An open pathway to digital transformation for CorpFlex

CorpFlex, a managed service provider in Brazil, successfully used the Red Hat infrastructure migration solution to reduce the complexity of its IT infrastructure and lower costs by 87% through its savings on licensing fees. Delivered as a set of integrated technologies and services, including Red Hat Virtualization and Red Hat CloudForms, the Red Hat infrastructure migration solution has provided CorpFlex with the framework for a complete hybrid cloud solution while helping the business improve its bottom line.

Founded in 1992, CorpFlex is a Brazilian managed services provider that delivers customized IT solutions to its customers, from e-mail services and cloud storage to managed firewalls and software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN). The provider specializes in tailoring combinations of services to commercial customers, helping to deliver value to end users that goes beyond technical capabilities.

As a cloud services provider, CorpFlex was looking for new ways to drive value for clients through technology-as-a-service options. To provide more choices, scale and flexibility for its customized offerings, CorpFlex knew that it had to embrace a hybrid cloud strategy, spanning on-premise and cloud-based resources, but faced a roadblock in its costly existing proprietary virtualization infrastructure. With more than 3,000 virtual machines (VMs) supporting customer operations, CorpFlex wanted to lower its operating costs without impacting services and also gain an entry point to broader hybrid cloud capabilities.

CorpFlex considered its options for an alternative virtualization solution and ultimately decided on Red Hat Virtualization. The Red Hat infrastructure migration solution provided CorpFlex with consulting expertise and supported tools to effectively migrate with minimal impact and integrate Red Hat’s open virtualization technology into its operations.

Red Hat Virtualization, built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) project, gives CorpFlex the ability to virtualize resources, processes and applications with a stable foundation for a cloud-native and containerized future. Benefits that CorpFlex has seen from migrating to Red Hat Virtualization include:

• More affordable virtualization: Red Hat Virtualization can offer a lower total cost of ownership year over year when compared to other virtualization solutions while providing an open solution that avoids vendor lock-in. For CorpFlex, Red Hat Virtualization resulted in savings of nearly 87 percent per virtual machine. With this reduction in cost, CorpFlex was able to transfer the budget it previously used for maintenance to innovation.

• Improved performance: Meeting customer expectations is critical and CorpFlex found that Red Hat Virtualization ran with improved efficiency over its legacy infrastructure. The environment is also better integrated and more automated, resulting in standardized delivery with fewer errors. CorpFlex is able to deliver a higher level of availability, security and management to run customers’ critical systems.

• Enhanced collaboration: With the long-term goal of moving towards a complete hybrid cloud, CorpFlex was looking for a partner, not just a vendor, for support in its journey in open source technology. Leaning on the expertise of Red Hat Consulting during its migration, the provider is exploring additional opportunities to drive an open source stack and technology culture.

• Extended automation: Using Red Hat CloudForms, CorpFlex’s IT administrators are able to more easily offer self-service capabilities via a consistent user experience for provisioning, managing, and compliance across VMs and private clouds.

By taking this step, CorpFlex has been able to enhance business growth while maintaining competitive differentiation across its target markets. CorpFlex is also looking to expand its embrace of open source technologies and an open source culture internally.