Azure Data Factory

Project goals:

  • Setup ETL process based on Azure Data Factory, to move data between OLTP.
  • MS SQL Server DB (on-premises environment) and Data Mart based on Azure Database for MySQL.
  • Implement several aggregations and transformations into ETL

Accomplishments:

  • The ADF pipeline has been designed to move extract data from SQL Server, perform all required transformations and load the data into the Data Mart.
  • The service has been integrated with an on-premises monitoring system (Zabbix), to ensure robust, production-ready management and monitoring capabilities.
  • Azure AD roles and users have been set up to fit the enterprise security/access policies.

Technologies:

  • Azure Cloud
  • Azure Data Factory
  • Azure Database for MySQL
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Zabbix

Workload:

  • 60 hours

Project team:

  • Senior DevOps Engineer
  • Senior Data Engineer

 

Cloud backup infrastructure setup in Azure

Project goals:

  • The client’s on-premises hardware was running out of support lifetime.
  • It was required to find a cost-effective way to move from the mentioned hardware
  • The system consisted of:
    1) a hardware hypervisor with 18 VMs running on top of it;
    2) a storage appliance;
    3) an Email server;
    4) a hardware firewall

Accomplishments:

  • A detailed analysis has been conducted, to compare the pros/cons of 3 different ways to address the risks:1) Migrate the system to a brand-new hardware
    2) Migrate the whole system to Azure cloud services
    3) Set up a backup solution in the cloud, to ensure a seamless switch-over to the cloud in case of the on-prem system’s failure.
  • A decision has been made to proceed with the 3 rd option implementation
  • The backup system has been built in Azure Cloud, utilizing cloud-native services where possible to optimize costs and simplify maintenance (Storage, DB, Mail server, monitoring solution)
  • Such an approach allowed us to minimize the cloud deployment costs to 20% if compared to classical cloud migration.

Technologies:

  • Azure Cloud
  • Azure VM
  • Azure Storage
  • Azure Database for MySQL
  • Windows Server
  • Office365

Workload:

  • 400 hours

Project team:

  • Azure Cloud Architect
  • Senior Windows Administrator
  • Senior Network Administrator

Oracle + SQL server + Weblogic + Fargate Migration from on-premises to Amazon Web Services

Project goals:

  • Migrate a mission-critical system comprising Java containerized applications, JavaEE Weblogic-based application, Oracle DB and MS SQL Server DB from the company’s premises to AWS.
  • Migrate databases to AWS RDS.
  • Implement serverless container hosting with AWS Fargate.
  • Setup system monitoring with Cloudwatch.
  • Design and deploy Business Continuity solutions.
  • Develop standard support operation procedures.

Accomplishments:

  • The system has been migrated within 2 hours of downtime.
  • A cross-region Disaster Recovery solution has been implemented, comprising DB replication, Container/EC2 synchronization, and S3 buckets sync.
  • Cloudwatch setup has been customized to suit corporate monitoring requirements. 17 custom metrics written.
  • 8 SOP documents have been developed and tested

Technologies:

  • AWS EC2
  • AWS Fargate
  • AWS RDS
  • Cloudwatch
  • AWS S3
  • Oracle Database
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Windows Server

Workload:

  • 350 hours

Project team:

  • Amazon Web Services Architect
  • 2 x Senior DevOps Engineer
  • Senior Microsoft SQL Server DBA
  • Senior Oracle DBA

Jenkins CI/CD build from GIT

Project goals:

  • Build a CI/CD pipeline for an AWS based web application, using Jenkins and Git repository
  • The application comprises: AWS RDS (Oracle and SQL server), Fargate, EC2 Linux servers with Weblogic server

Accomplishments:

  • Build and deploy pipelines have been configured with Jenkins, to fetch the new code from Git and deploy to Weblogic server, Fargate containers, and RDS DB
  • User access model has been implemented in Jenkins to ensure secure access to Production build/deploy functions

Technologies:

  • Jenkins
  • Git
  • AWS EC2
  • AWS Fargate
  • AWS RDS
  • Oracle Database
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Windows Server

Workload:

  • 90 hours

Project team:

  • Senior DevOps Engineer

AWS Infrastructure Cost Optimization

 

Project goals:

  • Analyze the client’s cloud-based infrastructure, consisting of AWS EC2, Fargate and RDS services
  • Analyze the services’ resource usage from different angles and find opportunities to optimize costs

Accomplishments:

  • RDS (Oracle and SQL server), Fargate, EC2 CPU/Memory/IO usage has been analyzed – to propose more optimal instance sizes
  • A shutdown policy has been implemented to save resources during off-hours
  • Savings plan has been implemented to optimize the costs of the existing resources
  • RDS Oracle and MS SQL Server SQL queries have been optimized to lower the actual CPU/Memory usage

Technologies:

  • AWS EC2
  • AWS Fargate
  • AWS EKS
  • AWS RDS
  • Oracle Database
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Windows Server

Workload:

  • 80 hours

Project team:

  • Senior Oracle DBA
  • Senior MS SQL Server DBA
  • Senior AWS Architect

 

Oracle DB upgrade & migration

Project goals:

  • Upgrade Oracle database from 11.2.0.4 to 12.2.0.1
  • Migrate the database to the new high-end server
  • De-fragment and consolidate data within the database to reclaim space and improve performance
  • Implement In-Memory database option
  • Implement Multitenant database architecture

Accomplishments:

  • The upgrade and migration has been performed, meeting 1 month project deadline
  • Meeting such a tight deadline became possible because of merging the upgrade and migration activities under one Oracle DataPump export/import process
  • Complex post-migration ETL performance issues have been resolved, by optimizing target configuration DB parameters
  • Multitenant and In-Memory options have been implemented

Technologies:

  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle Database Multitenant option
  • Oracle Database In-Memory option
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux

Workload:

  • 95 hours

Project team:

  • Senior Oracle Database Architect
  • Senior Oracle DBA

Client’s feedback:

«UCGP Consult is one of the best Oracle teams I’ve met, and I’ve worked with many. Their knowledge levels are incredible, feels like they can answer any question and solve any problem. They solved our slowdown issue and we can recommend them to anyone who is dealing with complex projects and big data.”

