An Application To Inspect Customer Datacenter Infrastructure For An

Enterprise Cloud Provider Company

The client is a cloud computing software company that sells enterprise-level infrastructure appliances and software-defined storage. They wanted an application for their sales team which would enable them to inspect the customer’s data center infrastructure and propose a better infrastructure solution based on the analysis. HashedIn developed a tool to collect the customer’s infrastructure usage data and delivered it in a structured format to the user for further analysis.

Executive Summary

Problem Statement

Apart from selling infrastructure appliances and software-defined storage, the client also provides performance enhancement and efficient resource utilization consultancy to their customers after a thorough analysis of their current infrastructure. The whole process turned out to be extremely tedious for the clients as most of the calculations and data collections were done manually. Along with the problem of efficiency in data collection the sales team was also under constant pressure of structuring the data to be entered into their in-house analysis tool.

Business Requirements

The key challenge for our client was to collect the complete usage data for the entire infrastructure instantaneously. This would reduce the amount invested by them in data collection from weeks to mere minutes. The problem lay in the time consumed for the collection of a huge amount of data which could have been reduced if the data was collected in bulk.

The product suites were as below:

Python based CLI Tool: Simple installable python based tool for users with technical knowledge. The JSON file can be generated using simple CLI based commands in the current folder.

Desktop Application : A cross-platform Desktop Application compatible with Linux, Mac and Windows user. The user can export the files in JSON or Excel format with a button click. Complete progress and basic statistics are provided during and after the collection process.

End ObjectiveThe solution intended to be developed was a VMware infrastructure data collector as a majority of client’s customers were using VMware hardware.

Key RequirementsThe key tenets of this solution were:

Generation of collection data files.

Complete coverage of VMware infrastructure.

Tracking of the collection process.

Ease of access to the users.

Multi-export options to the user.

Solution Approach

Our Solution StructureThe application facilitates collection of customer usage data of an infrastructure for analysis by the client Sales team.Python based CLI and a desktop application was developed which catered to different users according to their technical preferences.

The two different tools covered a versatile range of users from analysts who preferred interacting directly with the command line and Sales users who preferred click based applications generating output instantly.

Summarized requirements put forth by the client were as below:

The data collection should be done starting from Datacenter, covering clusters, hosts within those clusters and ultimately virtual machines under the hosts. The collected information was expected to be re-structured into JSON or Excel notebook.

An automated testing script to compare the output JSON to Output from other similar tools.

Desktop application to input Host/Datacenter credentials which will map the collection process until completion. Upon the completion the output page should display the basic statistics of infrastructure assets(number of clusters, hosts, and vms) and serve the output files with detailed information for download.

Impact and involvement of stakeholdersThe automation of the collection process of infrastructure statistics involved all the stakeholders engaged in analysis and consultancy services for infrastructure development hence solution had to provide value to each of them:

Sales Managers- Minimize time, new sales opportunities

Analysts- Minimize time, extended time of analytics

Consultants- Quick delivery, maximized coverage

Client Customers- Enhanced performance, Reduced cost

Product managers- Quick delivery

The services involved in this solution included:

Automated testing and comparison of output to another collection tool.

Login page to input Host/Datacenter credentials.

Progress bar to map the collection process.

Output page with the option to download the output in JSON or Excel format.

Output page displays the count of assets beforehand.

Open the download location.

Solution Dynamics and Interactions

The python CLI tool was created using VMware's API to fetch the required data which was later

structured into a JSON format.

The core script from CLI tool was later utilized as a backend data source for the cross-platform

Desktop Application which served the data to the user in two formats i.e JSON and Excel for

download. Another python script was later incorporated to convert the previously generated JSON file

to the Excel notebook for the users.

User InterfaceKey aspects of the Desktop Application:

The application was created using ElectronJS.

Python script using VMware API was used for data collection at the backend.

UI code bundling is done using electron-packager.

Following was the UI development process:

The UI local development is primarily happening on the ElectronJS server.

The code is then packaged using ‘electron_packager’ for different operating systems.

Technology StackBack end: Python, VMwareAPI

Front end: ElectronJS, Node.js

Business Outcomes

HashedIn has helped many promising firms across the globe by building customized solutions to give the users a completely hassle-free experience. Kindly let us know if you

have any specific problem/use case, where we can provide more information or consult you.

https://hashedin.com/contact-us/

Save time with a one-click download for complete infrastructure data.

Improved estimates for clients.

Business OutcomesOur client saved resources and time spent in the collection process and was able to invest in expanding the potential for its consultancy services.

The product was delivered on time reaping following benefits:

A user-friendly UI to collect the data and export it into excel and JSON formats.