Public Storage’s Cloud Migration: Unlocking Agility and Innovation

Public Storage, the largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities globally, partnered with SELECCION Consulting to embark on a transformative cloud migration journey. This case study highlights the seamless migration from Rackspace On-Prem to Google Cloud, orchestrated by SELECCION to enhance agility, scalability, and performance.

Client Overview

Since opening its first self-storage facility in 1972, Public Storage has grown to become one of the largest owners and operators of self-storage facilities in the world. With over 3,350 locations across the U.S, and more than 243 million net rentable square feet of real estate, it’s also one of the largest landlords. With customer focus and a dominant presence in major markets, Public Storage has maintained a leadership position in the self-storage industry for more than half a century.

Challenges

Public Storage, a rapidly expanding company, grappled with a critical challenge: the time-consuming process of scaling up hardware resources in their hosted data-center. These delays put at risk their ability to scale resources and establish new environments, impacting the company’s agility in responding to increasing demands. Compounding this issue was a need to improve visibility in their infrastructure and network performance. Moreover, despite their aspirations to unlock the transformative potential of AI, ML, and serverless analytics for extracting invaluable insights from their data, the challenge of deploying rapidly infrastructure at scale, made these ambitions a challenge.

Our Solution

Our solution embarked on a strategic migration journey to the Google Cloud Platform, tackling current challenges head-on and laying the foundation for the seamless integration of cutting-edge technologies. Guided by the DART methodology, we refined the migration strategy, prioritizing the ‘Lift and Shift first and optimize later’ approach. Leveraging the StratoZone assessment tool, we conducted a thorough evaluation of the existing infrastructure and meticulously analyzed the resources earmarked for migration.

In collaboration with Public Storage, SELECCION devised a comprehensive migration plan, categorizing resources into distinct move groups. We architected a robust landing zone following cloud best practices, bolstered by Palo Alto Network firewall to fortify the cloud environment, and harnessed VeloCloud SD-WAN services for enhanced connectivity across its properties.

SELECCION seamlessly migrated Public Storage’s expansive infrastructure, encompassing hundreds of servers and databases, including many with High-Availability and Geo-replicated datasets. The migration included moving hundreds of terabytes of storage to Google Cloud through carefully planned migration phases, all with no unplanned downtime or disruption of services to its customers.

Furthermore, we thoroughly configured Datadog for Infrastructure and Application monitoring, ensuring comprehensive oversight, and implemented Commvault for a robust backup strategy, safeguarding data integrity.

The Result

The collaborative efforts yielded transformative results, immediately felt throughout Public Storage. The once time-consuming task of scaling hardware resources was streamlined, with the process now taking mere minutes instead of days.

This agility has empowered the company to swiftly adapt to evolving business demands. Proactive monitoring of infrastructure and applications has become the norm, ensuring optimal performance across the board, from Infrastructure and Network to Security. Moreover, heightened visibility has been achieved in every aspect, propelling Public Storage into a realm of modernization.

This investment sets the stage for various planned optimization efforts across the Public Storage workload landscape, including the modernization of SQL databases into fully managed services, containerizing workloads, harnessing advanced analytics, and embracing next-generation AI tools. The migration to GCP not only optimized performance, security, and reliability but also positioned Public Storage for substantial cost savings through efficient resource management, making them truly ‘Future-Ready’. This project’s resounding success has not only transformed Public Storage’s operational landscape but has also laid a robust foundation for their sustained growth, innovation, and competitive edge in the real estate storage sector.

Our role in the project

SELECCION consulting played a pivotal role as the strategic partner entrusted with orchestrating the migration of Public Storage’s systems and data to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Our holistic engagement encompassed a thorough assessment of the Public Storage’s distinct requirements, the design of a bespoke migration strategy, and the implementation of scalable solutions tailored to their needs.

At every stage of the project, we offered expert guidance, conducted comprehensive training sessions, and provided continuous support, thereby facilitating a seamless transition and equipping our client with the tools and knowledge necessary for future growth.

Contact us to learn how we can help streamline your cloud migration journey and drive business transformation.