Shenzhen Gas

Business Background
After years of development and transformation, Shenzhen Gas has formed an intelligent pipeline safety operation system centered around GIS, Beidou Satellite Navigation System, data monitoring and acquisition systems, smartphone inspection systems, gas volume management systems, and pipeline integrity management systems. It has also developed an intelligent service system centered on customer service platforms, call systems, WeChat service accounts, and online business halls, as well as an intelligent production system centered around ERP, BI, customer service mobile operation platforms, and engineering mobile management platforms.

With the group’s strategic goal of upgrading from “Intelligent Gas” to “Smart Gas,” aiming to build the benchmark for “Smart Gas,” the existing IT infrastructure is facing significant challenges:

1. The current environment includes multiple VMware virtual machines, hundreds of host machines, and some systems still rely on physical machines, with certain business activities hosted on public clouds. The IT infrastructure is complex, forming multiple information silos with no unified management and low operational efficiency.

2. There is no resource isolation based on the type of business systems. All systems appear on the same interface, and operations staff can access other applications, leading to the risk of operational errors that may affect other business systems.

3. New business systems require IT administrators to initiate activation or procurement processes, resulting in slow responses to urgent needs.

4. The upcoming implementation of PaaS, artificial intelligence, and big data platforms will dramatically increase the diversity and scale of IT resource needs. The current IT architecture struggles to ensure adequate scalability for future requirements.

Solution Deployment
After research, Shenzhen Gas decided to use ZStack Cloud to deploy a new IT architecture and resource pool, integrating existing VMware and public cloud resources into a unified management and operational system. The virtual resource pool is allocated based on business units to improve business operation and management efficiency.

Specific Solution:

• ZStack Cloud serves as the cloud foundation for the Alibaba Cloud proprietary cloud agile standard edition, jointly building a hybrid cloud platform that bridges the public cloud and private cloud data and control resources.

• A distributed storage separation architecture is used for deployment, allowing for large-scale expansion of computing and storage resources as needed. VMware and Alibaba public cloud resources are integrated into a unified management system. The private cloud and public cloud environments are interconnected through a dedicated line, complementing each other’s resources to build an efficient and practical cloud computing infrastructure.

1. The cloud platform uses dual management node redundancy to achieve high availability of cloud platform management services. In the event of a failure of one management node, cloud management services will remain uninterrupted. A distributed storage system is used as shared storage, and high availability is enabled for cloud hosts via the cloud platform to ensure business system high availability.

2. VMware platforms in the existing environment are integrated and virtual machines are allocated to different accounts based on business types to achieve multi-tenant management. Business operations staff can only access and maintain the cloud resources assigned to their dedicated accounts by the administrator.

3. The hybrid cloud platform integrates Alibaba public cloud resources, enabling the management of both private and public cloud resources on the same platform. A dedicated line connects the private and public cloud environments, allowing for quick deployment of local business systems onto the public cloud and providing disaster recovery capabilities.

Project Benefits:

1. Focus on Core Business Development
   The construction of the cloud platform, utilizing ZStack + Alibaba Cloud for unified IT infrastructure management, frees up company personnel from the task of building and maintaining traditional IT systems, thus allowing more focus on the company’s core business.

2. Optimize Resource Utilization and Build Green IT Infrastructure
   The cloud platform is scalable, and devices can be easily replaced, improving IT resource reuse. This helps avoid the siloed development and low resource utilization common in traditional IT systems and enables effective energy saving and emission reduction.

3. Streamline IT Resources and Reduce Operational Costs
   The cloud platform enables unified management of resources and operational platforms, greatly reducing maintenance costs. By lowering costs, it contributes to the company’s profitability.

4. Flexibility to Respond Quickly and Shorten Deployment Cycles
   The cloud platform supports once-for-all planning and multiple on-demand deployments, reducing IT planning complexity and investment risks. With flexible expansion and reduction mechanisms, it is easy to adjust resource capacity in line with business or IT changes.

5. Ensure Core Business Continuity
   The cloud platform’s high availability (HA) and live migration capabilities reduce equipment downtime and ensure core business continuity, preventing issues arising from single points of failure that are common in traditional IT systems.