IT Outposts

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO at Review Your Finance and I'm in charge of this project. The goal of our company is to minimize fraud risks, and threats and allow consumers as well as financial organizations to be more informed so that financial investment be acknowledged about risks at the earliest stage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

Our mission at that time was to partially migrate the infrastructure and transfer only important microservices. We began to issue studies and seek to independently data transfer. But we ran into issues with data migration planning, cost estimation, and performance continuity.

For these reasons, we hired IT Outpost for a quality migration at the right time. We demanded that some of the infrastructures be left on-premises or in private clouds. This was our main requirement.

SOLUTION

How did you select IT Outpost and what were the deciding factors?

When choosing an executing company, we encountered some difficulties, but until we met the IT Outpost team. They provided us with very successful cases on our issue. Reviewing them, we were convinced of their specialization and experience. After that, I realized that they would solve our requests.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The work began with negotiations on the above issues and an audit to track security flaws and understand which infrastructure programs and applications are suitable for the cloud.

The next steps were: - Preparing the infrastructure and setting up CI/CD in the cloud;  Active monitoring and logging configuration; - Create a microservice migration plan; - Created a data migration strategy and a disaster recovery plan.

Conduct a test migration to understand transfer reliability and avoid downtime; - Switching the traffic, apply CI/CD blue-green. They particularly allow switching the traffic after testing the updates on production.

How many resources from the IT Outpost team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One project manager and two DevOps specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

IT Outpost approached our project very responsibly. On-time, their team has fully fulfilled its commitments. They created a migration plan and secured infrastructure transfer. Correctly calculated the migration budget according to our requirements.

Updated programs that did not meet the cloud demands. Now our infrastructure is partially hosted by a trusted provider. IT Outpost handled all our requests professionally.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

IT Outpost representatives were always in touch. Communication was smooth and consistent, which added to the productivity of our collaboration.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Team`s responsibility, their knowledge level and workaholism. They have demonstrated loyalty in all work aspects. Moreover, they carefully studied our requirements, which is an important point for service companies.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There is always a place for change, especially in a constantly evolving world. But their services are performed at a decent level. The IT Outpost team constantly monitors changes in information technology and keeps up with competitors.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CEO at AKMCreator. As an e-commerce solution provider, our company is committed to providing online trading services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

The primary purpose was to organize environments (preparation and production) for our Minimum Viable Product project. Creating such conditions was an important task for run-up, production and testing. We will also use continuous technical support for the subsequent fulfillment of the project during the next year. We aimed to choose a cloud provider for our product, set up provider services and CI/CD. The intention was to automate deployment and improve the conditions for the following development and expansion of the MVP.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have studied many positive reviews about this company and realized that they will be able to close our needs. During the negotiations, we discussed our requirements and concerns with their team. They developed a coherent plan to solve our tasks. Already at the stage of the first communication, we noticed the favorable and friendly approach of IT Outposts, which made our cooperation comfortable.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The IT Outposts`s work consisted of research and our work processes and loads state`s verification. They created the architecture. Their team helped us choose a reliable cloud provider and customized it according to our requests. The services were dockerized, then deployed and released the MVP. After, the necessary third-party services were configured.

Toolkit:

• Docker
• Terraform

CI/CD:

• CircleCI
• Argo CD
• Prometheus
• Redis
• Grafana
• RabbitMQ
• Elasticsearch
• CP (GKE, SQL Service (Postgres, Cloud Storage).

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The team included head of DevOps and two DevOps specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have achieved deployment automation and the IT Outpost team has developed a thorough plan to save DevOps and developers time hereinafter by 30 to 50%. The project development will evolve faster due to the infrastructure agility.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

IT Outposts showed themself at the highest level at every stage of communication. They have built a multi-channel approach to conjunction. We could see IT Outposts as a responsible company that fulfilled their commitments punctually.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It's their commitment to development, the enthusiasm of their team, also the great response to our ideas. They are a well-known competitive organization in the e-commerce field with highest rank IT specialists. I would like other experts in similar services to be the same as IT Outposts.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

In my experience, they are rapidly growing both qualitatively and quantitatively. I saw how they hone abilities. I did not notice any weaknesses, which is not surprising, since such dedication to their work will immediately allow them to notice shortcomings and quickly eliminate them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO at Beta Trader. Our enterprise is focused on the elaboration of financial services and the employ of a trustworthy platform founded on the blockchain.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

We used IT Outpost to apply DevOps practices to expand the infrastructure of the blockchain for smart contracts and core processes. Their specialists have helped us to attain a decent degree of steadiness and accessibility of projects in working condition. The fundamental direction was the elaboration of a DevOps methodology algorithm, as well as a roadmap for creating from the ground up and expanding in production an out-and-outer financial project.

