Quinnox implemented DevOps for asset management firm to greatly decrease time to market for their customers

Problem description

Our customer, GCM Grosvenor had embarked on a strategic initiative program to ensure compliance to the regulations, including upgrading their AWS Instance Operating Systems from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows 2012 R2 and shifting from the traditional Service Account to group Managed Service Account (gMSA). The initiative included upgrading OS for password remediation and implementing DevOps with a rigorous QA cycle. Password Remediation is an ITS-initiated program that requires service account passwords be changed, at least, on an annual basis. Manual rotation (even if parts have been automated), requires extensive effort and testing.

Solution

Quinnox was chosen as the DevOps partner after an evaluation of many vendors, mainly due to our DevOps capabilities and familiarity with the technology stack, as well as our deep knowledge of DevOps frameworks, methodologies and practices.

The Quinnox DevOps team worked closely with the financial institution’s team to modify the existing DevOps deployment scripts. Our approach included implementing DevOps using tools such as GitHub, Visual Studio 2015, Team Foundation Server (TFS), Source Tree, AWS EC2 Instance, GO CD – Open Source Continuous Delivery.

• Review all the DevOps scripts that were developed using the GO tool.
• Modify the scripts to ensure the shift from Service Account to Group Managed Service Account.
• Take over the QA, UAT, Development and Staging environments.
• Migrate & configure CI/CD servers, Visual Studio settings and import Azure management certificates into gMSA.
• Verify the changed GO scripts and execute the scripts to perform the necessary deployment.
• Perform smoke testing of all applications to ensure no impact of modified code and settings.

Benefits

What were the business values uncovered?

The above-mentioned approach ensured the successful completion of an end-to-end migration within 3-4 months.

Here are some of the key points appreciated by GCM Grosvenor:

• Using DevOps to modify the existing code and infrastructure has resulted in achieving the organization’s goal to adhere to the compliance regulation in a short time span.
• Automation of the “Password Change” feature, eliminated the need for manual updates that happen on a quarterly basis.
• Dramatically decreased the time to market for Grosvenor’s strategic customers.
• Quinnox’s involvement and management of the end-to-end migration activities has freed the existing client resources to focus on various strategic initiatives without any obstruction to business.