Individual software applications from the public cloud

In this article you will read about,

• the applications Ambient Innovation: GmbH scores points with in the energy sector,
• why the Cologne-based digital agency relies on the Open Telekom Cloud,
• and how the company and its customers benefit from the secure infrastructure.

Rising energy prices, growing environmental awareness: More and more German companies and private households are using and producing electricity from renewable energies. According to the German Federal Statistical Office, 2.2 million photovoltaic systems with a total output of 58,400 megawatts were installed on roofs and properties in March 2022 – an increase in installed output of almost 10 percent compared to the previous year.

If the systems are to produce solar power safely and profitably, homeowners must plan in advance, among other things, the orientation of the panels and have the static of the roof checked, obtain permits and decide whether they want to use the energy exclusively themselves or also feed it into the grid. These are all tasks that the prospective customers can outsource, by using the VLINK portal. The platform is a service offered by the energy company Vattenfall. It brings together all the service providers involved, from sales to tradesmen to energy suppliers, with the client and manages the necessary processes.

The tool, which can also be used to apply for energy certificates or other energy supply products, was programmed by the digital agency Ambient Innovation: GmbH from Cologne. The SME specializes in customized software applications for business customers. "Our solutions come into play where standard systems reach their limits," says Dennis Gilliam, CEO of the IT company, which has around 100 employees. Vattenfall's VLink portal, for example, is an enormously comprehensive solution with numerous highly customized modules and interfaces to connect it with other systems – such as for the customer relationship management (CRM) of the companies involved.

"We program a lot of the solutions ourselves, but now we also use automated services and scripts like Terraform so that we are more flexible," says Gilliam. What's more, in addition to software development, Ambient now also handles the operation of the business applications. "We didn't do that before, which meant that when customers had questions or difficulties, they didn't know whether they needed to talk to us or their data center operator. That was inefficient, and the customers were dissatisfied."

Ambient relies on the Open Telekom Cloud for the hosting and operations. "We need an established partner for the cloud solutions that offers flexibility and scalability as well as GDPR-compliant data protection, and whose company headquarters and data center are located in Germany," says Gilliam. "With these requirements, Telekom was the only choice." The Open Telekom Cloud’s Elastic Cloud Server offers flexible capacities for peak loads in the development and operation. In addition, Ambient uses object-based storage for data storage and databases, as well as load balancing to evenly distribute requests to its services. "We can't afford to have individual servers for our services as single points of failure," explains the CEO of the Cologne-based agency. Ambient also uses Kubernetes clusters for applications such as VLink. The container technology facilitates development and deployment. It's important, among other things, because the developers deploy new releases for their IT projects about every 14 days. "The Kubernetes clusters support automated testing and rapid customization in short iterations with the customers."
 

Today, Ambient doesn’t just offer its customers individual solutions, but an all-round service. In this way, the Cologne-based company creates unique selling points for companies in highly competitive industries. "Together, we develop a vision for their digitalization journey, implement the appropriate solutions, and today, thanks to the Open Telekom Cloud, can also operate and continuously improve them," says Gilliam. Open Telekom's high data protection and security standards even convince customers from sensitive sectors such as the energy industry. Ambient can also benefit from Telekom's positive image. An additional advantage is that, thanks to OpenStack, the technological basis of the cloud infrastructure, software developers can use standardized building blocks and libraries. "And our applications are ready for use in the customer's other cloud scenarios at any time."