INDUSTRY: Retail

Products and Services
⦁ Azure
⦁ Azure SQL Database on Virtual Machine
⦁ Azure Virtual Machines
⦁ SSTech Consulting Services
⦁ Networking Stack
⦁ Industry
⦁ Retailers

Organization Size
Corporate (4,000+ employees)
Country
United Arab Emirates
Challenges & Solutions
The Group Companies engaged SSTech Consulting Services to help migrate Group on-premises datacenter to Microsoft Azure. As COVID-19 began spreading across the country, work from home has increased and online orders skyrocketed in a matter of months, accelerating Group modernization plans. To squelch competitive pressures, the need to operate and innovate faster was clear. Reducing costs while leveraging inherent Azure capabilities such as scalability, flexibility, resiliency, and agility will enable Group to quickly pivot based on market demand. AWR Holding consists of several companies, representing seven diverse sectors and offering exceptional products and services aimed at enriching lives.

As a family-owned business that was set up in Dubai in the early 50s, it gives us great pride to call the fastest growing metropolis in the world our home. Over the years, we have grown to become one of the most progressive and innovative business houses in the region, and a beacon for excellence in the Middle East and beyond.

When Group decided to go all in and migrate its entire data center to Microsoft Azure, it called on long-time collaborator SSTech to help deliver a flexible omnichannel platform to support growth and innovation. The first step was to lay the foundational technology infrastructure needed to pave the way for a successful digital transformation across the entire business.
Meeting technology and business objectives on time and on budget
The SSTech Consulting Services engagement paves the way for Group to accelerate its migration to Azure, which will save costs, time, and other valuable resources when all the infrastructure building blocks and security enhancements are in place.

Additionally, Group plans to significantly leverage Azure and Microsoft technology like containerization, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep analytics to foster near real-time decision-making, enhance customer communications, and improve the in-store and online shopping experience. The Cloud Foundation Group built will also help enable future business scenarios and innovative ways of meeting customer needs.

Fast adoption to scalability, flexibility, agility, and resiliency
As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the entire globe, Group, as a critical business during this crisis, saw a significant increase in the number of customers using its digital e-commerce platform.

With the Azure VM’s and SQL DB on Azure VM’ architecture it made easier for the IT team to collaborate with government applications seamlessly and also provide services to the customers of AWR in a more resilient way.

The SSTech technical team also did their part to ensure the right processes were in place for Group to operationally monitor and support the technologies and digital e-commerce platform.

In addition, SSTech provided training to help make the transition to Azure as frictionless as possible. The training took a multi-pronged approach tailored to Group’s employees. One method provided the opportunity to shadow and learn directly through experience. The second entailed meetings and engagements with product teams. The team also offered formal classroom-style training to show users how they could get certified on Azure using the class room training providers.