Partner Success with AWS / Telecommunications / United Kingdom

August 2024
BT Group
Hashicorp

BT Group Reduces Deployment Time from Days to 10 Minutes with HashiCorp and AWS

AWS Partner HashiCorp provided the comprehensive toolset BT Group needed to move 70 applications from its on-premises data center to AWS, enhancing scalability and cost savings.

10

minutes for deployments, down from 1 – 3 days

90%

of manual deployment tasks automated

70

applications moved to AWS

80%

approximate reduction in infrastructure costs

Overview

BT Group, a British multinational telecommunications company, needed to close one of its large on-premises data centers within a year. The company chose to migrate 70 applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) using AWS Partner HashiCorp. BT Group used the comprehensive suite of HashiCorp tools with AWS services to establish a reliable hybrid on-premises and cloud environment. Ultimately, the migration resulted in reduced deployment times from days to just 10 minutes, with over 90 percent of deployment tasks now automated. BT Group saw significant cost savings and enhanced scalability, while ensuring uninterrupted TV services for customers.

Very Large Array

Opportunity | Migrating a Large Data Center without Disruptions

BT Group is a leading provider of telecommunications in the UK. With its expansive footprint, the company had accumulated numerous data centers over its history, which incurred significant operational costs related to leasing, energy use, and maintenance. As part of a strategic initiative to optimize costs and improve efficiency, BT Group sought to reduce its legacy infrastructure and shift a majority of its operations to the cloud. The goal was to leverage the scalability and cost-efficiency of cloud infrastructure and reserve physical data centers for strategic use cases.

At the start of the project, the Networks unit of BT Group, responsible for building the software and infrastructure for its consumer EE TV product, operated from multiple on-premises data centers, one of which needed to close within a year. Ensuring uninterrupted TV services for customers during the transition was a critical concern. Additionally, BT Group wanted to minimize the impact on development teams, so they could focus on priorities like shipping new features and resolving issues.
 

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The strategic use of HashiCorp tools with AWS services positions BT Group for enhanced operational flexibility and cost savings.”

Tom Davies
Principal Software Engineer, BT Group

Solution | Moving 70 Applications to AWS Seamlessly Using HashiCorp

BT Group needed to decide what to do with 70 applications spread across two of its data centers. But it wasn’t just the applications—there were also hundreds of test copies and QA copies to migrate. The company had some tough decisions to make, but choosing a cloud provider wasn’t one of them. “AWS is known for its scalable, secure infrastructure, and several teams already used AWS services, making it the obvious choice for this transition,” said Tom Davies, principal software engineer at BT Group. The team decided to migrate a significant portion of its applications—around 60 percent—to AWS.

Driven by the need to modernize infrastructure operations, enhance security, and improve deployment agility, BT Group turned to HashiCorp, an AWS Partner. HashiCorp offers a comprehensive suite of tools for infrastructure and security lifecycle management. “HashiCorp solutions—Terraform, Nomad, Consul, and Vault—helped us move seamlessly, allowing teams to focus on application development rather than the intricacies of cloud provisioning,” said Davies. The entire procurement process was managed through AWS Marketplace, which streamlined and simplified the experience.

Terraform automated provisioning and management across the infrastructure lifecycle on AWS, ensuring consistent deployment practices and reducing manual effort. Nomad was the central orchestration tool, facilitating seamless app deployment and scaling to optimize resource and operational efficiency. Consul provided essential connectivity features for cloud hosted applications like service discovery, health checks, and traffic routing. Meanwhile, Vault enhanced data protection and compliance to boost security posture throughout the migration by safeguarding API keys, passwords, and TLS certificates.

In parallel, BT Group used AWS Direct Connect and AWS Transit Gateway to facilitate seamless communication in a hybrid on-premises and cloud environment. These services ensured operational continuity and minimized disruption during the migration period. “The strategic use of HashiCorp tools with AWS services enabled us to achieve our migration goals efficiently while positioning BT Group for enhanced operational flexibility and cost savings,” said Davies.

Outcome | Automating 90 Percent of Deployment Tasks

The migration to AWS allowed BT Group to revolutionize its deployment processes. Previously, on-premises application deployments involved multiple teams. It took one to three days to provision servers and set up firewall rules. With HashiCorp tools, Terraform automated 90 percent of these tasks. This reduced deployment time from days to just 10 minutes, accelerating time-to-market for both migrated workloads and new projects.

The company achieved its goals of minimizing TV service disruptions and reducing work for its development teams. With standardized deployment templates, teams seamlessly adopted the new platform without the need for extensive code changes or learning new languages. Beyond operational improvements, BT Group estimated an 80% cost reduction from using Amazon EC2 Spot Instances for test and CI workloads in AWS reduced infrastructure costs substantially. 

The scalability and elasticity of AWS will be critical for handling spikes in demand during major events, while HashiCorp’s comprehensive toolset will continue to support BT Group’s infrastructure moving forward. “We couldn’t have done it without HashiCorp,” said Davies. “HashiCorp tools help us get optimal value from our AWS investment.”

About BT Group

BT Group is the UK’s leading provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications and related secure digital products, solutions, and services. The company also provides managed telecommunications, security, and network and IT infrastructure services to customers across 180 countries.

About AWS Partner HashiCorp

HashiCorp is The Infrastructure Cloud™ company, helping organizations automate their multi-cloud and hybrid environments with Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Security Lifecycle Management. HashiCorp offers The Infrastructure Cloud on the HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) for managed cloud services, as well as self-hosted enterprise offerings and community source-available products.

AWS Services Used

AWS Direct Connect

The AWS Direct Connect cloud service is the shortest path to your AWS resources. While in transit, your network traffic remains on the AWS global network and never touches the public internet.

Learn more »

AWS Transit Gateway

AWS Transit Gateway connects your Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and on-premises networks through a central hub. This connection simplifies your network and puts an end to complex peering relationships. 

Learn more »

Amazon EC2 Spot Instances

Amazon EC2 Spot Instances let you take advantage of unused EC2 capacity in the AWS cloud and are available at up to a 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices.

Learn more »

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