Digicel Group's Infrastructure Transformation led to the standardization of processes, increased stability and recoverability with Azure

As a complete communications and entertainment provider, Digicel is delivering powerful digital experiences to consumer and business customers in 25 countries across the Caribbean and Central America.

For Digicel it's all about keeping customers connected to the people and things they love. Digicel does that by providing world-class, superfast networks and services that provide customers with the ability to operate at the forefront of the global knowledge economy, right where they belong.

Having robust, scalable infrastructure is central to delivering the best experience for their customers. That's where Microsoft comes in.

A step towards the cloud

One of the pillars of the Digicel IT strategy is to focus on a Cloud-First approach, which helps to prevent outages in on-premises data centers and focus on increasing scalability and improving stability in their infrastructure. As part of Digicel’s digital journey, agility and flexibility are core to the business model and enhance further IT development, standardization, security, and governance.

According to Melinda Lloyd, Digicel Group's IT Program and Project Manager, Microsoft's Cloud Solutions met with their extensive standards. "Microsoft is a longstanding partner with the most wholesome or complete approach and Azure offerings, including Edge Cloud. This factor was a critical component given the dynamic locations in which we operate. We made the right choice", says Melinda.

The implementation started in 2019, supported by Maureen Data Systems, a Microsoft partner. The first step was to initiate a Cloud Transformation Program to migrate applications to the Azure Public Cloud, followed by a Data Transformation Program building a central Azure Data Warehouse across two geographic zones. The Digicel Cloud Transformation team later extended its Azure Platform to local Azure Stacks. While this expansion is in progress, it is already the most extensive Caribbean Azure Cloud Transformation program, being deployed across all 25 Digicel markets.

Azure empowering the business

Digicel built a complete cloud adoption framework strategy, including hosting digital apps for its customers and a robust roll-out plan underpinned where necessary by local Azure Infrastructure to be able to host all applications. It also included the creation of a landing zone and a hybrid cloud environment using Azure Stack Hub and HCI in local markets for performance in a mixed physical and virtual environment.

Completing Project implementation and formalizing app modernization activities

"From a quantitative perspective, one of the benefits is the standardization of our internal processes, which is helpful in structuring how our operations will look and be governed after we complete this phase", says Melinda.

The company has achieved what was intended with the standardization of processes, increased stability and recoverability, and Virtual Machine benefits of using the platform as a service; helping them align with IT security goals. A large number of servers and services are now operated by an Agile Cloud Services team, capable of doing more with fewer resources.

"We have increased agility, scalability, stability and patching automation, which helps us to minimize manual effort. The most significant benefit, however, is to be able to better serve our business and end customers, which is the main reason for this change and direction. As a company, security is essential to us and our customers as we need to meet global standards. This transformation helps us to achieve these goals." Melinda adds connoting feedback from Digicel's Group IT Chief Enterprise Architect, Gareth Hunt

With the Digicel internal IT Cloud Transformation well under way and reaping the benefits, Digicel is keen to showcase and help our customers achieve the same Cloud adoption level.