Elmec Informatica SPA is Italy’s largest privately owned IT services provider, ranked by Forbes among the 50 leading companies for digital transformation in 2019. For 50 years, Elmec has been helping organizations of all sizes to select, deploy, run, manage and support their information technology.
At-a-Glance
With Rancher Prime as its Kubernetes management platform, Italian IT services provider Elmec helped a major client transition to microservices — raising application performance 40% above previous levels. Now, Elmec is extending the benefits to more clients with a first-of-a-kind managed services offering in Italy for Kubernetes, using Rancher Prime to simplify and secure the deployment, scaling and management of a growing array of containerized applications.
The journey to containers
Elmec is a trusted IT partner and services provider to more than 1,500 clients, delivering digital transformation that allows businesses to run at their best. One of these clients is a large technology company that specializes in software development for industrial manufacturing. This client was looking to modernize one of its monolithic application environments and evolve to a microservices-based architecture. The aim was to accelerate application delivery and performance, as well as improve overall stability and availability.
The software development company turned to Elmec for support on how to transition to microservices. Having extensive experience with containerization in its own application environment and with other clients, Elmec was ideally positioned to guide this evolution.
While Elmec had been using open source Docker and Kubernetes containerization technology internally, the company wanted to provide its client with a more tried-and-tested container orchestration and management layer. With an enterprise-grade platform, Elmec knew it could count on simplified deployment and management, stronger security and professional support.
“Rancher Prime allows us to make best use of our container-based applications and microservices. Teams now have a truly state-of-the-art platform for modern application development and management.”
Why Rancher Prime?
After evaluating multiple enterprise Kubernetes management platforms, Elmec selected Rancher Prime to support its client’s move to a microservices-based architecture.
Matteo Aroldi, presales manager at Elmec, notes: “We liked how Rancher Prime offered easier multicluster configuration management and a more user-friendly interface. But the most important deciding factor was having the backing of SUSE as an experienced enterprise partner behind the solution.”
As the first step, Elmec deployed Rancher Prime internally, as an upgrade from its existing open source Kubernetes management platform, Docker. Next, Elmec provided Rancher Prime as a managed service to its software development client.
After completing several proof-of-concept exercises, Elmec quickly built fully containerized applications and microservices for its client, centrally managed with Rancher Prime.
Today, the Rancher Prime platform is constantly expanding to support growing microservices environments, both for Elmec and its clients.
The impact of Rancher Prime
For Elmec, Rancher Prime brings noticeable benefits over Docker, including easier configuration, expanded functionality and straightforward multicluster management from a single pane of glass.
Giorgio Galvalisi, solutions architect at Elmec, says: “Rancher Prime allows us to make best use of our container-based applications and microservices. Teams now have a truly state-of-the-art platform for modern application development and management. SUSE has given us greater control and flexibility in equal measure.”
Boosts performance by 40%
For Elmec’s software development client, Rancher Prime has catalyzed the shift to a modern microservices architecture. That move has resulted in a 40% performance increase for key applications, in addition to faster development cycles and greater operational stability.
Strengthens application landscape
Moving to containerized deployments also makes it easier for the client to carry out application updates, upgrades and repairs, all while maintaining high levels of availability.
“Since adopting containerization, our client has seen clear improvements when it comes to the flexibility, resilience and stability of their landscape,” explains Aroldi. “Applications are more secure, more available and easier to develop and maintain.”
Provides peace of mind
With Rancher Prime, Elmec can focus on building next-generation digital services with the peace of mind that its entire stack — Rancher Prime, Kubernetes and Docker — is supported by a proven partner.
Galvalisi comments: “The SUSE team has been incredibly supportive and responsive, especially during the initial configuration process. So far, Rancher Prime has proven to be a very reliable platform. We have the added confidence of knowing that if we ever encounter issues, we have a strong safety net in SUSE.”
Supports business growth
As one of the first IT service providers in Italy to offer Kubernetes-as-a-Service on Rancher Prime, Elmec is in prime position to win new business. Rancher Prime provides an ideal foundation for this kind of managed service, offering a single, intuitive platform from which the company can easily support diverse client environments.
“Rancher Prime makes it easy for our team to manage and scale many different container environments,” says Aroldi. “Meanwhile, our clients get all the benefits of Kubernetes, without needing to dedicate their own resources to configuring and operating it.”
What’s next for Elmec?
Having successfully pioneered its managed Kubernetes service with its software development client, Elmec now has a proven model that it can offer to many more organizations. Plus, with SUSE handling the heavy lifting in terms of management and support for Rancher Prime, Elmec is free to focus on service innovation and business development.
Aroldi concludes: “Having the support of a strong and well-recognized partner like SUSE strengthens our managed service offering. We are looking forward to bringing the benefits of container adoption to even more organizations. We know that with Rancher Prime and SUSE, we have everything we need to make this new venture a success.”