Large enterprises face a number of complex data challenges that smaller and even mid-level organizations do not. Growth is rarely linear in the corporate world, coming instead in fits and starts in pursuit of highly targeted business opportunities.
This makes an impact on IT systems, which tend to spring up in response to immediate needs rather than an overarching growth strategy. By the time most organizations realize their data infrastructure has gotten out of hand, the fix is often lengthy, complex, and fraught with risk, even for companies that have a wealth of technology expertise at their disposal.
Fortunately, CBTS has acquired the skills and know-how to manage complex projects to successful conclusions, and supports managed AWS—a world-class leading cloud platform—to ensure that we can provide optimal results well into the future. Our team of experts has proven time and again that careful planning, highly customized systems and architectures, and ongoing managed services—including data lake—are the keys to delivering a data infrastructure tailored to immediate goals as well as long-term strategic objectives.
Recently, a cyber technology and risk subdivision of a major global aviation manufacturer found itself struggling to implement two specific objectives. First, it needed to centralize and consolidate its oversight of cybersecurity risks, not just within its own infrastructure but that of suppliers, all while keeping abreast of emerging compliance requirements and monitoring the capabilities of various threat actors. Secondly, the client needed to upgrade its threat management capabilities with tools like real-time information gathering for security analysts, end-to-end anomaly detection, and predictive analytics.
In assessing the best way to achieve these goals, CBTS quickly identified a number of problems to be dealt with. The client already had an existing legacy environment designed around older technology that was struggling to keep up with modern security standards. This would have to be decommissioned and all relevant data processed and migrated to the new environment built on a fully modernized AWS cloud, leveraging data lake capabilities. This led to another challenge, however, since the client lacked the skill sets to manage an AWS environment and take advantage of the very efficient capabilities of a serverless environment leveraging the data lake.
Together, CBTS and the client devised a cutting-edge solution that addressed the immediate challenges of migration and integration as well as the long-term goals of improved security performance and streamlined operations. The new data lake platform features the Athena single-pane-of-glass management console that collects all data in a central location where it can be leveraged to generate deep insights into the full data ecosystem. This provides an extremely efficient operational focus that requires little in the way of maintenance and upkeep.
Additionally, CBTS integrated a Lambda serverless environment upfront to reduce integration challenges down the road and to provide for millisecond-speed transactions right from the start. At the same time, we instituted the AWS CloudFormation Infrastructure-as-Code architecture that leverages the serverless environment more fully to enable rapid provision of the data lake and other cloud-based resources.
For storage, we turned to the S3 service on AWS as this was the most scalable and robust solution available, coupled with the lowest cost. This was linked to the AWS Glue data cataloging and auditing system, a managed ETL service that automates much of the data discovery, preparation, and other tasks demanded of modern high-speed analytics.
And finally, we added the AWS IAM service to oversee identity and access management, along with 24×7 monitoring and management to ensure the entire system remains optimized for the client’s needs.
Read more: The benefits of a managed data lake solution
Thanks to the broad experience that CBTS has developed over the years—not to mention our longstanding relationships with AWS,–including our achievement as a certified Advanced Consulting Partner as well as the Well-Architected Framework program—the data lake transformation project proceeded smoothly and with zero downtime.
The client is now operating under a modern security stance built on an AWS serverless architecture that is easy to manage, highly automated, and responsive to emerging threats. Numerous developers can access critical data with state-of-the-art authentication and access controls, which leads to rapid development and testing to push new capabilities into the field in record time.
And best of all, the new environment operates on a lower TCO than the previous legacy infrastructure.
In today’s fast-paced digital economy, no organization—not even the largest, wealthiest, and most resource-heavy business—can go it alone. The knowledge and expertise in the newest iterations of IT infrastructure, such as serverless computing, are still so rare that even the most well-equipped enterprise struggles to acquire and employ them effectively.
By aligning with CBTS, however, organizations of all sizes and in every industry gain immediate access to the top minds and the top technologies in existence, allowing them to jump onto the fast-track toward becoming a modern, agile enterprise.
See how our engineers deployed solutions that allowed this major aviation manufacturer to make informed threat-related decisions in real time.
Contact us for more information on how CBTS can implement advanced solutions to modernize your data lake and cloud environment.