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Cloud Computing

A media agency wants to move to the Oracle Cloud

Media planning in the Cloud

Red Reply supported one of the biggest media agencies in Europe with the generation of a decision-making base using a proof of concept, in order to move a virtualised, on-premises legacy MS WIN application to the Oracle Cloud. As an innovation agency for the digital age, the customer combines traditional and digital media planning with brand-specific target group models and media strategies, GeoMedia, performance marketing, social and search marketing as well as programmatic advertising.

Data Diversity

The customer previously used an MS Windows application for forecasts, planning, optimisation, scheduling, competition analysis and reporting in relation to Television advertising campaigns. Among other things, AGF, AGTT and Kantar PIN data are used as a data base, as well as the competition data and advertisement schemas in the form of EDI2 or XML data. Based on the forecast, the application can be used to create individual performance values for TV advertising blocks, which can then be used for strategic planning as well as optimisation.

Performance Optimisation

The starting point for the project was the fact that the ongoing development and performance optimisation of the software was to be discontinued by the software provider. This meant that a change to the workflow processes for the purpose of optimisation which was ugently needed could no longer be met. However, in addition to content tracking, delivery via a central platform was now also to be implemented.
The application server had already been virtualised at the beginning of the project, file and database servers were located on-premises. First of all, a proof of concept was to be used to show how the processing speed of the application, and thus also the quality of data provision, could be improved through the cloud transformation.
The goal was set up a Windows file server with a storage volume of 4 TB as well as a Terminal server with 256 GB, which should provide access to the Remote Desktop service and also be used to run the legacy app on a Windows server. Finally, a database server was to be provided that should be used by the Windows application. All of the above-mentioned servers were to be provided in one network at one location, to ensure there were no bandwidth bottlenecks.

The Implementation

The following applications were used to implement the project:

  • Legacy Windows applikation
  • Oracle 11gR2 Database EE
  • Oracle Cloud Bare Metal
  • Oracle Database as a Service
  • Oracle Cloud Block Storage
  • Oracle Cloud SSD

The Benefits

The ability to provide efficiency and scalability, the computer resources confirmed the assumption that the environment in the Oracle Cloud would be one third faster than an on-premises or virtualised solution. The cloud setup confirmed the benchmark, which Red Reply had defined within the project, that operations would be 30 percent faster. What's more, the move to the cloud would also reduce support, licence and operating costs significantly.