Eficode (formerly Praqma) helped Vestas to scale their infrastructure while remaining a small team.
Challenge
Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions. With 101 GW of wind turbines in 80 countries, they have installed more wind power than anyone else.
Vesta’s Turbine Software Tools team maintains infrastructure that is critical to development and testing activities. As more teams at Vestas needed the team’s services, Vestas faced the challenge of scaling their infrastructure while remaining a small team.
“I always see companies struggle to maintain a staging environment for their tools, as production is the priority. The result is that the playground never is in a desired state,” tells Brian Midtgaard Skov, Lead Software Tools Engineer, Vestas Technology R&D
Strategy and solution
The solution was to use Kubernetes cloud native infrastructure to automate the complete process of setting up Vestas’ tools. This enables high availability and means that Vestas’ software organization can maintain tools that other companies need an IT department to handle.
Eficode also upskilled Vestas’ teams with the help of their Cloud Native Specialists. Eficode is the only Certified Kubernetes Service Partner in Scandinavia.
“Today we have two Jira, two Bitbucket, one Confluence, three Jenkins and one Artifactory instance running inside Kubernetes and can automatically install, uninstall, upgrade, scale down, scale up, backup and restore into a test system,” comments Brian Midtgaard Skov
Moving to a modern infrastructure means upgrades are no longer a stressful evening in a service window, but rather done during the lunch break without any drama.
A long-term partnership
Eficode has a different take on consultancy, one that empowers companies.
“I have been working together with Eficode [formerly Praqma] for more than 8 years now. Eficode helps us put knowledge on Vestas employees, rather than making us dependent on them. Eficode upskills us and keeps building new knowledge that we benefit from,” says Brian Midtgaard Skov.
Eficode and Vestas are continuing their collaboration to improve the toolstack further, making heavy use of Atlassian software in Kubernetes, as well as other open source technologies.
“We do not hire a consultant from Eficode [formerly Praqma], we buy hours. The benefit for us is that no matter if we want the newest Kubernetes knowledge or foundational Git, Eficode sends the right expert,” says Brian Midtgaard Skov.
