Schneider Electric

As a global leader in industrial technology, Schneider Electric operates a highly complex IT infrastructure that supports numerous critical business systems and core workloads. This architecture spans from on-premises data centers to multi-region cloud environments, forming a typical hybrid deployment model. Faced with the challenges of a complex hybrid cloud landscape, a vast array of system instances, and stringent security and compliance requirements, effectively unifying management strategies and enhancing operational efficiency have become key priorities for Schneider Electric China's EIT Infrastructure Architecture Team.

In the existing environment, the widely deployed Linux systems exhibit varying security update mechanisms due to differences in distributions. The Schneider Electric EIT team had to rely on monthly security reports to perform complex scanning and assessments across servers running different distributions before deploying corresponding patches, resulting in prolonged security update cycles and significant manual effort. Additionally, within the hybrid cloud environment spanning multiple on-premises data centers and the Amazon Web Services China Region, the team needed to ensure stringent alignment in security and compliance between cloud and local infrastructure. To address these challenges, the Schneider Electric EIT team proactively explored more efficient and automated management approaches, continuously enhancing governance capabilities for both cloud and on-premises IT environments to support sustained business growth and digital transformation.

To more effectively address cloud and on-premises data center management challenges, Schneider Electric's EIT team subscribed to the Amazon Web Services China Region Enterprise Support. This comprehensive offering includes: 24/7 case support, online chat and phone response within 15 minutes, proactive Technical Account Manager (TAM) services and guidance, consultative services and environment reviews by senior technical support experts. The integrated support framework provides Schneider Electric with one-stop assistance, combining localized expertise, specialized knowledge, and industry best practices to enhance cloud operational capabilities and governance maturity continuously.

To help Schneider Electric efficiently manage its complex IT environment spanning thousands of Windows and Linux servers, the Support team systematically introduced Amazon Systems Manager to the EIT team. This service features highly automated design capabilities, enabling unified management of workloads deployed both on-premises and in the cloud while delivering a consistent user experience. Amazon Systems Manager encompasses large-scale instance operational functions such as system configuration and security patch management, significantly enhancing Schneider Electric's operational efficiency. Moreover, with its free service offering, it further reduces infrastructure maintenance costs in hybrid environments.

Confronted with managing thousands of Windows and Linux servers distributed across on-premises data centers and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) networks, the technical support team conducted a thorough analysis of configuration status and patch maintenance schedules for different server groups in accordance with the Schneider Electric EIT team's requirements. The team developed customized security update strategies for critical business workloads and development/test environments, automating previously manual operational processes. By implementing Amazon Systems Manager, monthly security updates were automated through scheduled tasks. Integrated with the Compliance tool within Amazon Systems Manager, the solution collects and aggregates data from both cloud and on-premises environments to generate comprehensive compliance reports, effectively meeting Schneider Electric's stringent security and compliance requirements. The Head of Data Center, EIT at Schneider Electric commented: "With the expert assistance of China Region Enterprise Support team, we have achieved configuration and compliance consistency between our on-premises data centers and the Amazon Web Services China Region cloud environment. This not only ensures adherence to high-standard security requirements but also establishes a solid foundation for synergistic and efficient operations across hybrid environments." 

IT management in real-world scenarios is inherently complex and diverse. When encountering technical issues with Windows Server, Schneider Electric promptly received responses and support from technical engineers. The support team employed a layered diagnostic approach, conducting comprehensive investigations from instance status and network connectivity to system logs, accurately identifying the root cause of fault. Ultimately, they assisted the Schneider Electric EIT team in resolving the issue through parameter optimization, earning high recognition. "Even when the problem originated from server configuration updates by third-party vendors outside the Amazon Web Services China Region, the technical support team proactively dedicated resources to assist with the analysis. This professional and responsible attitude made us truly appreciate the value of the Enterprise Support and trust their capabilities even more," remarked the Head of Data Center, EIT at Schneider Electric.

Leveraging Amazon Web Services China Region Enterprise Support and the implementation of Amazon Systems Manager, Schneider Electric's EIT team can now manage both cloud environments and enterprise on-premises data centers through a unified interface, enabling automated assessment and deployment of operating system patches. By utilizing finely defined patch baselines and maintenance windows, the team can automatically apply patches and perform system reboots during idle periods according to different business requirements. This approach prevents business interruptions caused by patch updates while fully meeting corporate security and compliance policies. The solution has achieved a nearly 100% security patch compliance rate for both on-premises data centers and cloud-based Amazon EC2 instances.

Leveraging cloud-native management tools and Enterprise Support of Amazon Web Services China Region, the EIT team at Schneider Electric has successfully transformed the tedious manual processes following monthly security patch releases into automated operations. Compared with the past, the work efficiency of IT professionals has increased by 30%, enabling the team to allocate more resources to key operation, maintenance and optimization tasks in the cloud. The work cycle for evaluation, deployment, verification and auditing of different server groups has been shortened from 10-15 days to 3-5 days. This significantly improves the deployment efficiency of security patches, effectively reduces system security risks and narrows the attack surface.

Beyond the daily program, the Enterprise Support also includes a series of proactive services such as on-site seminars and customized courses. These services aim to help the Schneider Electric’s EIT team gain a deeper understanding of cloud service and management best practices, thereby driving the enterprise’s IT operational excellence. “The seminar topics provided by the Enterprise Support team are tailored to our IT and business characteristics, making every interaction more efficient and valuable,” said the Head of Data Centers at Schneider Electric EIT. “This approach allows us to engage face-to-face with technical experts at any time, conduct in-depth discussions on solutions to practical problems, and thus build a secure, reliable, and scalable cloud infrastructure oriented to long-term business needs with greater confidence.”

In the Future, with the help of cloud computing services such as Amazon Web Services China Region Enterprise Support, Schneider Electric will continuously drive efficient and excellent IT operations, and provide greater flexibility and reliability for its business by introducing more architectural best practices.