Positioning Weeks Group for Scalability
Weeks Group offers global data warehouse services including construction planning, strategy, and consulting. Weeks Group serves as a critical technical partner to ensure the timely execution of data center construction projects.
Prior to Extrada Tech’s involvement, Weeks Group relied on costly Virtual Machines and manual reporting processes that limited their ability to scale and respond quickly to data needs.
The Project At a glance:
Challenges
Weeks Group needed a scalable, cost-effective solution to streamline project management and improve data synchronization across their expanding operations.
Solutions
Extrada Tech implemented Azure Functions, Blob Storage, and Power BI dashboards to optimize data processing, enhance reporting, and support dynamic task execution.
Results
Information Technology Challenges
Weeks Group faced several core challenges as their business scaled and technology needs grew:
- High Operating Costs: Virtual Machines (VMs) were employed for project management tasks, chosen for familiarity but costly to operate. VMs required constant runtime, leading to inefficiencies and limited scalability.
- Complex Resource Management: Synchronizing data across VMs created complexity and inefficiencies, especially as client demands grew.
- Disaster Response: Scripts running in isolation could fail unnoticed until end users reported issues, leading to delayed resolutions.
- Limited Reporting Suite: Existing Excel-based reporting lacked quick glance analysis of vital data, delaying decision-making.
Collaborative Solutions
Extrada Tech partnered with Weeks Group to redesign their infrastructure, implementing the following Microsoft solutions:
Transition from VMs to Azure Functions
- Azure Functions streamlined tasks previously managed by VMs, offering significant cost savings by only billing for active processing times.
- Functions facilitated parallel processing and orchestrated execution, allowing for both scheduled and on-demand updates.
Enhanced Data Management with Azure Blob Storage
- Azure Blob Storage was integrated across Functions, ensuring data uniformity and improving access speeds. Refactoring to a table format reduced latency—the delay before data begins following an instruction.
- The Queue system enabled ad hoc and scheduled task executions, providing flexibility in data processing workflows.
Advanced Reporting Dashboards with Power BI
- Custom Power BI dashboards replaced Excel-based reports, offering dynamic drill-downs, filters, and visual insights with consistent branding, layout and design throughout the pages to improve usability.
- Working closely with Weeks Group, we distilled the essential site-level data for construction and project managers worldwide and then developed indicators and analyses of common problem areas to improve reaction time.
- A Power App was built to trigger an Azure Queue, enabling streamlined retrieval and configuration of project information.
Technical Details
By leveraging Azure Functions and Blob Storage, Extrada developed a robust architecture enabling parallel processes without added code complexity. Azure Queue supported historical update backlogs and initiated multi-process functions, which decreased processing times and improved maintainability.
Measurable Results
The Weeks Group now benefits from:
- Reduced Operational Costs: Shifting from VMs to Azure Functions significantly cut infrastructure expenses.
- Enhanced Data Consistency and Access: Improved data storage and management workflows supported reliable, high-performance task execution across the organization.
- Real-Time Insights: Power BI dashboards now enable real-time, actionable insights, meaning quicker response times and informed decision-making at all organizational levels world-wide.
Extrada Tech continues to assist Weeks Group in their transition to cloud-based solutions, with a focus on lowering hosting costs and providing better reliability, scalability, and maintenance in the future.
