Cofincaf

The project stems from a concrete need: to bring a system that is vital to the organization of the entire Group to the cloud, while maintaining its operability and performance intact, without compromising data and application security. 

The financial system, based on the AS400 platform, has been at the operational heart of Cofincaf's activities for over forty years. With the Lavazza Group's transition to a cloud-first strategy, Cofincaf also embarked on a path of infrastructure modernization, identifying migration to the cloud as an essential priority. 

The main challenges concerned the secure management of sensitive data, service continuity, and the difficulty of finding providers capable of guaranteeing hosting and advanced management for AS400 environments. The project also had to be compatible with time constraints and the absence of interruptions for end users.

Hinto®Group guided Cofincaf through a seamless modernization process, leveraging its existing technological assets and integrating them into a new scalable and secure cloud architecture. 

After carefully analyzing the possible cloud solutions available on the market, the following issues were identified:

• The absence of a structured offering for AS400 environments at large public hyperscalers; 
• The need for a solution compatible with Lavazza Group standards in terms of security, traceability, and governance; 
• The desire not to "force" a re-platform onto completely new and more expensive solutions, which would have involved a total re-engineering. 

The choice therefore fell on the AS400 infrastructure provided by ReeVo, an Italian Cloud & Cyber Security provider. This solution guaranteed not only a solid production environment, but also distributed backups and constant monitoring, elements that ensured maximum operational peace of mind. 

The project was divided into several phases:

1. In-depth analysis of the system and evaluation of alternatives 
Drawing on twenty years of experience in the application environment and business specifics, we carried out a detailed mapping of infrastructure and functional dependencies. Following discussions with the main providers, we chose our partner ReeVo, which is able to offer a fully managed AS400 service in the cloud. 

2. Environment testing and go-live preparation 
For about two months, in-depth tests were conducted on the migrated system, validating behavior, performance, and operational continuity under real conditions. 

3. Migration and cut-over 
The transition to the new infrastructure took place over a single weekend. On Monday morning, Cofincaf users returned to work without any visible interruption. 

4. Post-go-live monitoring, support, and optimization 
The ReeVo infrastructure, with active replication of systems between the Milan and Rome data centers, made it possible to immediately activate a complete and redundant disaster recovery plan, maintaining consistent performance and security.

Reevo is the Cloud & Cybersecurity provider that accelerates the digital transformation of businesses and protects their data in its digital safe, making performance, security, and resilience its hallmarks. 

Together with ReeVo, we offer services that allow our customers to delegate the complete management of their cloud environments. This approach guarantees continuous operational support, freeing companies from the complexity of IT management and allowing them to focus on their core business. 

Our partnership with ReeVo ensures that the solutions we offer are always in line with the latest technological innovations, guaranteeing our customers maximum operational efficiency and secure, scalable management, suitable for supporting the growth and evolution of their business activities. 

Find out more on our dedicated page.

The cloud environment now allows Cofincaf to operate with greater reliability and security, without worrying about hardware maintenance or software updates. 

The benefits that emerged just a few days after migration include: 

• Reduced legacy hardware management costs; 
   
• High reliability thanks to active disaster recovery between two data centers;   
   
• Automated backups and immediate data recovery; 
   
• Single point of contact for application and infrastructure support.