Designing and implementing robust, scalable technology architectures that support mission-critical operations across energy, trading, and industrial sectors, from Azure landing zones and hybrid cloud platforms to enterprise integration fabrics.
Case StudiesThese engagements showcase how our Technical Consultants design, implement, and optimise enterprise technology infrastructure for organisations operating in the most demanding environments.
Shell's upstream division was migrating its exploration and production applications to Microsoft Azure to reduce reliance on ageing on-premises data centres and improve the scalability of compute-intensive workloads such as seismic data processing, reservoir simulation, and production optimisation. The programme required the design and implementation of a secure, compliant Azure landing zone that met Shell's stringent information security policies, regulatory requirements, and operational resilience standards.
Our Technical Consultant was responsible for designing the landing zone architecture, which needed to support over 200 applications with varying requirements for compute, storage, networking, and security. The design followed the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework, adapted to Shell's specific needs, and incorporated a hub-and-spoke network topology with centralised security services, identity management integrated with Shell's existing Active Directory forest, and a governance framework using Azure Policy to enforce compliance with Shell's IT standards automatically.
A particularly challenging aspect was designing the high-performance computing (HPC) environment for seismic processing workloads, which required burst capacity of up to 10,000 cores with low-latency interconnects and access to petabytes of seismic data stored in Azure Blob Storage. The consultant designed a solution using Azure CycleCloud for HPC orchestration, Azure NetApp Files for high-performance shared storage, and InfiniBand-enabled virtual machines for the most demanding simulation workloads. The solution included automated scaling policies that provisioned compute resources on demand and decommissioned them when processing was complete, reducing HPC costs by 60% compared to the previous on-premises infrastructure.
The consultant also designed the network connectivity architecture, establishing ExpressRoute connections to Shell's on-premises data centres and implementing a DNS resolution strategy that enabled seamless name resolution between cloud and on-premises environments. The landing zone was delivered with comprehensive operational documentation, runbooks for common operational tasks, and a training programme for Shell's cloud operations team.
BP's Integrated Supply and Trading division required a hybrid cloud architecture that could support its trading applications across Azure and on-premises data centres. The trading environment demanded ultra-low latency for real-time pricing engines, high availability for 24/7 trading operations, and strict data residency controls to comply with regulations in different jurisdictions.
Our Technical Consultant designed a hybrid architecture that placed latency-sensitive components, including the pricing engine and order management system, in co-located data centres close to exchange connectivity points, whilst deploying analytics, risk calculation, and reporting workloads in Azure. The consultant implemented Azure Arc to provide a unified management plane across both environments, enabling consistent policy enforcement, monitoring, and deployment practices regardless of where workloads were hosted.
The data replication strategy was a critical design element, requiring near-real-time synchronisation of trade data between on-premises and cloud environments whilst maintaining transactional consistency. The consultant designed a solution using Azure Event Hubs for streaming trade events to the cloud, with a custom reconciliation service that verified data consistency and alerted operations teams to any discrepancies. The architecture also included comprehensive disaster recovery provisions, with automated failover capabilities that could restore trading operations within 15 minutes of a primary site failure.
Aramco Trading Company's rapid growth and expansion into new commodity markets had resulted in a proliferation of point-to-point integrations between its trading, risk management, accounting, and regulatory reporting systems. The integration landscape had become fragile, difficult to maintain, and a bottleneck for deploying new capabilities. The organisation needed an enterprise integration platform that could provide a scalable, manageable foundation for connecting its growing ecosystem of applications.
Our Technical Consultant led the design and implementation of an enterprise integration platform based on MuleSoft Anypoint Platform. The consultant began by conducting a thorough assessment of the existing integration landscape, documenting 87 point-to-point integrations, their data formats, protocols, error handling behaviour, and operational support requirements. This assessment informed the design of a target-state integration architecture based on API-led connectivity, with system APIs abstracting backend complexity, process APIs implementing business logic, and experience APIs serving specific consumer needs.
The consultant designed and implemented the integration platform infrastructure, including the Anypoint Platform deployment on CloudHub, the API gateway configuration, and the connectivity to on-premises systems through the Anypoint Runtime Fabric. The consultant also established integration development standards, including API design guidelines, error handling patterns, logging conventions, and testing strategies, and trained Aramco Trading's development team on MuleSoft development and operations best practices. Over the first 12 months, 52 of the 87 legacy integrations were migrated to the new platform, with the remainder scheduled for migration in the second year.
