This document discusses Smart Communications' transition to running its customer communications management software in the cloud. It provides an overview of the company and its products, describes its journey from an on-premise to cloud-based architecture using CloudStack, and outlines its cloud infrastructure and processes for automating application deployment and management. It also shares lessons learned during the transition and plans for further optimizing its cloud environment.

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SMART COMMUNICATIONS20
19
Scale the Conversation™
October
CloudStack European User Group London

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Introduction
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• Sector: Customer Communications Management (CCM)
• Founded: 2001
• Headquarters : Elstree, United Kingdom
• Employees : 200
Smart Communications Ltd

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Agenda
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1. Application Overview
2. Journey into the Cloud
3. Cloud Architecture
4. Application Automation & Deployment
5. Lessons Learned & Future Plans

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The Journey
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2001 2004 2012 2014 2016 2018
Thunderhead
Founded
Acquired by
AKKR
Thunderhead
becomes Smart
Communications
CCM in the
Cloud
2019
Thunderhead
NOW Released
Rebrand
Smart
Communications
Acquires
Intelledox
500+ customers globally
Billions of communications
generated annually
Released
Released

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Products
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Products
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Application Process
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On Premise Stack
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Application Server
• JBOSS
• Weblogic
• WebSphere
Operating System
• Windows
• Linux
• Solaris
• AIX
Database Server
• Microsoft SQL
• Oracle
• DB2
Client
JMS/SOAP API
Application Server (EJB)
JDBC
JVMJVM JVM JVM

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Cloud Stack
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Web Server
• Tomcat 7
Operating System
• CentOS 6
Database Server
• Microsoft SQL
Cloud Orchestration
• CloudStack 4.9.3
Load Balancer
• PusleSecure vADC
Monitoring
• Zabbix
Controller
• TOC (The ONE Controller)
5 X CloudStack installations
• 1 Development
• 4 Production/DR
• 2 UK
• 2 NA
• Over 200 VMs
Each installation consists of :
• 1 Zone
• 1 Pod
• 2 Cloudstack Clusters
• 14 XenServer hosts
XenServer Host Spec :
• Manufacturer : CISCO
• Model : B200 M3
• Processor : 2 x E5-2680 @ 2.7 GHz
• Core : 16 Cores / 32 Threads
• Memory : 96 GB
• Disks : 2 x 300 GB

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Cloud Stack
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VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
VM
VM
VM
Xen
JDBC
Client
RESTful API
Xen Cluster 1 Xen Cluster 2

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Release Cycle
Dev Staging Test Preview Production
Development Office Data Centre

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CloudStack Network
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TOC Administration
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Full control of
instance
specific values
such as
database, load
balancer and
application
parameters

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TOC Administration
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Full control of
instance
specific values
such as
database, load
balancer and
application
parameters

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TOC Administration
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Full control of
instance
specific values
such as
database, load
balancer and
application
parameters

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TOC Administration
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Full control of
instance
specific values
such as
database, load
balancer and
application
parameters

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TOC Administration
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Full control of
instance
specific values
such as
database, load
balancer and
application
parameters

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TOC Operations
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Control
application
allowing the
stopping/starting
of instances or
adding/removing
individual VMs

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Cloud Application Lifecycle
Start Finished
CloudStack API
Snapshot
TOC Start Instance
VM Info returned
to TOC
VM Boot phase
Mount NFS for Chef Recipes
Chef Solo Run
Configure Tomcat & Application
Load Balancer Register
OSSEC Register
Zabbix Register
Get Snapshot from TOC
Provision Configure Register
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Lessons Learned
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• Image synchronisation when using local storage
• Capacity and VM allocation issues in Development environment

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Future Plans
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• Upgrade to 4.13 LTS
• Investigate feasibility of CloudStack Container Service

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Thank You
Graeme Wright
www.smartcommunications.com