The successful collaboration between the Verkehrsverbund Luzern (VBL) and baseVISION led to a profound transformation of the IT landscape. Azure Arc proved to be a crucial player in strengthening cybersecurity, increasing efficiency in server updates, optimizing resource usage, and preparing for future technologies. This partnership demonstrates how cloud technologies can enable companies like VBL to modernize their IT operations and achieve their strategic goals.
The Verkehrsbetriebe Luzern (VBL) is a leading public transport company for the city and canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. With a strong focus on sustainable mobility and a modern customer experience, VBL plays a central role in the regional transport infrastructure.
The situation before baseVISION: Challenges for VBL
Against the backdrop of a constantly changing technological environment and the need to improve IT infrastructure, VBL decided to modernize its operations and strengthen cybersecurity measures. To this end, VBL turned to baseVISION.
The vision: The cloud-first strategy
With the potential of Microsoft Azure in mind, the company pursued a cloud-first strategy to enable efficient management of its servers, increase security, reduce costs, and optimally position itself for emerging technologies.
- Unified management for all 80 on-premise servers in the cloud.
- Utilizing the full potential of new cloud technologies.
- Save resources through efficient cost monitoring and automatic updating.
«Das Update Management Center von Microsoft ermöglicht es, die Aktualisierung des Betriebssystems und des Antivirenschutzes in einem geordneten und geprüften Verfahren sicherzustellen.»
The transformation
Evaluation & Decision
Evaluation & Decision
Evaluation and strategic decision: Originally, a project to update the Endpoint Manager was planned. However, the partnership with baseVISION and Microsoft technologies opened up new possibilities. Together with baseVISION, the VBL team explored the benefits of both the Endpoint Manager and Azure Arc for the future IT landscape. After thorough examination, VBL decided on a cloud-first strategy and a focus on Azure.
Planning
Planning
Azure Governance and Planning: In close collaboration with baseVISION, a comprehensive Azure governance strategy was developed. This included defining naming conventions, networks, RBAC, organization of resources (management groups, subscriptions, resource groups), identity management, and Azure policies. This step was crucial to ensure optimal resource utilization in terms of scalability, cost, and availability.
Implementation
Implementation
Azure Arc implementation for server management: The implementation of Azure Arc opened a new dimension in server management. The focus was on the Update Management Center, which replaced the manual installation of Windows updates. Automation saved resources and ensured compliance requirements were met. The updates were tested on test servers in a staggered process and then implemented on the production servers to improve stability.
Strengthen security
Strengthen security
Strengthening security measures: Azure Arc not only enabled efficient server management but also significantly improved security. Thanks to multi-factor authentication (MFA) and conditional access, server access was granted only to authorized administrators. Network communication is secured by SSL encryption, further enhancing security.
Outlook
Outlook
Azure Cost Management and future scalability: The Azure platform offered an effective way to control and manage costs. By using Azure Cost Management, budgets could be set and irregularities detected before costs spiraled out of control. The entire environment was also built to seamlessly integrate future Azure resources, supporting the system’s scalability.
«Die Zusammenarbeit mit baseVISION verlief sehr erfolgreich. Ihre Unterstützung erstreckte sich umfassend über sämtliche Anliegen und sie vermittelten uns ein vertieftes Verständnis für die neuesten Microsoft-Technologien. Zudem beeindruckten sie uns mit durchdachten Lösungsvorschlägen, die für unsere Bedürfnisse äusserst interessant waren. Die Arbeit mit baseVISION war zweifellos eine bereichernde Erfahrung.»
Leading companies rely on us.
