ppi Media

Highly available and secure software solutions for the media industry

For over 35 years, ppi Media has stood for reliable and sustainable software solutions for the media industry. The owner-managed company has offices in Hamburg, Kiel and Chicago.

By providing software solutions and information technology, ppi Media supports media companies, in particular publishers and newspapers, in integrating modern technologies and in their digital transformation. The company offers around 50 different software solutions in the areas of product automation and content creation, hosting web pages, content systems, planning software and much more for its customers. The customers of ppi Media include about 100 media companies and publishers in more than 20 countries. This accounts for around 80 percent of the circulation of German daily newspapers and more than 100 magazines, which are all created with the help of ppi Media’s software solutions; altogether some 5,000 newspaper products are produced with these solutions every day.

For newspaper publishers and media houses in particular, a high availability of hosted IT solutions is of crucial importance – as little as 15 minutes of downtime can be critical if the reliable supply of digital and printed media products is to be guaranteed. The security of IT systems and data privacy are also aspects to which media companies attach considerable importance.

Venturing into the cloud – but with the right partner

Initially, ppi Media essentially operated its own software solutions on-premises on servers in the company’s own server room, and from there made them available to customers at home and abroad. "However, as our business grew, we became increasingly aware that in the long term the stability and availability as well as the flexibility and performance of the software solutions would no longer meet our requirements or those of our customers," states Sven Claußen, Team Lead IT Operations at ppi Media, explaining the motivation for looking for an alternative.

As a result, ppi Media started looking for a cloud provider that could replace the previous on-premises system. The key selection criteria were the high availability required for customer systems in the media industry, ease of use – for example, ppi Media had already been using VMware as a virtualisation platform on its former IT infrastructure and intended to continue doing so – as well as the possibility to easily add and remove resources.

In the past, the company had already evaluated a number of smaller and larger hosting providers in order to provide customer environments in the cloud. However, none of these providers could meet ppi Media's requirements in a way that would have justified a permanent change from the previous system.

Private cloud with high data protection in regional data centres

"We first came across OVHcloud through good old word of mouth," Sven Claußen continues. "One of our business partners was already successfully using OVHcloud solutions and recommended them to us. So naturally we took a closer look.” After a detailed evaluation, ppi Media was ultimately able to determine that the OVHcloud portfolio not only met the technical requirements; the attractive and transparent pricing was equally convincing – especially in comparison to large, well-known hyperscalers, where it can be quite difficult to gain insight into the exact costs. Another important aspect is OVHcloud's commitment to sustainability. Today, the share of renewable energy in the data centre is already at 79% and expected to rise to 100% by 2025. This supports ppi Media in its goal of making the company climate neutral.

"In addition to the reliability of OVHcloud, we also attach great importance to the conscious treatment of the environment by our partners. Running our cloud systems with non-renewable energy sources would account for about 40% of our carbon footprint. Thanks to the high share of renewable energy in OVHcloud's data centres, we can significantly reduce this percentage."

Dr. Hauke Berndt, CEO at ppi Media

Convinced by this offering, ppi Media finally decided to take the step into the cloud – and to OVHcloud. The goal was to migrate the customer systems hosted by ppi Media completely to OVHcloud. Setting up the necessary VPN tunnels to the customers turned out to be a particularly complex undertaking, which was, however, successfully accomplished together with OVHcloud. Significant parts of the internal IT infrastructure have also been moved to OVHcloud, although part of it will continue to be hosted on-premises by ppi Media – a hybrid model that has proven itself and is to be maintained in the future.

Currently, ppi Media is using the private cloud of OVHcloud, hosted in OVHcloud's own data centres in Roubaix, France, for European customers as well as its own IT infrastructure, and in Beauharnois, Canada, for North American customers. This ensures that ppi Media's solutions are operated in all markets with the highest data protection standards according to GDPR regulations. Furthermore, ppi Media uses OVHcloud's website hosting and managed database services in the cloud as well as the Managed Kubernetes Service for container orchestration.

"When we moved to the cloud, it was very important for us to find the right partner. Smaller providers often did not meet the technical requirements, while the large hyperscalers were lacking transparency in their pricing. In OVHcloud, we have found a cloud partner with whom we can deploy solutions worldwide which are secure, scalable and have clear pricing."

Sven Claußen, Team Lead IT Operations at ppi Media

High price transparency and scalability for compelling customer offers

Even though the migration to OVHcloud is not yet complete, ppi Media has already seen tangible benefits. The ability to quickly provide customers with a complex IT infrastructure in the cloud has already helped ppi Media win new customer projects and swiftly put them into production. In addition, ppi Media is now able to quickly expand its on-premises infrastructure by adding further cloud resources on demand and without major investments or long preparation time.

“While working with the new solutions, we were particularly impressed by the transparency and clarity of the OVHcloud prices”, Claußen summarises. "Additionally, the high availability and stability, the customer support as well as the pleasant cooperation with the OVHcloud team have also convinced us."

It is precisely this price transparency which helps ppi Media to create offers for interested customers much faster than before. As a result, ppi Media is better equipped than ever to support the media industry in its digital transformation with innovative software solutions from a trusted cloud.

"The open and uncomplicated cooperation with OVHcloud has been particularly beneficial. It enables us to quickly provide attractive offers to our customers, without any hidden costs or uncertainties in deployment."

Sven Claußen, Team Lead IT Operations at ppi Media