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About the customer
Deutsche Bahn AG has bundled its entire bus business into the DB Regio division, Bus segment (DB Regio Bus). DB Regio Bus focuses on local public transport in rural areas. The bus companies, which were previously independent, have been merged on a regional basis and are market leaders in the German local public transport market. Until the end of 2016, the IT infrastructure used was distributed across seven regions within Germany, operated completely independently, and corresponded to a classic data center model. Growing competition in the market and the search for agile IT infrastructure solutions were factors in the decision to implement cloud services and centralize IT.
The challenge
Seven regional IT infrastructure landscapes were to be consolidated and migrated to the AWS cloud. All group specifications had to be taken into account and incorporated into a cloud readiness architecture. In addition, a central IT operations team had to be set up based on a SysOps approach from formerly regionally focused IT administrators. Strategically, application migration was to be started with core applications in order to gain high acceptance for the new cloud services.
Implementation
The two applications consisted of various subsystems with a monolithic software architecture. The challenge was that these systems were used to varying degrees in each region, had to be migrated without interruption, and database schemas and interfaces were defined and operated differently in each region.
Together with PROTOS Technologie GmbH, DB Regio first developed and implemented a suitable account and network concept, including the use of AWS services such as customer gateways, Direct Connect, and best practice VPC subnetting. The existing IT systems were then migrated from the various on-premises data centers to the cloud using lift&shift/re-host. During the migration and in today's operations, AWS services such as EC2, SSM, EBS, and S3 are used, among others.
The original server systems were rebuilt in the AWS environment for migration, based on asset analyses carried out in advance. The final quantity structure of the database and application machines, as well as the sizing, was defined after a 3-month monitoring phase under load. Central infrastructure components and directory services, as well as client desktop virtualization for the core applications, were consolidated in advance and provided as new centrally operating components.
Within 12 weeks, the account and network environment were set up and the first systems, formerly comprising more than 50 virtual and physical servers, were migrated. At the same time, central IT components for operating the core applications and around 75 TB of data were migrated. Classic Citrix clients were replaced by AWS Workspaces for defined user workloads.
In addition to technical design and implementation support, PROTOS Technologie GmbH took on project management and supported the customer with organizational and technical issues. From the definition and implementation of new customized business and operating processes, to communication interfaces with external service providers, to support in setting up a new ITC operations team, PROTOS acted as a partner for DB Regio Bus.
In addition to providing technical and functional support during the migration, PROTOS also managed and implemented workshops and training courses, thus providing effective support in introducing DB Regio Bus ITK to new cloud readiness processes.
Result
Within 16 weeks, decentralized IT landscapes that were isolated at the regional level were migrated to a centralized, fully virtualized, agile, scalable, and highly redundant IT infrastructure environment. Today, the systems scale vertically and, in some cases, horizontally.
With today's IT landscape, DB Regio Bus is able to adapt quickly and flexibly to changing conditions and competition in the market. New ITC applications, services, and operational support tools can be put into operation in the current infrastructure in a very short time.
DB Regio Bus's IT processes are predestined for the use of big data, IoT, real-time data streaming and analysis, and serverless architectures. This evolutionary step was the joint conviction, motivation, and driving force behind the project.
