Electronics Firm Saves Product Development Time, Money, with Expert Database Guidance

“The ease of access to the MTC’s first-rate knowledge base is second to none. Working with its architects and knowing that we could tap into their expertise significantly eased my burden as a program manager.”

Lewis Jones, Program Manager, Thales

Thales, an electronics company, was bringing a new hardware security product to market and needed to ensure that it would seamlessly interoperate with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software. Thales worked remotely with a Microsoft Technology Center to conduct thorough product testing and modification. The company achieved full compatibility, saved more than five percent of project costs, and cut a full month off its project schedule.

Business Needs

With business roots that go back to 1893, France-based Thales has grown to become a more than €12.5 billion (U.S.$17 billion) electronics company that delivers information systems and services for use in aerospace, space, defense, transportation, and security markets. One of the company’s product lines consists of hardware security modules, which are electronic vaults that store cryptographic keys to protect sensitivedata from hackers.

The company wanted to ensure that the new release of its nShield product family of hardware security modules would be fully compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software. “We wanted the nShield product line to provide centralmanagement of the database encryption keys for SQL Server 2008,” says Lewis Jones, Program Manager for Thales. “But there was certain detailed technical information that we didn’t have at our disposal during our development cycle. It’s difficult to ensure proper interoperability unless you have access to the internal workings of both products. So obtaining that knowledge and carefully testing the nShield module was critical to releasing a successful product.”

Solution

Thales accepted an invitation from Microsoft to participate in a Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) Proof-of-Concept workshop, which the MTC would deliver remotely to the Thales office in the United Kingdom that was working heavily on the project. MTC architects configured an environment for comprehensive testing, and then Thales spent about four weeks in March 2009 doing just that. The company evaluated the possibilities of offering nShield in failover and clustered environments, and tested transparent data encryption as well as cell-level encryption.

Throughout the four weeks, Thales relied on MTC architects for expert direction and advice. “We learned so much about SQL Server 2008 from an internal perspective, including shortcuts and different ways of working with it,” says Jones. “The MTC architects covered all the things we wanted to know but didn’t know to ask for.”

During the MTC engagement, Thales gained access to sample implementation code and practical workarounds to deal with issues. Of particular value was the MTC architects’ response to a SQL Server 2008–related problem that arose during testing. “The MTC architects helped us set up debugging tools, which would have taken us ages to do on our own, and they also helped us analyze some trace output that we gave them, leading to a solution within a couple of days,” recalls Jones.

In July 2009, Thales successfully launched the nShield Database Security Option Pack, accompanied by a thorough integration guide.

Benefits

Thales came away from its MTC experience with the knowledge it needed to ensure that nShield was fully compatible with SQL Server 2008. “The ease of access to the MTC’s first-rate knowledge base is second to none,” says Jones. “Working with its architects and knowing that we could tap into their expertise significantly eased my burden as a program manager.”

The workshop also helped the company complete its project faster and at a reduced cost. Continues Jones, “All in all, the assistance provided in our MTC engagement has been invaluable in reducing our project timeline and budget, and has also increased our knowledge of a complex product.” The MTC experience contributed to:

• Shorter time-to-market. Thales released its SQL Server 2008–compatible product into production more quickly as a result of its MTC experience. “We saved approximately one month out of a six-month project schedule, which is a significant and worthwhile time saving,” comments Jones.

• Access to experts. The company could progress quickly in its testing and troubleshooting with the ready help of MTC architects. “Having a month’s worth of available expertise was incredible,” says Tony Crossman, Director of Strategic Partners for Thales. “It was like adding resources to the development team, but with no ramp-up time. The MTC architects were useful from the very start. There was no hidden sales agenda, just plenty of guidance and help.”

• Reduced project costs. In addition to the gain from trimming a month off the timeline, Thales also saved money because the MTC offered the flexibility to conduct the Proof of Concept remotely. “As a broad estimate, I think the involvement of the MTC team reduced our project cost by about 5 percent, just from a time standpoint,” says Jones. “Additionally, we were able to keep our development costs down because we avoided buying a consultant’s time and a SQL Server 2008 test cluster of the right size and shape, which in total probably saved us another 5 percent or so in staffing and hardware costs.”

• Better technology understanding. Thales gained valuable knowledge about SQL Server 2008 at the MTC. “We saw SQL Server 2008 through the eyes of experts and achieved a more solid understanding of it, resulting in a project deliverable that was more robust and far better documented,” says Crossman.

• Increased confidence. Because it had a better technology understanding, Thales was more comfortable with its product as it related to SQL Server 2008. “Not only did we finish the workshop knowing with certainty that we could support a clustered environment, but we also were able to produce an integration guide for customers that is a golden example of its type,” says Jones. “It really reflects the input and influence of the MTC.”