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Customer Story

Gavra Turns to Xebia to Modernize its Applications with Google and Cameyo

Belgian ceramic tile wholesaler decided that migrating to Google's ecosystem was the ideal solution to become more scalable

Related Services
Cloud Technology, Google Workspace, Google Cloud, Cameyo, ChromeOS

Industry
Retail

Company
Xebia

Gavra is a Belgian company that imports and distributes a wide range of high-quality ceramic tiles and surfaces from countries such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal. They focus exclusively on the Belgian market and have a strong network of professional partners, including dealers, tilers, contractors, project developers, kitchen and interior builders, architects, and interior designers. With a rich history dating back to 1932, Gavra is a fixed value in the Belgian tile industry and offers personalized guidance and service to ensure that customers find the perfect solution for its needs and budget.

Why
The rapidly expanding customer called for a more efficient and agile infrastructure
What
Simplify and modernize IT ecosystem, and create more scalability and availability of its applications
How
Migrate to Google Workspace, migrate SAP to Google Cloud, set up new VMs on Google Cloud, bootstrap the system, implement faster VPNs, and improve backups

Streamlining Gavra's Digital Transformation

When Gavra needed assistance in its digital transformation journey, it turned to Xebia. Xebia worked closely with Gavra on its strategy, and the companies decided that migrating Gavra to the Google ecosystem would be the best solution to meet its goals. Xebia then assisted Gavra with moving to Google Workspace, migrating its SAP systems and VPNs to Google Cloud, adopting ChromeOS devices, and deploying Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform. All with the objective to ensure that Gavra’s employees have access to all of its applications on any device - including ChromeOS devices - for optimized productivity, cost-effectiveness, security, and manageability.

“We wanted to create a more scalable and secure infrastructure for our applications. Based on my past experience with Xebia Workplace, I was confident of its team’s ability to provide the expertise and guidance necessary to improve Gavra's overall performance and customer satisfaction.”

Gavra/ Logo
Kristoff Verbieren Information Technology Manager

Overcoming Challenges

Gavra was struggling to keep up with its rapidly expanding customer base and needed to find a way to become more efficient and agile, while also reducing costs and improving the scalability and availability of its applications.

Gavra faced five main challenges: 

  1. Gavra had its own on-premise data center, which was prone to high maintenance costs, low scalability, and security risks.
  2. On-premise mail server was out of date, which impacted security and increased maintenance costs.
  3. Once they migrated to Google Cloud and ChromeOS devices, Gavra still needed to continue using some of its legacy Windows applications even after migrating to the cloud-based Google Workspace.
  4. The ERP system was outdated and required modernization to meet the needs of its growing business.
  5. Gavra needed to eliminate VPNs due to the security and user experience issues they caused, and it needed to migrate its old systems to Google Cloud.

“With Xebia’s assistance, we were able to smoothly implement SAP and temporarily allocate extra resources for a faster data import. What's more, I'm now fully capable of independently managing the firewall on Google Cloud, which has greatly improved our workflow efficiency.”

Gavra/ Logo
Kristoff Verbieren Information Technology Manager

Modernizing IT Infrastructure

Gavra tackled challenges by adopting a serverless architecture, leveraging Google Cloud and Workspace with an identity management system. To overcome reliance on Windows legacy applications, the organization implemented Cameyo's Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform, enabling seamless application delivery to any device. This move allowed for a smoother cloud transition and showcased their commitment to innovation. With automated bootstrapping and workspace migration, Gavra achieved enhanced security, compliance, and incident response. By moving its ERP system to Google Cloud, Gavra modernized its infrastructure, improving flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Additionally, eliminating outdated VPNs with Google Cloud improved security and connectivity, ensuring fast and reliable services for customers. GCPW (Google Credential Provider for Windows) facilitated Workspace credentials login on Windows laptops, aligning with the objective of achieving a zero-trust architecture.

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