Microsoft Azure Archives

October 2, 2023

Colombo, 28 September, 2023: Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL), recognized as a Sri Lankan confectionery and food manufacturing conglomerate, has taken the initiative to embrace new technologies and development methodologies in collaboration with Microsoft to gain a stronger foothold in the market while delivering innovation.
CBL has worked closely with Microsoft Azure experts to ensure the smooth migration of processes and improve the knowledge, abilities, and expertise of their IT team to bolster several implementations, efficiently and effectively.

Caption: Rasith Wickramasingha, Group Director of Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) and Harsha Randeny, Country Manager for Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives shaking hands in the presence of representatives from Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) and Microsoft Sri Lanka.
Rasith Wickramasingha, Group Director of Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) commented, “CBL’s journey with Microsoft Azure has been nothing short of transformative. Our migration to this powerful cloud platform has not only enhanced our manufacturing efficiency but has also opened new possibilities for innovation and growth. What we have achieved is not only a financial gain but has also helped us strengthen our market presence and bring greater value to our customers. Collaborating with Microsoft and their partners has been instrumental in this journey, and we are excited to continue our pursuit of excellence in confectionery manufacturing, both in Sri Lanka and beyond.”
A path to profitability and an increase in efficiency with the adoption of Microsoft Azure
Acknowledging the importance of achieving better cost-effectiveness, scalability, and flexibility, CBL recently migrated to a fully managed Open Source Software Database (OSS DB) and Application Services on the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform. The System Applications and Products (SAP) were integrated to a DevOps environment reducing network latency, insuring business system performance and stability with enhanced security and recovery capabilities.
This migration has resulted in the empowerment of the CBL Salesforce Team as the system now allows for real-time monitoring of sales and inventory, which optimizes the distribution and sales process. While this results in maintaining a steady stream of stocks for distributors, it also ensures that products are available for consumers. Additionally, the availability of real-time data allows CBL to make better pricing decisions that reflect positively on the consumer buying power. The migration to Azure has further improved CBL’s manufacturing process. With the ‘Smart Factories’ running 24×7 and down time not being an option, technical innovation has been made possible to improve efficiency in manufacturing.
Modern cloud security technologies that come with Microsoft Azure have moreover strengthened the overall operations of CBL enabling secure logins and data protection. Having an impact on different levels of operations, the adoption of Microsoft Azure has truly benefited CBL, which has reflected in a significant decrease in overall costs, the benefit of which will be invested on research and development and relevant technology, adding value to the end product that reaches to the consumers.
Engaging Microsoft partners to accelerate transformation
To enable a smoother transition and drive the transformation process, CBL and Microsoft recognized the importance of incorporating appropriate resources, the need to bring in the right tools, and seeking collaborative assistance through partner support to streamline the code rewriting process.
The database migration on to the cloud was implemented by Quadrant Resource’s QMigrator with expertise in implementing and testing specific solutions, as well as providing guidance on best practices and industry standards.
Canarys Automations supported CBL in this process by providing a DevOps workshop through the Azure Skills for Organizations (ASO) programme to educate and help the team implement DevOps practices in their Azure environment.
Meanwhile, as a Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) and Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) providing Azure services to CBL, H One supported the company to leverage the full power of Microsoft Azure and ensure the effective and efficient use of the platform.
By working with Microsoft partners, CBL has been able to make informed decisions, leverage new capabilities, and accelerate their transformation journey.
Harsha Randeny, Microsoft Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives said, “As CBL operations continue to grow, it entails a complex environment and IT infrastructure. With Microsoft Azure technology, we are empowering CBL to manage their IT resources, while providing advanced tools and services that accelerate application development and deployment. The built-in DevOps capabilities of Microsoft Azure will enable faster time-to-market for new products and services, enabling companies to stay ahead of the competition and help them to innovate and grow in today’s dynamic business environment.”
CBL’s migration to Microsoft Azure is ensuring a consistent and secure platform for the company through streamlining development, increasing efficiency, and maintaining a flexible environment. With a commitment to continue to innovate, CBL understands the importance of staying agile in today’s fast paced business landscape and looks forward to maintaining their growth trajectory. With the use of Microsoft technology, the company is empowered to carry forward the vision of expanding within and beyond the country’s boundaries.

August 2, 2022

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: WSO2, a leading open-source integration vendor, and Microsoft have announced a strategic partnership to roll out cloud-native solutions to regions around the world via Microsoft Azure—for securely delivering APIs, applications, and digital identities. The partnership will also see the integration vendor adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform.

More than 800 customers in over 90 countries—including government agencies and global leaders in financial services, communications, healthcare, and technology—rely on WSO2’s products and solutions. The partnership will accelerate the delivery of the Choreo digital platform as a service (digital PaaS) and Asgardeo identity as a service (iDaaS) to help enterprise customers across multiple markets and industries speed up their cloud adoption and digital transformation initiatives.

