Amway Infrastructure Reorganization and Software Migration
Amway
How we met new data regulation requirements for customers in Russia and Kazakhstan
Situation:
At the beginning of September, new regulations on the processing of personal data entered into force in the Russian Federation. According to the new provisions, international companies operating in Russia and Kazakhstan need to save the personal data of Russian and Kazakh citizens on servers located in the Russian Federation. e-point SA was responsible for ensuring that the client's system complied with this regulation while minimizing the impact to existing hardware and software solutions.
Challenges:
To comply with the personal data regulations, e-point needed to meet the following challenges:
- Extracting the account registration and system activity data associated with citizens of the Russian Federation from the centralized data- base for Central and Eastern Europe and moving that data to a data center located in Russia
- Acting on a difficult, unpredictable and changeable market
- Completing the task in a short timeframe
"The project involved launching a new instance of the whole e-commerce environment on the territory of the Russian Federation that would be maximally independent from the infrasture maintained in Warsaw".
Norbert Pabiś
Head of technology
e-point SA
Results:
- Compliance with the local regulations concerning the processing of personal data
- Launching an additional, dedicated data center
- Designing and obtaining the necessary telecom, network and server infrastructure
- Integration with other IT resources from the client's global network
- Entirely remote configuration of all layers of the environment
"We are ready to launch a similar application environment on a similar physical environment, totally remotely".
Norbert Pabiś
Head of technology
e-point SA
Benefits:
Not only did this effort keep the client in compliance with personal data handling requirements for users within the Russian Federation, the implementation team gained invaluable experience, contacts, and an operational base within the territory of the Russian Federation. This sets the foundation for subsequent projects in the country.
Phase 1:
Organizing the infrastructure on site
3 possible ways of approaching the challenges were devised:
A. Purchasing the hardware in Poland and transporting it to a Russian data center to configure remotely
This option was abandoned due to concerns about meticulous border control inspections causing the technological infrastructure to arrive too late.
B. Cloud computing
A Dutch hosting company had both the required infrastructure and the physical servers hosted in the Russian Federation.
This option was abandoned because, due to the licensing terms, the cost of utilizing the infrastructure would dramatically rise and erode any profits from the implementation.
C. Purchasing the hardware in the Russian Federation
This is the option that was selected.
"We couldn't simply order the servers at the supplier and wait for the delivery, which is also subject to problems with the customs. We had to find a supplier that had hardware ready for installation in stock on site, and adjust our plans concerning the infrastructure to what was available at hand and met our requirements."
Phase 2:
Software migration
All the necessary work related to the configuration and installation of the new environment was done remotely. Installation of the necessary components was divided into stages. The first step was to configure the network environment so that it could be used for starting the servers. Software migration was completed using e-point's proprietary solutions supporting remote administration and scripts automating the installa- tion of selected components of the application.
The production launch of the e-commerce platform was preceded by a test carried out with the client's help, as well as a final audit of the security and stability of the environment.
"At present clients who access the e-commerce system from the Russian and kazakh domains are served with a system operating in the Russian Federation".
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