The Shift Left Approach: Operation, Strategies and Benefits

Shift Left Operations, a transformative paradigm gaining momentum within IT infrastructure, marks a strategic departure from traditional approaches. By advocating for the relocation of essential tasks and decision-making to the early stages of infrastructure development and management, organizations are witnessing a profound revolution in operational efficiency, issue mitigation, and resource utilization.

The client, a leading provider of global e-commerce, payment, and marketing services, embarked on a significant business transformation endeavor calling for the IT team’s alignment with future business prerequisites. The client engaged Aeries to effectively carry out the implementation of Shift Left Operations aiming for future business success.

Client’s Challenge

• The NOC and IT Operations faced challenges stemming from a reactive approach, lack of process documentation, and limited integration, hampering IT efficiency and coordination.
• The ‘Monitoring, NOC, and IT Operations’ teams operated in skill-based silos, causing operational inefficiencies and misalignment with business goals due to limited collaboration and knowledge sharing among members.
• The client sought to improve the NOC Operations for an e-commerce product, which encompasses 24/7 service monitoring, operations, and management of the e-commerce platforms.

Aeries’ Solution

Aeries executed the subsequent measures to transition the client to Shift Left Operations.

• Established a round-the-clock Unified Technical Operation Center (TOC) in Hyderabad, India, offering a comprehensive overview of the complete data center infrastructure, including both on-premise and cloud components.
  (“Watching the Store”)
• The Unified TOC transformed the current NOC, merging the traditional ‘Monitoring, NOC, and IT Operations’ teams to advance the goals of Shift Left Operations. (Proactive, Self-Heal & Service)
• Developed a Service Catalog (Heat Map) and established processes within the TOC to enable automation and self-healing, leveraging proactive analysis of performance trends.
• Established a proficient team encompassing expertise in various sub-functions, including server management, network operations, security, and cloud computing.
• Employed anticipatory monitoring, trend assessment, and threshold oversight alongside script-based automation integrated into CI builds.
• Expanded the US team to oversee and provide assistance for all domain and web hosting instances, catering to approximately three million clients.
• Guaranteed operational excellence and assistance throughout the busiest business hours, attaining a Zero escalation record during peak seasons such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• The Leadership Team used the performance and approach of this TOC team as a benchmark for other teams across the organization, enabling them to learn from it and scale their services.
• This approach not only streamlined IT operations but also exemplified Aeries’ expertise in delivering top-tier IT infrastructure management services & solutions, setting a new benchmark for operational excellence in the digital commerce space.