Arvato Systems Achieves Time-Critical, Hybrid Cloud Migration with Infoblox NIOS DDI

Arvato was in tight competition with two global heavyweights for the tender. In preparing its response, the company took a distinctly different approach. While the other contenders proposed copying the existing data center platform and layering new capabilities on top of it, Arvato reimagined the entire network infrastructure. “We completely changed the platform to use different tools, different approaches, different processes,” says Christian Scholz, the company’s vice president for cloud business.

The firm’s architectural concept leveraged modern cloud virtualization and containerization solutions, such as those from VMware by Broadcom, along with elements from other cloud technology leaders. By necessity, it also incorporated advanced critical network services, which include DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI). The success of the new architecture hinged on deploying enterprise-grade DDI services purpose-built for the specific cloud management platform that kubus IT and AOK Healthcare required.

Arvato’s bold vision won the tender. Now, it was time to deliver.

THE CHALLENGES

A Race against Time for a Major Cloud Migration

The parameters for kubus IT’s modernization project were formidable. It required migrating two data centers totaling 7,000 servers, 15,000 TB of mission-critical data, 165 subsystems, and nearly 3,000 applications to new cloud management platforms. Adding to the challenge, 24,000 staff at AOK Healthcare relied on these data centers every day, meaning the migration had to proceed with zero downtime throughout its duration. On top of that, the entire project had to be completed in a non-negotiable 15-month period. The compressed timeframe was driven by the impending loss of certification for one of the data centers.

Stringent government regulations for handling patient data in the cloud added another layer of complexity. Like many European countries, Germany enforces strict data sovereignty provisions requiring that health data managed in the cloud remain physically located within the country’s borders at all times. This meant Arvato had to deliver a hybrid cloud platform that gave kubus IT the f lexibility to deploy public cloud resources on demand, such as hyperscalers and automation solutions, while ensuring that all data-sensitive workloads resided in private clouds controlled by kubus IT.

As aggressive as the 15-month timeline already was, it shrank substantially as teams from both organizations worked through the details in countless premigration meetings. Those deliberations alone took seven months, which left only nine months for the actual migration.

The extended planning phase was necessary to address hundreds of unexpected technical hurdles, including poor or missing process and server documentation. Once the migration began in earnest, IT staff regularly encountered additional obstacles arising from the platform’s diverse virtualization, automation, and cloud infrastructure components. Other migration activities also suffered from overly optimistic timing estimates. One example involved porting over rules associated with firewalls. “Moving the firewall rules to the new structure did not take two weeks. It cost us four months,” says Scholz.

Scholz attributes these delays to the extraordinary scale of the project. “It was not just a one-to-one migration. It was a transformation,” he notes.

Critical network services were at the heart of that transformation. For the new hybrid cloud platform to function as envisioned, the trouble-prone DDI deployments in kubus IT’s data centers would need to be fully replaced.

THE SOLUTION

A Cloud Management Enabler: Enterprise-Grade DDI

To promptly connect with each other and the world at large, the new platform’s 165 subsystems, thousands of applications, and cloud infrastructure components required agile and dependable DDI services that were integrated, simple to use, automated, and built for hybrid cloud environments. None of those essential elements were present in the legacy DDI implementations used in kubus IT’s aging data centers. Instead, they consisted of disparate, labor-intensive tools that functioned independently.

The most pressing issue for kubus IT’s overworked staff was managing multiple IP address management (IPAM) systems. “It was not just one tool; it was a lot of tools. They had so many problems with IP management,” Scholz says. Issues included duplicate and missing IP addresses, tracking by spreadsheet, provisioning conflicts, and frequent misconfigurations, all of which regularly disrupted network service operations. In modernizing its infrastructure, kubus IT was determined to eliminate overlapping IPAM deployments. “It was a requirement from the customer to have only one IP management system for the new platform,” Scholz says.

Scholz and his team were familiar with the robust IPAM capabilities of Infoblox NIOS DDI, having successfully deployed them in previous customer projects. Infoblox was also the preferred DDI solution for Arvato’s parent company, Bertelsmann. For these reasons and with one particular feature in mind, Arvato chose NIOS DDI for the migration proposal. “At the center of the project was Infoblox IPAM, the central point for managing IP addresses,” Scholz insists.

NIOS DDI provided Arvato and kubus IT with a single, intuitive solution that unified and automated DNS, DHCP, and IPAM to eliminate errors and ensure rapid, seamless connectivity across devices, servers, and applications. Additionally, its enterprise-grade DDI services were purpose-built to meet AOK Healthcare’s strict data-handling requirements. With Infoblox, the migration teams gained granular control and visibility into DDI, enabling them to designate services wherever they needed to reside: on-premises or in hybrid private and public clouds.

Lastly, the Infoblox Grid™ provides the continuous DDI service availability that kubus IT needed to meet the migration’s strict “no downtime” stipulation.

THE RESULT

A Ray of Hope in a Platform Migration Storm

Over the course of the project, migration teams experienced difficulties with nearly every facet of the platform, from data transfer systems to server blades, private cloud implementations, and even electrical power. At times, the sheer number of issues seemed overwhelming. “The original plan no longer fit. The problems piled up and it felt like nothing was working,” Scholz recalls. “But then, there was this one ray of hope—an element that ran like Swiss clockwork.”

For Scholz, that element was NIOS DDI and its industry-leading IPAM solution, which enabled kubus IT to confidently handle the platform’s tens of thousands of IP addresses. “The migration of the IP addresses took only a few hours,” he reports. “And we did not encounter a single critical problem with the product during the entire nine months.” While other technical aspects consumed vast amounts of precious time, the painless IP address migration made possible by NIOS DDI kept the entire project on schedule. “Infoblox was the difference maker,” says Scholz.

In addition, NIOS DDI was instrumental in ensuring continuous network availability throughout the project, enabling kubus IT to meet a key service level agreement (SLA). “During the migration, we had no downtime,” Scholz reports. “Not even small outages that could have made the network slower.” That uninterrupted service has continued since the migration wrapped in the fall of 2024.

For kubus IT’s staff, NIOS DDI helped them achieve even higher SLAs. “Infoblox is an absolute expert in network management. The team is so happy about the performance and how fast the platform runs now,” Scholz says. Much of that improvement comes from consolidating previously dispersed critical network services into a single, automated platform. “They can see all available resources in one place, including which IP address blocks are free, all on a single screen, making it easy to manage. This is a huge advantage.”

More importantly, the Infoblox implementation facilitates seamless connectivity across the hybrid cloud platform’s public and private environments, providing kubus IT with a future-ready IT foundation that meets strict data privacy requirements. “Infoblox is a complete infrastructure as a service,” Scholz observes. “Everything is virtualized” and can be readily extended through APIs and scripts.

During the project, Scholz did not immediately notice the benefits of NIOS DDI because it was so troublefree. “As a project manager you only see problems—the things that don’t work,” he says. “Infoblox works exactly as expected, without any problems.”

Scholz credits Infoblox Professional Services with playing a key role in the project’s success. Infoblox experts were involved in every phase, from the initial tender development through to migration implementation and staff training in NIOS DDI. “When questions or minor problems arose, the Infoblox team was always on hand—quickly, efficiently, and without fuss,” Scholz says.

Prior to this engagement with AOK Healthcare and kubus IT, Arvato used whatever DDI solution matched a customer’s existing technology stack. This project changed his mind. “From now on, Infoblox should be the standard for future projects. Infoblox is the core of everything.”