Ahlsell – Migrating and Modernizing one of the Biggest E-commerce Platforms in the Nordics

In Brief:

• As an essential step of their comprehensive IT modernization journey, Ahlsell wanted to revamp its e-commerce platform and upgrade its tech stack and environments to prepare for an in-house team of developers.
• Redeploy took on the complex challenge of migrating and modernizing the inner core of Ahlsell's monolithic e-commerce platform with a deeply entrenched IT legacy.  
• We introduced Ahlsell to the Azure Migrate and Modernize Program to benefit from Microsoft’s financial support and know-how throughout the journey.
• The successful outcome resulted in a fully Azure-powered e-commerce foundation and lasting organizational impact.

The Challenge: Modernizing a Monolithic E-Commerce System and the organization around it

Ahlsell embarked on an ambitious IT modernization journey in 2020. The company aimed to take control of its digital platform from third parties, revamp its architecture and environments, and upgrade its tech stack and environments to prepare for an in-house team of developers. Overall, they wanted to accelerate the pace of change, be more adaptable to customer needs, achieve greater agility in their operations, and enhance their internal IT expertise.

– Ahlsell's decision to modernize and rearchitect one of their core applications and migrate related systems simultaneously with minimal downtime is a very complex project. For the entire system to perform as expected by their customers, it was necessary to have the related systems close to their core application. Ensuring the project's success required the involvement of hundreds of people, from the IT project group to the people working in the warehouse, says Daniel Grenemark, Senior Cloud Architect at Redeploy.

Therefore, this journey's first and essential step was modernizing their e-commerce platform's inner core, a deeply entrenched IT legacy. Naturally, since it is one of the largest in the Nordics, with a remarkable turnover of 17 billion SEK, it spans the entire Nordic region and connects to subsidiaries like Prevex and Gelia. Simultaneously, they wanted to assume ownership of their e-commerce platform since it had been operated and hosted by a third party for an extended period.

The Solution: Leveraging Azure and PaaS Solutions

Our multifaceted solution for Ahlsell's ambitious challenge was carefully designed to align with their objectives of regaining control over their digital platform, improving adaptability to customer needs, and enhancing internal operational agility.

Key components of the solution included:

• Migration to Azure: The critical shift from on-premises hosting to Azure was central to the migration of the IT environment. This transition streamlined their webshop operations and established a dynamic, responsive foundation for the e-commerce environment.
• Leveraging PaaS Solutions: Instead of traditional Virtual Machines (VMs), our team employed various Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions. This scalable and flexible infrastructure supports rapid adaptation to market changes and customer demands, reflecting the agility that Ahlsell aimed to achieve.
• The Azure Migrate and Modernize Program (AMMP): Our partnership under the AMMP Program brought not just financial support from Microsoft but also invaluable expertise. This collaboration ensured that Ahlsell's modernization process adhered to best practices and leveraged the latest in technology.
• Azure App Service and Azure SQL Databases: These services formed the scalable, cost-effective, and reliable backbone of Ahlsell's e-commerce platform, supporting their evolving tech stack and growing in-house IT expertise.
• Azure Front Door: Implementing Azure Front Door as the content delivery network was crucial for fast, secure, and efficient webshop content distribution, ensuring a superior e-commerce experience for customers across the Nordics.

This upgrade is not just about technology; it's a strategic enabler for attracting skilled IT and developer talent, bridging existing skill gaps, and empowering their team to fully own and control their digital platform.

The Results: A Future-Ready Platform and Lasting Organizational Impact

The project has been a robust demonstration of the value that IT modernization brings for Ahlsell – contributing to the effectiveness of recruitment strategies and solidifying confidence in the chosen direction for their IT modernization journey. The project has also laid the groundwork for further advancements. Ahlsell is now well-positioned to develop a composable architecture within their e-commerce platform, making the most of the PaaS solutions implemented during this project.

“This project marks the beginning of a new era for Ahlsell, where we now can meet our customers' needs and expectations with greater flexibility and efficiency."

– Rikard Eriksson, Head of Infrastructure at Ahlsell

Our role continues as we take on CloudOps responsibilities for Ahlsell’s e-commerce system and support their ongoing migration and modernization journey. This partnership is just the beginning of a transformative path that will continue to yield benefits for Ahlsell in the ever-evolving digital landscape.