Slowly but surely, digitalization is evolving from a trickle to a stream – even in places where fax machines were the busiest pieces of office equipment to date. There is still a huge amount of work to do in German public administrations, but improvements are on the way: A new Online Access Act and a Digital Agenda are paving the way to a digital future.
The DVZ data processing center M-V GmbH – an IT service provider for the German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania – is a long-standing professional partner to the public sector. Its ambition? To streamline the modern administrative processes and workflows demanded by the joined-up society of tomorrow.
Government measures such as the Digital Agenda and the Online Access Act are combining with ever more exacting customer demands to force DVZ, too, to prioritize modernization: From now on, applications must be available as containers on modern platforms. The ability to run containerized third-party applications is likewise prescribed by law.
The DVZ M-V GmbH has used VMware vSphere® extensively for virtualization since 2009. Building on this successful collaboration, it was therefore no surprise when the data processing center opted for VMware Tanzu™ Kubernetes Grid to also implement advanced container technology – and get public administrations in shape for the digital future.
Container technology as a new operating model – Up and running in very short order
The project was realized in an incredibly short time in partnership with the evoila Group, giving DVZ a deep dive into container technology: “Thanks to VMware vSphere with Tanzu, we were able to design and build a new platform in three months flat. Others need two years to do that!” says a proud Ralph Rehbein, System Technology Manager at DVZ.
Today, DVZ’s entire workload – from VMs to containers – runs smoothly and seamlessly on a single platform. Integration with TKG, VMware vSphere and VMware NSX® empowers the provider to administer both VMs and containers while also implementing firewall rules for certain apps. Better still, it now takes only minutes – instead of weeks – to make applications available. That is a huge time saving! “That will give our people more time to work on new, creative solutions,” Rehbein smiles.
Modern apps pave the way to the future
Based on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, the platform accelerates not only the development of new applications, but also the adaptation and modernization of existing applications. Thanks to its collaboration with VMware, DVZ is now able to successfully implement the requirements of the new Online Access Act. It has thus laid a firm foundation on which to continue supporting the digital transformation of public institutions in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and throughout Germany. Beyond that, the data processing provider is currently working to ramp up its collaborative activities with VMware on the basis of Tanzu Application Services and Tanzu Mission Control.
Step by step, DVZ is thus positioning itself as a market and innovation leader in the public IT service provider space. To read the detailed success story, go here.
