Discovering new levels of agility with hybrid-cloud self-service and DevOps automation - AstraZeneca
In this eye-opening HPE customer story, you'll see how AstraZeneca used HPE Morpheus to reimagine hybrid-cloud self-service and DevOps automation--and what that could mean for your own IT organization. AstraZeneca was spending about 80 man-hours per server in a complex, manual provisioning process. With HPE Morpheus, they now provision 30 servers at a time in just 27 minutes, with end-to-end deployments taking less than 20 minutes. That shift has delivered over $8M in provisioning savings ($2.4M initial savings plus $6M+ in ongoing gains), while supporting more than 16,000 servers and 2,700 applications across VMware, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
As an HPE reseller, we help you assess your current provisioning model, design the right HPE Morpheus deployment, and guide integration with your existing tools so you can reduce delays, control costs, and give your teams simple self-service IT. Contact us today to get started!
How did AstraZeneca reshape its hybrid cloud operations?
AstraZeneca runs one of the more complex hybrid cloud environments in bio-pharma, with 16,000+ virtual and physical servers and 2,700 applications across 15 global locations. Their Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) team was under pressure to handle rising IaaS and PaaS demand from seven major business units.
Previously, fulfilling a single developer request for a production-ready server required about 80 man-hours. Multiple manual handoffs were involved, including:
- Collecting build details from the requester
- Network Services assigning IP addresses
- IAM creating DNS records
- OS Support provisioning environments
- Adding servers to patching and monitoring
- Configuring and testing protection jobs
- Qualification, compliance checks, and final approvals
To remove this bottleneck, AstraZeneca adopted HPE Morpheus Enterprise Software as an agnostic, multi-cloud management and automation platform. Within 24 hours of the proof of concept, the GIS team had push-button provisioning to their VMware ESX cluster. The platform was then rolled out globally across 8 data centers, managing thousands of applications.
Key outcomes included:
- Standardized, automated workflows across on-premises VMware and public clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform)
- Integration with existing tools such as ServiceNow, SaltStack, Microsoft Active Directory, Infoblox, Cisco ACI, and multiple databases and web stacks
- A shift from manual, high-touch builds to consistent, policy-driven automation
This approach helped AstraZeneca reimagine how hybrid cloud services are requested, approved, and delivered, while keeping compliance and governance in place.
What business impact did automation deliver for AstraZeneca?
AstraZeneca’s move to HPE Morpheus Enterprise had a clear, measurable impact on speed, cost, and productivity.
1. Major improvement in deployment speed
- End-to-end deployment times improved by 177x.
- What used to take 80 hours per server can now be done in about 27 minutes for 30 servers at once.
- Server and application builds shifted from a manual, high-touch process to a fully automated workflow taking under 20 minutes across on-premises and public clouds.
2. Cost savings and efficiency gains
- Initial savings of more than $2.4M from reduced labor and fewer delays.
- Ongoing provisioning savings have grown to more than $6M since deployment.
- Automation of build provisioning also supports SOX and GxP compliance, which helps reduce risk and rework in a highly regulated industry.
3. Faster transformation and higher productivity
- A nine-month infrastructure transformation project completed its deployment phase almost six months ahead of schedule.
- Developers now get infrastructure faster, which improves agility and reduces the need for shadow IT.
- By moving from the ServiceNow Service Portal to the native HPE Morpheus Enterprise interface and APIs, AstraZeneca further reduced wait times and simplified self-service.
Overall, automation with HPE Morpheus Enterprise helped AstraZeneca rethink how it delivers infrastructure: faster, more standardized, and at a lower operational cost.
How is AstraZeneca enabling self-service while staying compliant?
AstraZeneca needed to balance self-service speed with strict regulatory and governance requirements. Their approach with HPE Morpheus Enterprise focuses on controlled automation rather than ad-hoc access.
1. Orchestrated self-service through existing ITSM
- Initially, all IaaS and PaaS provisioning requests were orchestrated through ServiceNow as the end-user interface.
- HPE Morpheus Enterprise automated workflows across compliance, networking, access, quality and control, operations, and capacity management tools.
- This ensured that every self-service request still passed through the right checks and approvals.
2. Direct use of HPE Morpheus Enterprise for more agility
- As the team matured, they began using the native HPE Morpheus Enterprise interface and APIs to move even faster.
- ServiceNow CMDB and other systems are still updated in the background, so governance and visibility are preserved.
- This shift reduced wait times, cut down on shadow IT, and improved the developer experience.
3. Persona-based access and compliance automation
- The platform’s persona-based interface allows AstraZeneca to offer simple self-service to non-technical users while keeping technical controls in place.
- Build provisioning is automated with compliance in mind, including support for SOX and GxP requirements.
- Standardized templates and policies ensure that every environment is created in a consistent, auditable way.
By combining ITSM integration, policy-driven automation, and persona-based self-service, AstraZeneca has been able to reimagine hybrid cloud access without compromising on compliance or control.
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