Shell's offshore production platforms in the North Sea were running on ageing infrastructure that was approaching end of life. The platforms relied on local servers for process control data historians, safety system monitoring, and operational reporting, with limited bandwidth satellite connections to onshore data centres. The organisation needed to modernise this infrastructure whilst maintaining continuous operations and meeting the safety-critical requirements of offshore oil and gas production.
Our Technical Consultant designed a modernised infrastructure architecture that leveraged edge computing to process data locally on the platforms, with intelligent data compression and prioritisation for transmission to onshore cloud infrastructure. The design included ruggedised edge servers capable of operating in the harsh offshore environment, a software-defined networking layer that optimised bandwidth utilisation across the constrained satellite links, and a data management strategy that ensured safety-critical data was always available locally even if connectivity to shore was lost.
The consultant managed the implementation across four platforms, coordinating with offshore operations teams to schedule installation activities during planned maintenance windows and developing rollback procedures to ensure that operations could continue safely if any issues arose during deployment. The modernised infrastructure reduced data latency from platform to shore from minutes to seconds for priority data streams, enabled real-time monitoring of production operations from onshore control rooms, and extended the operational life of the platform IT infrastructure by an estimated eight years.
Aramco Trading required a new commodity pricing service that could aggregate market data from multiple sources, apply proprietary pricing models, and deliver real-time pricing information to traders across all commodity desks. The existing pricing infrastructure was monolithic, difficult to scale during periods of high market volatility, and required lengthy development cycles to add new pricing models or data sources.
Our Technical Consultant designed a cloud-native microservices architecture deployed on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) that decomposed the pricing function into independently deployable services. The architecture comprised market data ingestion services (each specialised for a specific data provider's API), a pricing calculation engine that could run multiple pricing models in parallel, a caching layer using Redis for frequently accessed prices, and a WebSocket-based distribution service that pushed real-time price updates to trader workstations.
The consultant implemented a comprehensive observability stack using Prometheus for metrics, Grafana for dashboards, Jaeger for distributed tracing, and Fluentd for centralised logging. This observability infrastructure was essential for monitoring the performance of the pricing pipeline and quickly identifying bottlenecks during periods of high market activity. The consultant also established a CI/CD pipeline using Azure DevOps that enabled the pricing team to deploy new pricing models and data source integrations independently, reducing the deployment cycle from weeks to hours. The new architecture handled a threefold increase in market data volumes during a period of extreme market volatility without degradation, something the legacy system could not have sustained.
Our Technical Consultants combine deep technical expertise with practical delivery experience to design and implement technology solutions that are robust, scalable, and aligned with business objectives.
Designing cloud architectures on Azure, AWS, and GCP that meet requirements for performance, security, compliance, and cost efficiency. We produce detailed architecture blueprints, conduct well-architected reviews, and provide guidance on cloud adoption strategies tailored to each organisation's specific context and constraints.
Designing on-premises, hybrid, and edge computing infrastructure for environments ranging from enterprise data centres to offshore production platforms. We consider physical constraints, resilience requirements, operational support models, and total cost of ownership when developing infrastructure solutions.
Designing and implementing integration solutions that connect enterprise applications, data sources, and external services. We use modern integration patterns including API-led connectivity, event-driven architectures, and message-based integration to build integration landscapes that are scalable, maintainable, and resilient.
Planning and executing migrations of applications, data, and infrastructure between platforms, including cloud migrations, data centre consolidations, and platform upgrades. We develop detailed migration strategies, conduct risk assessments, design rollback procedures, and coordinate execution across multiple teams and workstreams.
Analysing and optimising the performance of applications, databases, networks, and infrastructure. We use systematic performance engineering methodologies to identify bottlenecks, model capacity requirements, design performance test strategies, and implement optimisations that deliver measurable improvements.
Providing expert technical guidance to support technology decision-making at strategic and tactical levels. We evaluate technology options, assess technical risks, review architectural designs, and provide recommendations that help organisations make informed choices about their technology investments.
Our Technical Consultants bring the deep architectural expertise and hands-on delivery experience that complex infrastructure and integration programmes demand. Let us help you design and build the technology foundations for your organisation's future.
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