OpenStack > Case Studies > OpenStack Private Cloud at Time Warner Cable: Accelerating Application Development and Deployment

OpenStack Private Cloud at Time Warner Cable: Accelerating Application Development and Deployment

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

OpenStack
Avi Networks Next-gen ADC

Tech Stack

REST API
OpenStack Horizon
Puppet
Ansible
Heat

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Digital Expertise
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence
Remote Control

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Time Warner Cable, a major telecommunications company in the United States, was looking to enhance its application development and deployment processes. With a large corporate structure, the company managed hundreds of internal and external applications across multiple data centers. The central Cloud DevOps team was tasked with managing the OpenStack cloud and setting up policies, while application development teams, known as 'Tenants,' utilized services in a self-service manner through OpenStack Horizon, REST API, and CLI. The company sought to implement a solution that would provide operational simplicity, self-service, and fully automated provisioning, along with enterprise-grade ADC features such as high availability, SSL, and multi-tenancy integrated with Keystone. Additionally, Time Warner Cable required per-tenant isolation of load balancer instances and integration with automation tools like Puppet, Ansible, and Heat. The existing solutions presented challenges, including inflexibility of hardware ADCs, lack of advanced features and high availability in open-source solutions, and complex orchestration of virtual ADCs. The company also faced issues with visibility into VIP configuration and performance.

The Challenge

Time Warner Cable faced challenges in managing hundreds of internal and external applications across multiple data centers. The central Cloud DevOps team was responsible for managing the OpenStack cloud and setting up policies, while application development teams, referred to as 'Tenants,' used services in a self-service manner through OpenStack Horizon, REST API, and CLI. The primary requirements included self-service, fully automated provisioning through Horizon, REST API, and CLI, along with enterprise-grade ADC features such as high availability (HA), SSL, and multi-tenancy integrated with Keystone. Additionally, there was a need for per-tenant isolation of load balancer instances and integration with automation tools like Puppet, Ansible, and Heat. Existing solutions posed several challenges: hardware ADCs were inflexible and required opening tickets for changes, open-source solutions lacked advanced features and high availability, and virtual ADCs involved complex orchestration. Furthermore, there was a lack of visibility into VIP configuration and performance.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Time Warner Cable implemented Avi Networks' next-generation ADC solution, which offered 100% REST API and self-service provisioning by application teams. The solution provided native OpenStack integration for automated provisioning, elastic scale, and multi-tenancy, along with SSL and centralized certificate management. Integrated application monitoring was also a key feature, allowing for faster troubleshooting and enhanced visibility. The implementation of Avi Networks' ADC solution enabled Time Warner Cable to achieve ticketless IT with a self-service portal, eliminating the need for capacity pre-provisioning. The elastic scale feature allowed for dynamic resource allocation, while integrated application monitoring facilitated faster troubleshooting. The solution accelerated OpenStack adoption within the company, enabling faster application development and deployment. The load balancer provisioning time was reduced from days to minutes, and troubleshooting times were significantly decreased from hours to minutes. Overall, the solution provided Time Warner Cable with the operational simplicity and advanced features it required to enhance its application development and deployment processes.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Avi Networks' ADC solution enabled Time Warner Cable to achieve ticketless IT with a self-service portal, eliminating the need for capacity pre-provisioning.
The elastic scale feature allowed for dynamic resource allocation, while integrated application monitoring facilitated faster troubleshooting.
The solution accelerated OpenStack adoption within the company, enabling faster application development and deployment.

Quantitative Benefit