We needed experts to maintain the extension of a high-load governance project. An important priority was the creation of descriptions of all procedures and products for high-quality compliance with the highest security policies for all aspects of the project and the minimum time for their recovery.

SOLUTION

How did you select IT Outposts and what were the deciding factors?

Our points were many years of experience and the presence of diverse successful cases, thus we understood that the enterprise was dependable. They conduct expertise in access management, adhere to proper security standards that meet the specifics of the financial project.

Moreover, one of our qualified partners commend IT Outposts and gave them an assessment of proficient and credible DevOps professionals.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our team already had the MVP of the trading platform ready. To speed up the process and avoid superfluous faults, we began to cooperate with IT Outpost. They executed common configuration goals, improved complex services, and also created solutions for guiding internal processes.

They have provided a superior stage in accordance with safety regulations. We have adopted with them an integrated approach to the management of all processes in terms of proceeding and maintaining the production further.

How many resources from the IT Outposts team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two Lead DevOps Engineers acted as specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Their experts have developed a productive strategy for managing confidential data, customer functions and admission permissions. They structured a suitable CI / CD process and took into account the peculiarity of a large number of microservices. They have automated many handheld functions, eliminated human faults, and diminished risk overall.

They also afford automatic resource entertainment from whole environments.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We managed to establish a close relationship with the IT Outpost team, they worked in a proactive mode, thus they provided magnificent communication, which accelerated the processes. We have had productive and high-quality collaboration.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

First of all, these are their cases and a bunch of years of experience, they have created a well-functioning system of work and treat it with accountability. They were constantly in communication and their specialists immediately responded to our requests. We were amazed by their skills in DevOps and their advice in this area at the highest level.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There is no limit to perfection. But after working with them at this stage, I did not identify areas where something could be improved, everything is at the highest level.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a BDM at Steelkiwi Inc. Our company specializes in finance, booking and scheduling, social networking, process automation, on-demand services, and eLearning. A large part of my work consists of FinTech projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts, and what were your goals?

We hired the IT Outposts team for our project - we develop an innovative financial product with a custom analytical service. Among the main tasks standardizing processes for quick implementation and services integration with PCI DSS compliance.

The main goal was the integration into the product, flow clarification, and interaction with the internal team of the project. We also needed to align the deployment flow, and implement the GitOps approach. Additionally, we adjusted the security of the environment based on external audit reports.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were looking for a reliable team of engineers with experience in financial project development support and experience in non-standard tech solutions implementation. We have found IT Outposts through a recommendation.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Initially, our team of architects and developers worked on the core of the payment system.

We were required to deploy infrastructure, set up CI / CD processes, conduct full testing of the project, standardize processes for on-premise deployment, and set up detailed dashboards with metrics of application and infrastructure performance.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The team consists of Lead DevOps Engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The experts of IT Outposts helped us to automate and unify the product deployment workflow. All solutions were successfully accepted by the internal project team. At this moment IT Outposts are onboarding an internal DevOps Engineer for the project.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The workflow between our distributed team and the team of IT Outposts experts was smooth and productive. Working in close cooperation, they did their best to reach the goals of the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They dived deeply into the product and always offered the best solutions. Also, I would like to admit the high level of communication and quick response to any requests.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing specific comes to mind. Overall we are very satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Chief Operating Officer at Maxxer. Maxxer is a centralized and regulated digital asset exchange. We are making crypto investing and trading accessible and simple.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts? Our company hired the experts of IT Outposts for scaling processes and infrastructure of the project. It was required to provide the project stability and its high accessibility in production.

