CNR: Improving service efficiency and user experience thanks to Google Cloud
About Comisión Nacional de Riego
The National Commission of Irrigation (CNR) is a public institution that promotes and manages the efficient use of water for agriculture in Chile.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact usThe agency streamlined processes, optimized costs, and strengthened cybersecurity through cloud solutions to generate a positive impact on user experience.
Google Cloud results
- Costs optimized by 18%
- User satisfaction increased by 21%
- Subsidy applications grew by 300%
Strengthened its operations and cybersecurity
The National Commission of Irrigation (known as the CNR in Spanish) is an agency controlled by Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture to promote private investment in irrigation and drainage projects with the aim of driving agricultural development through competitive funds for producers in the country.
With over 250 users, the institution mainly contributes to formulating irrigation policies nationally, improving irrigation efficiency through productive development and transformation projects, and reinforcing development in extreme regions of the country and vulnerable groups of producers.
Aware of the positive impact technology has on people’s lives, the CNR constantly seeks to evolve the services offered to the agricultural community through innovative solutions.
The need for efficient infrastructure
As the organization had previously hosted its applications in an on-premises data center, several technical and institutional challenges needed to be overcome: servers running at maximum capacity, latency issues, and modernization of its entire storage and backup systems.
The agency also had to ensure its employees could work remotely, as well as the privacy and protection of their data.
Consequently, the CNR’s digital transformation team realized it was time to move forward towards an efficient service infrastructure with no downtime. To this end, adopting new technologies was critical.
Scale and capabilities brought by new technologies
After making the decision, the institution looked around for a provider. The CNR team contacted Google Cloud to find out about available solutions and ultimately to reach a new level of innovation.
Along the cloud migration journey, the organization conducted a proof of concept to compare its on-premises data center with the benefits of the cloud. The current infrastructure was also assessed using Google Cloud tools. By considering factors such as costs, usability, support, and insights, the institution decided to go for a phased migration process.
Several Google Cloud solutions were adopted, including BigQuery and Cloud Data Fusion, the data analytics and integration tools which enabled the organization to deploy services quickly and securely.
Cloud Storage, a cloud storage service, improved the agency’s storage capacity, thus providing stability, and Cloud SQL simplified database management.
The organization also adopted Google Kubernetes Engine, a container orchestration service, to simplify app deployment, along with Firebase, which brought speed and efficiency. Thanks to Compute Engine, the number of virtual machines went down.
Google Workspace, an online collaboration and productivity suite, was also implemented to manage the institution’s data securely.
From then on, the agency noticed many enhancements and positive outcomes.
"Google Cloud’s team supported and guided us along the implementation journey. We also attended webinars focused on technical topics. Today, whenever we get a new service, we have enough time to go over it. Google Cloud is a truly close partner."
—Sebastián Robles, Head of Infrastructure, CNRBenefits that exceed expectations
The CNR’s migration process kicked off in 2018 with proofs of concept and the migration of apps and services. Today, its infrastructure is fully cloud-based.
Thanks to the deployment of Google Cloud, the agency has improved not only its business and technical troubleshooting capacity, but also the availability, accessibility, and security of services for users. Costs were also optimized by 18%.
Cloud migration enabled the CNR to increase its performance and scalability rates. Previously, large IT projects were both time-consuming and costly. Now, project management has been simplified and focuses on providing the business with new, innovative solutions in the industry.
Competitive funding and subsidy applications grew by 300% (from 20 to an average of 60 processes per year) with historic peaks, especially concerning drought issues, and up to 6,000 project applications per year. All this would have been impossible to achieve using on-premises tools due to the lack of personnel and technical capabilities.
Now, thanks to the cloud, the CNR can better manage its capacity, leverage development internal capacity and resources, and deploy robust cybersecurity measures.
User satisfaction and experience with the services have improved significantly: from 62% to 83%. This translates into enhanced user feedback.
Side-by-side work with Google Cloud, the team’s follow-up played a crucial role in achieving this success and in changing how the organization addressed digital transformation challenges: from user support to a strategic department.
"Google Cloud’s ease of use was the first benefit we leveraged, as we were able to work with no local server capacity restrictions. The main impact is simplification; we can now easily manage from 300 to 1,000 users in our interactions. That’s when we began to grow."
—Felipe Huentén, Head of Software Development, CNRInnovating for the future of agriculture
The CNR has taken a huge step by becoming one of the first public agencies in Chile leveraging cloud technologies.
To continue along this transformation journey, the organization has planned to minimize the use of on-premises data centers, and also bring all its operations under Google Workspace and Google Cloud. Its data centers, applications, infrastructure, and cybersecurity features will be 100% cloud-based.
The agency is also working together with Google Cloud to deploy Chile Riega Mejor, a service targeting agricultural producers based on crop calculations, as well as to connect several drought-related applications and programs and applications to the irrigation law, so that they work together more easily and efficiently, enabling the organization to optimize decision-making.
Today, the CNR’s goal is to continue standing as a strategic unit supporting users in relation to business issues, providing always-on, cloud-based applications that are essential to keep growing.
"Since the migration, we no longer worry about service degradation, such as latency and low speed, or even about the security of our services. We’re now stronger in terms of business continuity and cybersecurity, offering robust support to all business areas. ICT has become an essential technical area to address the CNR’s challenges. We’re very well-positioned and able to provide an excellent level of service. Google Cloud really enables us to focus on innovation."
—Sebastián Casabonne Vilches, ICT Unit and Digital Transformation Coordinator, CNRTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Comisión Nacional de Riego
The National Commission of Irrigation (CNR) is a public institution that promotes and manages the efficient use of water for agriculture in Chile.