GFK
GfK
’ s Hybrid Multi Cloud Approach
everybody from the CEO down counted on you and your teams with the highest expectation to simply stay connected and stay in business .”
GfK has operations in Asia Pacific so realised early on how serious COVID- 19 was going to be . Almost overnight , Hesselink and his team assembled a global task force .
“ We made further investments in mobilising our workforce , replacing desktops with laptops ,” he recalls . “ We stress-tested our network entry points into the company . We proactively monitored any critical infrastructure . We adopted our support model from heavy onsite to anywhere , anytime . And within six weeks we introduced Microsoft Teams for enhanced communication and collaboration .
“ IT teams became the company superheroes of 2020 . Nobody thought we could send more than 8,000 employees home and still be in business .”
Turning to hybrid cloud GfK ’ s digital transformation started in 2017 when the IT group realised the need to update the company ' s infrastructure and applications .
GfK ’ s leaders at the time were looking for a solution that could provide flexibility and scalability and the IT group knew that cloud services would play a vital role in the company ' s future .
GfK already used some cloud services to supplement its on-premises , data centre environment , but high costs became a challenge . Therefore , the IT group decided to capitalise on multiple clouds while controlling costs and managing complexity . Hesselink says they are now “ in the last mile ” to becoming a truly hybrid , multicloud infrastructure-as-a-service ( IaaS ) provider for GfK .
“ Personally , I believe the hybrid model with more flexible working options for employees is the way to go ,” he says . “ We
216 June 2021