Starting situation
Technological limitations of the existing infrastructure necessitated a realignment.
Douglas's CRM platform processes all customer transactions from both online and in-store operations and forms the basis for marketing, loyalty, and sales activities. Architecturally, it is divided into microservices that handle functions such as transaction processing, reward point calculation, or data provisioning, supplying numerous internal systems with relevant data. With growing system complexity and increasing data volume, operations on Microsoft Azure increasingly hit their limits: costs rose while flexibility for future developments decreased. Therefore, the strategic decision was made in 2024 to migrate the entire CRM infrastructure to the Google Cloud to create a scalable, cost-efficient, and future-proof foundation for the system landscape.
Challenges
Business continuity
The migration had to be implemented without downtime to keep customer data and ongoing transactions available at all times.
High system complexity
Several hundred microservices with diverse dependencies and interfaces made planning and implementation difficult.
Coordination of multiple teams
Different domains, technologies, and responsibilities required a coordinated approach across all development and operations units.
Technological Shift
The transition from Azure-native services to Google Cloud components such as logging, monitoring, and messaging brought new architecture and security requirements.
Message exchange between services
The messaging system had to be completely rebuilt and tested in order to keep data flows consistent and performant.
Solution
Benefits of Cloud-Agnostic Architecture
More flexibility, lower costs, and future-proof infrastructure.
Scalability
Performance
Automation
The unified abstraction layer made it possible to reduce redundant processes and automate deployments. The architecture enables more efficient use of resources while significantly reducing operating costs.
Cloud Flexibility
Vendor independence
Innovation
The solution allows the CRM platform to operate independently of the cloud provider. This enables Douglas to react flexibly to market changes, integrate new technologies, and ensure the long-term development of the platform.
Monitoring
Observable
Reliability
With the introduction of modern monitoring and logging tools, transparency regarding system states has been significantly improved. Error sources can be identified faster, which increases the stability and availability of services.
Team coordination
Standardization
Process clarity
The unified infrastructure promotes collaboration between teams and reduces coordination effort. Standardized processes accelerate future deployments and simplify the scaling of new services.
What our expert says
Michael Spahr, Project Manager at Douglas, in an interview about the project
