nOps has developed a SaaS product suite aimed at delivering AI-powered solutions that help companies build, manage, and operate a well-architected AWS cloud infrastructure that is secure, reliable, efficient, cost efficiency, and embodies operational excellence. As a strategic partner with iOLAP, we were asked to integrate similar well-architected features from Microsoft Azure into nOps that opened new channels for business opportunities in the product.
Not only did iOLAP deliver the product, but we also use the product in our daily activities with our clients. The value that nOps allows us to pass onto our clients via well-architected reviews has been tremendous; especially in cost savings seen across our AWS practice.
iOLAP, in recent times, added a focus on AWS, Azure, App Dev, conversational AI, data science, and advanced analytics as core services. nOps tapped iOLAP to build a team of experts who could quickly integrate complex features for Azure into the existing nOps product. Lots of care was taken to separate out logic between AWS and Azure.
nOps provides AWS cloud management services through their SaaS offering and wanted to extend this capability to manage Azure cloud services from within the same application. The existing application was extended and slightly redesigned to work as a common platform and provide a one stop shop for managing multiple cloud services (AWS and Azure).
Adding Azure to the core product provides a significant opportunity to move into new cloud markets with the goal of becoming cloud agnostic within the product suite. Short term business goals were to accomplish the following:
Longer term goals with Azure integration into nOps are to become a Microsoft CPV, support CSP subscription models, and extend the nOps customer base to Microsoft partners.
The goal of the nOps MVP was to build an additional set of functionality into the nOps SaaS product by integrating with Azure cloud in order to ingest and process billing and usage data.
Below is an overview of what features objectives that would be part of the MVP.
Part of developing products is the need to understand who makes the buying decisions and how you want to influence those decisions. Part of our project design process is defining how different personas will interact with the product or application. Different personas will change what screens they see and potential messaging oriented to that persona. For the nOps product, we focused on End User/Clients, Partner/Resellers, and Distributors as the targeted personas.
Client View
Partner View
Distributor View
The project started with a four-week discovery phase where we worked closely with nOps product owners to gather requirements, start UI/UX design work, and confirm our understanding of the Azure integration scenarios, business logic behind it, and provide guidance on how to on-board new customer accounts into nOps Azure. Additionally, we have developed new features of fetching data which can be used for implementing Well Architected Framework Review reports and map existing AWS rules to Azure rules via API calls.
In order to better understand how iOLAP approaches AppDev projects, we would like to expose you to the Project Discovery Process we conducted for nOps:
nOps is leading the way cloud refinement is achieved by offering tools to help you make sense of complex cloud infrastructure best practices. Here at iOLAP we were excited to take on such an opportunity to evolve the shape of the nOps toolset by integrating it with Azure. We realized that strategy matters as much as execution. Partnering with the teams at nOps allowed us to maximize value while implementing a complex product together. Sustained involvement from key stakeholders with a constant focus on business value and technical direction was a fundamental element that helped us both achieve delivery excellence.
Want to get started with nOps, contact us now at sales@iolap.com.