Australian telecommunications provider Aussie Broadband has moved forward with its internal cloud initiative after completing the first phase of the platform’s deployment. The company has already placed several operational systems on the environment and is preparing a broader migration of internal workloads.
The platform currently supports infrastructure services that help manage automation and orchestration processes used across the company’s technology operations. According to cloud and site reliability engineering leader Ben O’Shea, teams are now working with internal departments to determine which applications should transition next and how the migration timeline will unfold.
Aussie Broadband built the internal cloud using technologies from Cisco, NetApp, Pure Storage, and SUSE. The company designed the environment to eventually replace its earlier virtualization and container infrastructure.
A key objective of the project involves reducing reliance on systems based on VMware. The organization has begun prioritizing workloads that still run inside VMware virtual machines. The company will move these services first as part of a larger effort to transition toward container based infrastructure.
Company leaders say the shift reflects both technology strategy and cost considerations. Telecom providers operate in a highly competitive environment where infrastructure spending directly affects margins. Therefore, the company aims at avoiding entering into long-term commitments on platforms that it does not intend to use in the future.
At the same time, development teams are increasingly preferring containerization solutions such as Docker and Kubernetes due to the flexibility that such environments provide to applications compared to traditional VMs.
The company will base migration decisions on risk. Older systems or applications that raise compliance concerns may move earlier in the sequence. In some cases, engineers will also examine whether modernization efforts can accompany the migration.
Alongside the platform build, Aussie Broadband has also updated its backup strategy. The company replaced an existing backup solution after issues arose with the performance of the existing solution. After conducting a proof of concept to test alternative solutions, the company decided to use technology offered by Veeam to protect its workloads running in both its new cloud infrastructure and its existing infrastructure.
The company includes its internal cloud initiative as part of a larger technology plan within its transformation strategy. Within its technology plan, Aussie Broadband has increased its investment in its site reliability engineering strategy.