Choreo empowers organizations to rapidly deliver new digital experiences by creating and deploying services, integrations, and APIs. The all-inclusive platform takes away the complexity of cloud native infrastructure so that development teams can quickly create, compose, collaborate on, reuse, and deliver API-driven business logic.

Asgardeo simplifies customer identity and access management for any developer to integrate into their applications. It combines traditional employee Identity Access Management (IAM) principles with consumer credential security to create a secure personalized digital experience.

“WSO2 is pleased to enter into this strategic partnership with Microsoft,” said Sanjiva Weerawarana, Founder and CEO, WSO2. “With Microsoft’s trusted cloud and services, the experience that WSO2 has cultivated in its own systems will enable development teams to build digital services that are safer and more secure than ever before. This partnership will allow them to increase their speed of innovation and accelerate our growth and customer adoption.”

Since 2005, WSO2 has been delivering on its mission to democratize the development of modern applications and services with industry-leading, cloud native and open-source technologies for API management, integration, and customer identity and access management (CIAM). The company is now expanding upon these offerings with a new generation of platform-as-a-service solutions that further speed customers’ time to market and ability to innovate.

In its latest funding round, WSO2 secured a US$93 million in Growth Capital from Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Info Edge Limited subsidiary, RedStart Labs. The company is investing in expanding upon the functionality of its core open-source products for API management (WSO2 API Manager) and customer identity and access management (WSO2 Identity Server); accelerating worldwide business expansion; and growing its global partner and support network.

“Developers are the catalyst to innovation that disrupts countless industries and help businesses transform and thrive!” said Diomedes Kastanis, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Asia Pacific. “It’s about creating the right environment and removing the friction so developers do what they know best: innovate. Our partnership with WSO2 will help accelerate cloud-based digital transformation and enable developers to increase their speed of innovation.”

WSO2 and Microsoft are committed to go-to-market and co-selling activities, which include customer events, demand generation, sales enablement, and a presence on the Azure Marketplace. The companies will also seek to extend the capabilities and community around Ballerina, the open-source language designed by WSO2 that radically simplifies how developers build and deploy cloud-native applications.

“Our deeper collaboration has never been more important as companies become digital-first workplaces and pioneer new ways of working,” said Harsha Randeny, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives. “By combining our expertise with WSO2, we have an opportunity and responsibility to deliver innovative solutions that will empower organizations around the world to achieve their productivity goals and cloud ambitions.”

October 12, 2017

Sri Lanka, October 11, 2017: Microsoft held its ‘Azure Discovery Day’ seminar in Colombo recently, to offer an overview to local start-ups, independent software vendors, and small and medium-sized businesses on how they can implement Azure’s complete spectrum of infrastructure, platform and software (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) integrated cloud services to work seamlessly with existing tools and infrastructure.

The seminar demonstrated Azure’s comprehensive set of cloud services that developers and IT professionals can use to build, deploy, and manage applications quickly across Microsoft’s global network of data centres. Azure allows users to customize each service to suit their needs and requirements, building anything from simple mobile apps to internet-scale solutions.

Wellington Perera, Cloud Solution Architect of Microsoft APAC, who presented Azure’s latest cloud development tools and services at the seminar said, “The agility and cost-efficiency of the cloud is the primary enabler to democratizing once-elite technological concepts like Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. With Azure solutions such as SQL database, Azure Cosmos DB, and virtual network, data across connected devices get crunched into actionable insights to improve everything, from how business is performed to how we live.”

The one-day seminar, which also saw the participation of Kenneth Teo, Premier Field Engineer/Azure Ranger for Microsoft Southeast Asia, provided a unique opportunity for developers and businesses in Sri Lanka to experience the versatility of the Azure platform. Attendees witnessed the practical capabilities that Azure brings within reach, and how Azure offers easily-customizable and scalable cloud solutions for diverse customer sets, from large companies to SMBs to start-ups.

“According to the Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study, a majority of the respondents (81 percent) in Asia believe that cloud computing is an essential part of digital transformation. This corresponds to our observation of Sri Lanka’s increasing adoption of cloud technologies in recent years. With Microsoft’s global, hybrid and trusted platforms, where the cloud is open and flexible, we are poised to meet customers’ needs at any stage of their transformation journey,” added Perera.

Ceylon Biscuits Limited enhances frontline agility and manufacturing efficiency with Microsoft Azure

WSO2 adopts Microsoft’s Trusted Cloud for open-source innovation

Discovering Microsoft Azure – the Cloud that Empowers Sri Lanka’s Digital Transformation