We had several goals for our project. The first one was to establish a DevOps strategy and roadmap for the adoption of new CI/CD flow with Kubernetes for distributed blockchain solutions. The second goal was to integrate and deploy ​​custom project services with the core platform. Also, we needed to introduce a RACI matrix as well as a central vault of secrets, envisage the ability to utilize various kinds of deployments, and configure a flexible CI/CD flow.

Another project goal was to configure various autoscaling types with detailed monitoring of resource utilization of clusters and project services. Finally, it was required to teach the developers and engineers of our in-house team and also follow solutions delivery to production providing quick rollback as well as a seamless process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

How did you select IT Outposts? One of the partners recommended choosing IT Outposts as a reliable company. We explored their portfolio and were impressed by the solid background, thoughtful approach to work, and incredible deliverables that get the clients of IT Outposts. So, we were no longer in doubt and decided to start work.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

At the very beginning of the cooperation, we had a trading platform for B2B, B2C that effectively worked in production. We decided to go to a new phase of project scaling and new solutions adoption so hired IT Outposts. Their objective was to apply a non-standard approach and flexible solutions considering the specificity of our project.

The experts of IT Outposts designed services deployment and scaling plans, adopted the GitOps approach to the processes of project deployment. Also, they implemented solutions for working with sensitive data and access roles. IT Outposts maintain, improve development processes, and prepare the product for bringing to production.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The team consists of 2 Lead DevOps Engineers. ​​

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The deliverables of our collaboration with IT Outposts are excellent. The experts devised a strategy for sensitive data, access rights, and roles management. Also, they established the most convenient CI/CD flow, considering the specificities of more than 30 microservices of the project. One more great outcome is that IT Outposts professionals have managed to mitigate the “human factor” and the jeopardies of production bugs. Also, they ensured auto-scaling of cluster resources and a Load balancer.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between the specialists of IT Outposts and our in-house team was maximally coherent and fruitful. We quickly found common ground and started to move towards our common objectives.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

One of the most impressive things about the experts of IT Outposts is the high level of professionalism and extensive experience that allows them to offer the best possible solutions. Also, I would like to admit such excellent qualities as precision and responsibility.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I cannot think of anything right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Chief Executive Officer at Mriyar. Mriyar is a Ukrainian Big Data-based startup developing a car parts trading platform for B2C and B2B market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

We hired the experts of IT Outposts to identify project bottlenecks as well as optimize and improve the underlying processes before sending the whole product into production stages. The project’s goal was to configure thorough monitoring of major high-load project services, create functional dashboards with a big number of system and custom business metrics, describe the configurations in Ansible playbooks, and integrate the system with the main project playbook. Also, it was necessary to compose a plan of stage-by-stage project migration to dedicated capacities to minimize downtime, conduct full-on migration, and test the performance of all services. And one more goal was to compose a plan of flexible project scaling and migration to Kubernetes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have found IT Outposts through recommendations. Among the crucial factors why we decided to select IT Outposts were their impressive portfolio, broad experience, and fair price.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The infrastructure of the project was initially planned and structured by our in-house development team, so we required a good share of narrow-profiled expertise to identify project bottlenecks as well as optimize and improve the underlying processes before sending the whole product into production stages. The project was quite wide-scope from the get-go as it was intended to process extensive volumes of data. And this is exactly why it became difficult for us to manage the cloud infrastructure budget and monitor resource utilization without additional assistance.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The team consists of 2 Lead DevOps Engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

IT Outposts experts have managed to adjust the detailed monitoring of over 35 servers and 7 services, which enabled them to also outline a clear infrastructure and underlying processes optimization plan. The infrastructure budget is projected to be optimized approximately by 40%. On top of that, there was formed a scope of tasks implying further optimization of the system for the rational use of resources by all services running in terms of the project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between our in-house team and the experts of IT Outposts was coherent and seamless. We have built successful and effective cooperation based on dedication to the common goals.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We were impressed by the promptness and professionalism of IT Outposts. Their experts have a clear understanding of our needs. Also, they are very organized and timely.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Everything is going great and I don't think something needs to be improved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Founder of Vidby. Our company specializes in developing service of translate video. Our services allow users to separate audio from video, translate it into more than 50 languages, and then add this translation to the video.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

