Media giant Dentsu goes cloud-native with NetApp

Dentsu Aegis Network is modernizing the way it builds brands for its clients through its innovate methods, expertise, and capabilities in media, digital, and creative communications services. In an industry where speed and agility are the determining factors in clients’ ability to simply survive or truly thrive, Dentsu Aegis Network is driven by a digital strategy that aims to enable the launch of new campaigns and services faster than ever before. Going cloud-native is a key part of this acceleration. 

Overcoming the Cloud Communication Challenge 

Programme Thunder, as the digital transformation is called, came about in January 2018, following a meeting with all key stakeholders, NetApp, and third parties to assess operational and governance models. Despite a clear list of benefits, the initial challenge lay in communicating the transformation, with outreach to 3,000 service and individual applications owners, to ensure that they were ready to upgrade and had enough time to transform. 

Supporting a global network of brands across 145 countries while going cloud-native meant addressing Dentsu Aegis Network’s aging hardware estate. With the estate located primarily in four global data centres, maintaining services throughout the migration process was business critical. In addition, it was necessary to protect the business from existing shadow IT in the form of cloud subscriptions. This was accomplished by building landing zones onto Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud. With these preconfigured environments, a cloud infrastructure could be built quickly and securely. 

The Cloud-native Competitive Edge  

The team refreshed NetApp hardware around the globe, which significantly simplified and accelerated the migration of data services to the cloud. As one of the key elements of the transition, Dentsu Aegis Network adopted NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for enterprise workloads, delivering data protection and storage efficiency benefits for all cloud environments. 

Programme Thunder has seen the closure of four global data centres, with cost savings being realised through NetApp data efficiency features such as deduplication and compression and through the use of the NetApp SnapVault backup solution, which optimises cloud egress and ingress costs.  

Overall, Dentsu Aegis Network’s transformation has saved more than 416 kVA of power consumption, which translates to 2,577 metric tons of CO2 saved, equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from 557 passenger vehicles driven for one year. 

John Howarth, head of infrastructure transformation, Dentsu Aegis Network: “Within the business, a key challenge was education on what the cloud means and what it can offer. Everyone had a different idea of what moving to the cloud meant, so it was important to communicate this clearly amongst all stakeholders. When it came down to the heavy lifting, the project team had a strong reliance on the NetApp Professional Services team based in the UK and North Carolina, who supported the data migrations and managed seamless cutover to the new cloud operating model.” 

Chris Fry, director, global programme delivery, Dentsu Aegis Network: “NetApp cloud technologies have been a huge enabler in achieving our strategic and transformational goals, providing agility and speed necessary to deliver our cloud journey.” 

Chris Greenwood, head of UK and Ireland, NetApp: “This was a truly ambitious and visionary programme. Dentsu Aegis Network set its sights high, ultimately reaping the rewards of the competitive edge we so often speak of in relation to digital transformational goals. Maintaining the competitive edge requires continuous change. Dentsu Aegis Network is now set to be the best advertisement for successful digital transformation. As the world adjusts to its new reality, cloud-first, data-driven strategies are more critical than ever.”