EVBox Group provides electric vehicle charging solutions ranging from ultra-fast charging stations to charging management software. It has more than 250,000 charging ports across more than 70 countries, and is a leader in electric vehicle charging technology research and development.

Project background.

The company grew from 80 people to 800 people in less than 3 years. Over that period, different business units had adopted cloud as needed and in their own ways. The business now wanted to increase its overall cloud maturity by centralising on Google Cloud Platform. The EVBox team chose to start this process by migrating SAP from AWS to GCP because it would be a high-profile win showcasing success with a complex workload.

The CIO and IT architect leading the project were determined to get SAP migrated to GCP – and fast. But they quickly hit a roadblock: Their incumbent SAP partner and prospective cloud partners all said it was impossible.

Challenges.

Agility

EVBox knew from the start that there would be scope creep. They needed a flexible partner who could adapt and still deliver on time.

Cloud Native

EVBox’s overall strategy is to adopt cloud-native solutions as they consolidate their landscape. They wanted a partner who could enable that vision.

Speed

EVBox wanted to start immediately, work quickly and meet an ambitious timeline for migrating SAP to GCP.

We needed to find someone eager to look beyond the complexities, risks and challenges – a partner who would help us realise what we were told was an impossible vision

Madelein Smit

CIO, EVBox

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Our Approach.

For this project, working with specific partners was key. As EVBox’s strategic cloud partner, Nordcloud brought together a team of specific partners for this project including Google Cloud Platform and SAP partner SAPBASIS.

This focused on small building blocks in 1-week sprints, to maintain control over deliverables and adapt based on the challenges that arose. It was a true co-development process where everyone was invested and aligned with the same goals.

Crucially Nordcloud’s, cloud-native approach and multi-cloud expertise allowed the team to find creative solutions to issues. One example including developing a better, more cost-effective way of deploying EVBox’s AppStream.

EVBox wanted an effective secure and browser based virtual desktop environment, with single sign on, however, this wasn’t something GCP offered, and the third-party solutions reviewed were either costly or overly complex.

Nordcloud developed a browser-only solution on AWS which is the hosted and managed for EVBox. From the company and user perspective, it’s the same as using a seamless SaaS solution, to match EVBox’s needs.

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Results.

Nordcloud and SAPBASIS successfully migrated EVBox’s SAP to GCP within 2.5 months and within budget. This has allowed EVBox to close down at least 4 other hosting environments. With SAP consolidated on GCP, it’s now easier for EVBox to scale, which will deliver financial benefits as the company expands globally and continues its M&A activity.

EVBox is also reaping benefits on the data side, because the centralised SAP instance has simplified oversight, control and security for GDPR and other compliance requirements.

EVBox now has a solid foundation as its continues its SAP platform development and integrates with vendors and customers. We have since enabled them with fully managed landing zones so they can expand their GCP footprint in an agile way with in-built security and governance.

I always say this to partners but they rarely do it. I say: “Tell me I’m wrong, because I want to know how we can improve.

Everyone at Nordcloud and SAPBASIS did this. Not only did their willingness to challenge and ask hard questions help us avoid major pitfalls, but it saved us money, too.

Sebastiaan Röben

IT Architect, EVBox

Fast migration

SAP migration completed within 2.5 months.

Solid foundation

Solid foundation as its continues its SAP platform development plus fully managed landing zone.

Simplified process

Simplified oversight, control and security for GDPR and other compliance requirements.

Data centre migration to the cloud.

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Group CTO

EVBox.

Project Summary.

The client.

Project background.