We hired DevOps experts of IT Outposts to сlarify the architecture plan of video calls service with real-time automatic translation while taking into account the specifics of the streaming platform. We needed to configure and integrate all project services, in particular,_to work with queues. The other task for the experts of IT Outposts was project maintenance in production.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were looking for a company with a high level of DevOps engineers’ expertise, a deep understanding of our business needs, and reliability. We have contacted IT Outposts through a recommendation. The IT Outposts team quickly understood what we wanted to achieve and provided the resources we needed.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project team finished preparing the basic architecture and developed several microservices locally. The members of this team were looking for an alternative DevOps opinion to clarify the infrastructure requirements and choose an approach for deploying applications. As the project was planned to be highly loaded and available for customers all over the world, it was important to consider all possible scaling scenarios, the processes of handling orders in the queue, and resources downscaling in order to control the budget for the cloud infrastructure. Also, it was necessary to implement a GitOps approach with full version control to minimize manual work and the ability to roll back quickly.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The team consists of the Head of DevOps and Lead DevOps Engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

In close cooperation with our technical team, the IT Outposts team prepared an architecture plan and deployed infrastructure. A declarative description of all processes will minimize the risks connected with the availability of the project in production. They organized the most comfortable CI / CD flow, taking into account the nuances of the project's microservices, minimized the “human factor” and the risks of production errors. Flexible auto-scaling of cluster resources was also provided.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

IT Outposts experts and our core project team members hit it off right away. The cooperation is effective and fruitful.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The most impressive factor is their level of responsibility and commitment to the project goals. The experts of IT Outposts provide high-level DevOps consulting on key architectural solutions and always strive to find the most beneficial approach to any issue.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

For now, we don't see any areas of improvement. In case we have something in mind, we always share the ideas with the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Delivery Director of the Dinarys Gmbh. We are creating best e-commers solution for our clients and have a huge expertise in Magento and Shopware projects!

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Outposts?

We required a DevOps team to extend their capacity and handle a variety of tasks focused on improving the end customer’s experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have created RFP for several companies and then make our choise based on level of expertise, solutions, estimates and communication with engeeniers. IT outposts was strongest than other companies that we have seen.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project was on the development stage and we needed assist with DevOps activities to provide client best capacity of development team. IT outposts joined us on our road to release website in production.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

From Vendor we worked with Project Managet, DevOps Team lead and DevOps engeenier.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

IT Outposts created a detailed monitoring dashboard for our development team, ensured smooth project scalability for main cloud providers, and performed high availability optimization. Additionally, they are developing a service for crash dump collecting and sending.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication and workflow was in high quality for us. Every day we had daily meetings and every Monday i recieved detailed feedback fro vendor team that made our cooperation clear as possible.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Most impressive was quality of work that was provided by IT Outposts.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can't tell that anything should be improved from IT Outposts because all processes were just perfect! It's pleasure to work with such professional team!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at C Teleport

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Building flexible business travel product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire IT Outposts to accomplish?

• Take over infrastructure management
• Migrate application deployment to Kubernetes

SOLUTION

How did you find IT Outposts?

Online Search

Why did you select IT Outposts over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from IT Outposts were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Migration to k8s for our mission critical deployments m

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Deployment on schedule and good incident response time

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They're a great expert that we can trust! Simple and complex solutions were discussed and deployed on time

What was your primary form of communication with IT Outposts?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Experienced engineers and good management

Are there any areas for improvement or something IT Outposts could have done differently?

Nothing really

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Engineering of a media company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We’re an international team of experts in marketing, technology, data and creative, who came together because we want businesses to make the most of the opportunities the digital landscape provides.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire IT Outposts to accomplish?

• To utilize them to operate also outside business hours
• Streamline the DevOPS activities
• Consultancy for day to day queries about DevOPS

SOLUTION

How did you find IT Outposts?

• Online Search
• Other

Why did you select IT Outposts over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

What was the size of IT Outposts’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

To be the back watch for out-of-office hours and to help professionalize the cloud infrastructure.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Conversion of cloud assets to proper IaC. Uptime and availability

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The project management could be better from a communication and planning perspective. However, the work is done fast and the response to queries is always timely.

What was your primary form of communication with IT Outposts?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The skills and knowledge level of their engineers are impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something IT Outposts could have done differently?

To have a way to make the project planning more transparent