy to deploy
trials and tests in
different parts of the
world.”
Jens Voigt, Chief Technology Officer EMEA, Redknee
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For more information about Redknee products and services, visit the website at:www.redknee.com
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Document published March 2014
