Migration to Cloud-GCP Services
VISTA is an independent operator in the shale oil window of the Vaca Muerta formation. It is an agile organization led by an experienced oil and gas management team. Its goal is to develop a well inventory with the best industry efficiency standards to generate solid cash flows.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2019, Vista Oil began analyzing the Datacenter Exit project, comparing major Cloud services available in the market and projecting comparative costs. During this process, they focused not only on comparing costs between Cloud services and maintaining a
datacenter but also on evaluating the tools offered by service providers, their presence in Argentina, and their experience in similar migrations.
Vista Oil has datacenters in three locations in Argentina and nearby subsidiary sectors.
Therefore, connectivity provision and low latency to the Cloud provider were important considerations. Additionally, as a World Class company, having services available in global regions was another reason to consolidate the decision. By mid-2020, they decided to migrate to Google Cloud services, with Zentricx chosen as the partner to support this process.
The reason Vista Oil chose Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services over maintaining their own datacenters was that GCP service costs are much lower than maintaining a datacenter. Moreover, GCP does not require a maintenance team like a private datacenter, resulting in greater efficiency and cost savings for the company.
THE SOLUTION
The solution involved planning and executing the datacenter exit plan, migrating virtual servers in VMware and some physical servers to equivalent instances in the cloud. For this, Migration for Compute Engine, formerly known as Velostrata, was used. Velostrata is a company that developed software to support migrations from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.
Google acquired Velostrata and integrated its technology into its service offerings due to the ease and robustness of the migration process it proposes.
The migration to Google Cloud using Velostrata involved configuring appliances in ESX clusters, creating VPN tunnels, and configuring projects by applications, followed by the actual migrations. The process lasted eight months and was carried out with very few setbacks, thanks to the robustness of Google Cloud, the experience of the migration partners, and the commitment of Vista Oil’s IT team.
Differential Aspect of the Solution or Process:
This project was developed using Agile methodology; weekly follow-up meetings were held with the client, and Slack was used for communication to keep everyone involved informed. Thanks to this methodology, the project was completed on time and as planned.
The implementation of a PMO process within Vista Oil’s IT team during the Google Cloud setup and migration was an important innovation. This process enabled smooth communication despite the team working remotely, and weekly meetings were planned
to set clear objectives. The trust built within the team through the PMO methodology allowed for the effective achievement of each project milestone in a timely manner.
In contrast, without a smooth communication network based on a PMO methodology, the project could have been unpredictable and potentially failed due to a lack of visibility. Therefore, the implementation of a PMO methodology was a successful
practice for Vista Oil’s IT team in this project.
Solution Implementation:
The initial setup of the platform was carried out following Google’s best practices, starting with the creation of the organization, integrating the directory service into Google IAM, configuring the appropriate networking, and then implementing the migration itself. This execution order is commonly used by companies planning to
migrate their workloads to the cloud.
Once the migration process was completed, a consumption analysis was performed to execute the first cost reduction instance, which involved the advance purchase of resources through Google Cloud’s Committed Use Discounts (CUDs). The Google Cloud console also includes a recommendation system based on usage to help users acquire commitments and save costs through resource pre-purchase.
RESULTS
- A more comfortable and practical system, as it does not require a maintenance team like a datacenter. Having a cloud-based IT system eliminates all the obligations required to maintain and manage such infrastructure.
- Easy adaptability.
- Mobility: The technology itself facilitates access from different platforms anywhere and anytime.
- Greater agility: It can adapt its resources to new needs swiftly, promoting the availability of new applications, resource changes, and services.
- Reduction in infrastructure costs.
The reengineering strategy of workloads to managed services and workflows aligned with the Cloud Native concept is a good approach to fully leverage Google Cloud services. Migrating first at the “server” level to instances is a good way to start reducing costs and improving efficiency, and then analyzing by application to continue reducing
costs.
The Managed services phase post-migration is an opportunity to further optimize GCP services and become more efficient. There are many tools in the GCP world that can help achieve this, such as task automation, monitoring, and cost management.
Cost optimization within GCP is an important and ongoing goal. Some ways to achieve this include planning resource usage, implementing cost management policies, identifying opportunities for optimization, and using GCP tools and services to reduce costs.
VISTA OIL & GAS
Vista is a leading independent operator with its main assets in Vaca Muerta, the largest developing shale oil and shale gas play outside North America.
The company was listed as a SPAC in Mexico in 2017 and on the NYSE in 2019, after acquiring two companies with an operational platform in Argentina in 2018.
ZENTRICX
Zentricx is a company that transforms and views businesses beyond data (Going Beyond Data-Driven). We think, innovate, driving our clients to rediscover and enhance their products and services.
