Paul Shanahan
EMEA Digital Sales Director - Security, Compliance and Identity
Ever been hit by a pang of guilt after realising someone accidentally left the lights on all day at home, wasting energy? Well, what if you were responsible for allocating power to 1.5 million homes instead?
That’s a lot of lights and a lot of energy that needs to be optimised to be there when needed and conserved when not. Utility experts, Hafslund, has a finger on the proverbial light switch for one of Norway’s major power grids, meshed across more than 40 Norwegian communities in the Oslo area. Instead of leaving power management up to best guesses, they turned to the data-crunching power of Azure containerised software, in order to monitor and optimise a network of smart meters powering this new climate-conscious era.
The Norwegian government is serious about changing the way we consume power, issuing a nationwide challenge for eco-conscious smart projects making use of smart technology. Working with Microsoft Partner Network members Aurum and Computas, Hafslund took up the call, deploying thousands of smart-meter IoT devices that intelligently measure power usage. A project of this size doesn’t come without challenges though, pushing existing legacy systems to the absolute brink of their data-processing capacity, and relying on sluggish third-party support for new developments to be implemented.
To speed up innovation and become agile, Hafslund developed its own meter-system software, using Microsoft Azure as its cloud platform. Recognising the amplified efficiencies of using containerised applications, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) was introduced to manage software containers and create automatic data triggers and workflows. Now, along with being able to respond to customer needs with speed, Hafslund is aiming to provide new, climate-focused data models to shape a better future with better insight.
“By running containerised software in Azure, we have a standard way to create, monitor, scale, and manage our applications. We move and respond to customer needs faster. That’s what agility is all about.”
-Ståle Heitmann, Chief Technology Officer, Hafslund Nett
Smarter data that works together
In a world where so many new tools are aimed at the individual, those that emphasise the collective are increasingly valuable. Togetherness and unity are what define the most successful organisations, the businesses that are able to thrive and adapt in an ever-changing landscape of digital transformation and disruptive technology. By unifying relationships, processes and […]
Tuulia Sinijarvi
Microsoft, Business Apps
Bringing auto-scaling to online retail
Underpinning the growth of the next generation of e-commerce unicorns, IRP trusts Azure as a secure, scalable platform on which to build. Belfast-based IRP offers a cloud-based eCommerce platform to growth-focused businesses, covering every stage of the customer journey from awareness through to conversion. It harnesses the power of Azure to enable data-driven growth […]
Bibhas Bhattacharya
Former Intelligent Cloud Business Group Lead
