Headforwards partnered with a global service provider to develop a Cloud Management Platform (CMP) to offer large blue-chip customers greater visibility and control over their multi-cloud environments. The goal was to provide these organisations with a platform that offered customised insights and management tools tailored to the needs of different roles, such as finance, operations, system administrators, and development teams.
Running for five years, the project aimed to build a platform capable of delivering a unified view of cloud assets across multiple providers, regardless of whether they were public or private. This solution allowed our client to offer its customers a sophisticated tool for monitoring, managing, and optimising their cloud resources.
Headforwards played a central role in the software development process, providing several front-end and back-end teams that collaborated closely with our client’s senior technical team. The partnership adopted agile methodologies, initially using Scrum-based sprints before transitioning to a Kanban approach for better workflow management. Headforwards also embedded a DevOps culture, emphasising Continuous Integration and Delivery, which enabled up to 25 daily releases to the production environment.
The platform’s architecture included a robust Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to handle vast amounts of resource data, role-based access control for secure user management, and APIs to integrate with various cloud providers. A significant focus was on creating a developer-friendly environment that allowed third-party teams to build their own applications and connectors, enhancing the CMP’s extensibility.
One of the primary challenges was managing the complexity of integrating multiple cloud providers into a single platform while ensuring that different organisational roles had appropriate visibility and control. This was addressed by designing a flexible role-based access system and developing standardised APIs that streamlined interactions with diverse cloud environments.
Maintaining a high release velocity without compromising system stability was another significant hurdle. This was overcome through a robust CI/CD pipeline that facilitated frequent and reliable updates, ensuring continuous improvement and rapid feature deployment.
The Insight CMP empowered our client’s customers to efficiently oversee their multi-cloud operations, optimising costs and resource allocation. It also provided our client with a powerful operator portal to streamline service administration. By enabling third-party development, the platform laid the groundwork for ongoing innovation and adaptability to future needs.
The successful delivery of the Insight Cloud Management Platform demonstrated Headforwards’ capability to execute complex software projects at scale. The collaboration with our client not only resulted in a powerful tool for managing multi-cloud environments but also established a platform for continuous evolution and enhancement, driving significant value for both our client, and their customers.
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