An international service provider in the field of safety and quality, hygiene, quality and the environment, the Luxembourg entity is publicising its new ambitions: with the support of the POST group, it has renewed all of its IT infrastructure, paying particular attention to the aspects of connectivity and hosting. For Luxcontrol, the aim is to give pride of place to digital as the essential driver of its future development. All projects relating to Luxcontrol’s digitalisation are thus supported by the General Management and the Executive Committee.
For more than 40 years, Luxcontrol has provided support to Luxembourg organisations in managing concerns related to safety, health, quality, environment and hygiene. Neutral and independent, the company acts with complete objectivity to ensure that organisations are in compliance with standards and regulations. In this niche, Luxcontrol has positioned itself as a key player in the Grand Duchy. “In mid-summer 2021, the Luxcontrol Management Committee was renewed, setting new growth targets for its business”, explained Sébastien Weiland, Chief Information Officer and member of the new Luxcontrol Executive Committee. “One of our goals is to introduce more efficient tools, in order to provide better customer service, and to bring about a major digital transformation throughout our organisation.”
UPGRADING THE ROLE OF IT
To remain at the cutting edge, Luxcontrol seeks to position itself in this new digital economy and, to do so, is shaking up some of the habits it has acquired over the years. In particular, these changes will be heralded by the company’s move to Belval in the coming months. “Undoubtedly, this will be the most visible transformation, the culmination of significant projects implemented across the entire organisation. In pursuing our new objectives, the role of IT must also evolve”, Sébastien Weiland elaborated.
“Digital technology is a strategic priority. Until now considered as a support function and a cost centre, IT will in the future be integrated into our business development, contributing directly to the company’s growth and enhanced competitiveness.” With this in mind, one of the first projects to be carried out was the introduction of tools designed for information sharing and collaborative work.
Luxcontrol has committed to a complete review of the technical platform of the information system and to secure the various components on which it is based. “These developments therefore necessarily imply a complete overhaul of the hosting, infrastructure, systems and networks in order to best serve our users and our customers, and to meet current requirements in terms of Availability/Integrity/Confidentiality”, Sébastien Weiland went on to say.
ENHANCED CONNECTIVITY AND NEW IT INFRASTRUCTURE
In order to redefine the foundations on which its new information system is based, Luxcontrol has called on the POST Telecom teams. “We wanted to be able to rely on experienced partners to help us develop our infrastructure and our tools,” explained the Chief Information Officer. “These two key players in Luxembourg have provided their expertise to support us in the different phases of this major project.”
Over the past few months, this transformation has enabled a transition to a high-speed internet connection, with POST establishing dedicated lines, and with the implementation of secure primary hosting in an EBRC Tier IV data centre, the installation of a scalable hyper-converged infrastructure, the interconnection of the ultra-high-speed data centre via an encrypted optical fibre link. “The combination of these features constitutes a solid basis that will allow us to better anticipate the future and the developments envisaged for our activity”, said Sébastien Weiland. “We are in the process of migrating from an obsolete environment, which has become difficult to maintain and no longer meets business needs, to a new platform, integrating the latest technologies, and much more scalable.”
STARTING WITH A CLEAN SHEET
Laying these first building blocks forming the backbone of the Luxcontrol information system was carried out in a relatively short time. “We started with a clean sheet. This seemed to us to be the most suitable approach in view of the existing and the new needs identified. In this way, we could ensure that the various components meet expectations and make provision for growth in the infrastructure (scalability), because IT needs will obviously increase as we evolve”, the CIO pointed out. “This complete renewal of the infrastructure was accompanied by a re-examination of most of the basic principles (fault tolerance, virtualisation, clustering, network segmentation, addressing, security, backups, etc.), in order to bring them into line with the requirements of the business.”
GREATER FLEXIBILITY
The transition from a locally hosted infrastructure to a secure Tier IV data centre offers Luxcontrol much greater freedom of movement. The company now has a tool that gives it true operational flexibility. “The infrastructure rolled out in Luxcontrol makes it possible to take different developments into account as regards the tools to be put in place, to further improve our attractiveness and efficiency, and also to offer our customers innovative solutions that allow improved responsiveness”, continued Sébastien Weiland, referring to the advantages and benefits of the ongoing projects. In addition, this renewal will greatly facilitate the move of the Luxcontrol headquarters planned for 2024.
SECURITY NOW INTEGRATED “BY DESIGN”
One of the advantages of this transformation also lies in the systematic use of the “Security by Design” concept. The security aspect is now incorporated into any project implemented, both at infrastructure level and in developments (DevSecOps approach). “In general, taking into account Information Systems Security considerations from the project design stages is much less complex and costly than when everything has to be reviewed following an audit”, commented the Chief Information Officer. Because Luxcontrol does not intend to stop there. The company is currently considering a number of projects.
“This new tool will make it possible to improve supervision of the information system components, to be more responsive to any problems that may arise and even to act proactively on new needs,” Sébastien Weiland added. “The intention is also to bring together internal applications and well-known tools, making collaboration easier and improving the development cycle. Lastly, we are actively working to improve the interoperability of systems and the professionalisation of the IT department.” Starting from this technological base, set up with the contribution of the POST group, Luxcontrol is entering a new era.