 

Oracle E-Business Suite migration to Private Cloud

Project goals:

  • Migrate the whole client’s enterprise ERP system to new virtual servers
  • Optimize system performance on the target platform

Accomplishments:

  • The main challenge turned out to be low network bandwidth between the source and target sites
  • The issue was addressed by using a custom copy approach, that allowed to compress data before sending it over the network and uncompressing on the target system – all in one data pipeline
  • System performance has been optimized, allowing the solution to use 30% CPU less resource after the migration, and using all virtualization benefits
  • E-Business Suite clone process has been scripted to minimize downtime to less than 6 hours for two interconnected EBS systems

Technologies:

  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle E-Business Suite
  • Oracle E-Business Suite Advanced Supply Chain Planning
  • Oracle Discoverer
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Workload:

  • 250 hours

Project team:

  • Senior Oracle Database Architect
  • Senior Oracle DBA
  • Senior Linux Administrator

Client’s feedback:

«All communications with UCGP Consult were pleasant, the project was finished on time despite outdated software and all the difficulties it inevitably brings. Highly skilled professionals, always ready to help, very likely will hire again. Thank you for your work!»

License audit and cost optimization

Project goals:

  • Conduct an Oracle license audit of over 300 database systems
  • Identify and report on possible Oracle license breaches in the system
  • Identify suboptimal license usage
  • Develop and implement a plan to remediate licensing issues

Accomplishments:

  • A thorough audit of license usage and breaches conducted
  • 12 major license issues were identified, including both one-time and regular cases of unintentional licensed feature usage
  • 8 cases identified, where the usage of licensed features does not provide any business value
  • A plan has been developed, to remediate the issues and optimize the systems, minimizing the system impact

Technologies:

  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle Licensing
  • Oracle Database Multitenant option
  • Oracle Database Tuning and Diagnostic packs
  • Oracle Database Advanced Security option
  • Oracle Database Advanced Compression option
  • Oracle Database Real Application Clusters
  • Oracle Database OLAP
  • Oracle Database Advanced Analytics option
  • Oracle PL/SQL

Workload:

  • 50 hours

Project team:

  • Senior Oracle Database Architect
  • Oracle Licensing Expert

Client’s feedback:

«The project has been completed perfectly. UCGP Consult employs very skilled Senior DBAs with a proactive approach and professional attitude. Will hire again!»

Oracle DB & middleware system health check and remediation

Project goals:

  • Perform a health check of the university learning management system
  • Identify and report on any sort of technical issues and misconfigurations
  • Develop and implement a plan to remediate the issues

Accomplishments:

  • System health check has been performed for all technology layers: OS, DB, Middleware, Application
  • 37 major issues has been discovered, 6 of them identified as “Critical”
  • A plan has been developed, to remediate the issues, minimizing the system impact
  • The plan has been successfully executed, increasing the system scalability by 40%, improving security and minimizing risk of unplanned downtime

Technologies:

  • Oracle Database
  • Weblogic server
  • Oracle Apex
  • Oracle Rest Data Services
  • Oracle Forms and Reports
  • Oracle Fusion Middleware
  • Oracle Discoverer
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Microsoft Windows Server
  • Apache Tomcat
  • Ellucian Quercus

Workload:

  • 40 hours

Project team:

  • Senior Oracle DBA
  • Senior Oracle Middleware Administrator

Client’s feedback:

«UCGP Consult has greatly increased our system stability and robustness. Now we are confident that our environment is free from issues and is configured according to the best practices. Thank you, Ilya and UCGP Consult!»

Oracle Cloud solution design & migration planning

Project goals:

  • Design Oracle Cloud architecture to host a database solution, comprising 5 enterprise databases
  • Cost-optimize the solution
  • Develop and plan the migration approach

Accomplishments:

  • Business requirements analysis has been conducted to scope the project and define clear KPI for the new cloud system
  • Cost-optimized, scalable Oracle Cloud solution has been designed, ready for deploy and migration
  • The solution implementation approach and plan has been developed, to minimize the downtime and expedite the migration to meet the 3-months project deadline

Technologies:

  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle Cloud
  • Oracle Database as a Service
  • Oracle Real Application Clusters
  • Oracle Infrastructure as a Service
  • Oracle Exadata as a Service

Workload:

  • 40 hours

Project team:

  • Senior Business Analyst
  • Oracle Cloud & Database Architect

Client’s feedback:

«Alexander is an extremely skilled architect. He has designed the whole database solution for us and, together with his team, has led the project to a successful implementation. Thank you, Alex, thank you UCGP Consult, will definitely hire you again! It has been a pleasure working with Alex and his team.»