British Army Banks onRed Hat® IT Solutions | ‘We’re Able to Deliver Incrementally’

“Red Hat and Ansible have met or exceeded all of the measurable outcomes we set for this project. Our adoption of these solutions is increasing throughout our organization.”

The British Army’s Information Application Services (IAS) Branch delivers software applications, hosting, and web services to families, veterans, and personnel deployed worldwide. To overcome unplanned downtime issues and support, IAS uses Red Hat® solutions to migrate its private cloud environment and deploy simplified, automated management tools. Now, IAS can make changes faster and more efficiently, cutting change delivery time by 75 percent.

Due to problems with support, performance, and availability, the IAS Branch needed to migrate from its Oracle private cloud environment. The system caused unplanned downtime during upgrades, disrupted users, and slowed update deployment. “There’s always pressure to deliver quickly,” said Lt. Col. Dorian Seabrook, head of operations at the IAS Branch. “We have to be more efficient in how we deliver software, as well as underlying infrastructure, upgrades, maintenance, and support.”

As mentioned above, IAS decided to migrate from Oracle Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux®, moving from physical infrastructure to a software-defined datacenter. To streamline management of its new environment, IAS uses Ansible Tower by Red Hat®, an automation and orchestration tool, to improve consistency, reduce manual errors, and support a DevOps delivery approach. “We were redefining our operating model and wanted to deliver software faster and more efficiently to meet end users’ requirements,” said Seabrook.

With the new system, IAS gained easier, more accurate management, cutting patching time and significantly reducing launch errors and configuration issues. Also, upgrades that previously took a day—and caused hours of system downtime each month—can now be performed in less than two hours with high availability. “Rather than bulk delivery, we’re able to deliver incrementally, and we no longer frustrate users with significant downtime during working hours,” said Seabrook.

“Red Hat and Ansible have met or exceeded all of the measurable outcomes we set for this project. Our adoption of these solutions is increasing throughout our organization,” added Seabrook.

To get a clear picture of this collaboration, The Silicon Review consulted the Red Hat® website for more information.