Project Overview

We’ve all been there- leadership wants it done better, but also cheaper. Impossible right? With this client, a US government contractor, V3 was able to reduce Azure spending while simultaneously maintaining the organization’s high expectations for system performance by analyzing Virtual Machine (VM) usage.

V3’s proprietary methodology gathers and analyzes usage and cost data and provides recommendations to maintain performance, while saving money. In instances of staffing issues or budgetary concerns, V3 can also execute the needed changes within the network. For this specific customer we found that more than half of the virtual machines could be reduced by 60% while others could be resized to newer series for increased performance. The client’s overall Azure spend was reduced by 30% and V3 has been retained for a follow-on project to cleanup storage.

Customer Details

• Date: December 2024
• Industry: Government Contractor

Project Overview

The V3 team prides themselves on creating lasting relationships. One of our clients is a global top-ten defense contractor whom we have worked with since 2017. During that time, we have helped them navigate international sales, acquisitions, and one of the largest defense mergers in history.

This customer has a strong desire to use automation and Infrastructure as Code (IAC) to keep updated documentation, maintain repeatability, and prevent configuration drift. The beginning of the project used Azure Resource Manager templates and custom PowerShell scripts and as it soon became clear that more services were needed. V3 helped migrate all deployments and management to Terraform Enterprise, using custom developed modules. Our team was able to strike an important balance between customizability and usibility, making it easy for all cloud administrators to be successful.

The on-premises network was extended into Azure using Express Routes and Palo Alto virtual firewalls. V3 created custom automations and provided training; now when a new network is configured in Azure it automatically has the base security rules, and a firewall engineer can easily apply rules to an Azure network the same as they would if it was on-premises. Systems like this are complex to deploy but save money and staffing resources overall as the same firewall and network engineers can perform familiar tasks.

Over the life of this project, over 700 Azure virtual machines have been deployed or migrated using Azure Migrate. V3 also provided dozens of other Azure services including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Structured Query Language (SQL), NetApp Files, App Services, and continues to consult with this client on special projects.

Tools used

• Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
• Azure PowerShell tools
• Terraform Enterprise
• Palo Alto virtual appliances

Customer Details

• Date: February 2017 to present
• Industry: Defense

Project Overview

A global electronics distributor was looking to migrate their entire infrastructure from on-premises servers to Microsoft Azure.

As a client for multiple years prior, this client chose to work with V3 again because of our expertise using Terraform as the Infrastructure as Code (IAC) tool.

V3 strives to provide personal and boutique level service to each of our clients so not only did we design the network infrastructure and write the custom Terraform code, but we also assisted in the configuration of the environment, ensuring that the project was successful from start to finish.

Because this client has locations in North America, Europe, and Asia, it was important that they had a geo-diverse network backbone. In our infrastructure design, we used Azure Virtual WAN (vWAN) in order to fulfill each requirement for that network.

We understand that global locations can’t all be treated the same way. So, to connect the datacenters, we used Azure Express Routes, while the smaller offices used Site-to-Site VPNs, and both Windows and Mac laptops used Point-to-Site VPN.

With this multi-phased solution, V3 was not only able to save the customer more than $20,000 annually on Maraki licensing costs but also simplify remote user experience by using Entra ID authentication.

A major challenge for this client was the need to integrate a line of business application which used Virtual Machines in Azure with databases hosted in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Our team configured the connection between Azure and OCI and provided aftercare for the system as a whole, bridging the network gap between two cloud providers.

Terraform is a powerful tool used in this case to ensure that all regionsal settings stayed consistent, a necessary component of configuring additional site-to-site VPNs. Terraform also allowed V3 to use proven code from other projects to exceed the customers timeline.

Tools Used

• Terraform Open Source
• Entra ID
• Oracle Interconnect for Azure
• Azure Virtual WAN
  • Point-to-Site VPN
  • Express Route
  • Custom Routing
• Virtual Machines
• Storage

Customer Details

• Date: January 2024
• Industry: Multinational electronics supplier