SYSCOM: Accelerating cloud transformation in the public sector securely and effectively
About SYSCOM
Founded in 1975, SYSCOM is a leading system integration company in Taiwan offering on-prem and cloud solutions to organizations in both private and public sectors. Currently providing services to more than 600 organizations, SYSCOM helps accelerate digital transformation through reselling products of top tech companies and developing customized solutions.
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Contact usBy using the Taiwan-based cloud infrastructure and pay-per-use tools of Google Cloud, SYSCOM migrates the Taipei CPA Association’s administration system from on-prem to public cloud to enhance administrative processing efficiency and reduce operational costs while ensuring information security.
Google Cloud results
- Helps save 30-40% of VM costs through Compute Engine
- Supports serverless web application at lower operational costs with Cloud Run
- Guarantees information security with a local data center in Taiwan and default encryption
Shortens administrative processing time from hours to seconds
In Taiwan, public-sector organizations are embarking on digital transformation to reach greater operational efficiency. However, unlike private companies, they have stricter information security regulations to comply with, which limits their choice of public cloud products and makes the transformation process more complicated.
One of SYSCOM’s specializations is to address this challenge. Founded in 1975, the Taiwanese system integration company offers on-prem and cloud IT solutions to organizations in both private and public sectors, notably financial institutions, telecom operators and governments. Currently providing services to more than 600 organizations, SYSCOM helps its customers accelerate digital transformation by offering customized solutions based on top tech companies’ products.
"We’ve been in the industry for decades, so we understand the challenges our customers in different sectors face when they go through digital transformation," explains Max Yang, executive director at SYSCOM. "To offer the best services, we’ve gone beyond the reseller role and have been developing customized solutions for our customers using the latest technologies like big data, artificial intelligence and cloud."
In 2021, the Taipei Certified Public Accountant Association (Taipei CPA Association) planned to renew its 10-year-old administration system deployed in an on-prem environment and came to SYSCOM for assistance. Through the renewal of the system, the Taipei CPA Association wanted to add more digital features to reduce its paper-based administration workloads and enhance its operational efficiency. As it didn’t have an IT team, the association preferred to migrate its system to a public cloud platform for lower maintenance workloads. At the same time, it’s required by the Taiwanese information security regulations to store its data in Taiwan. After evaluating different offerings, SYSCOM and the Taipei CPA Association decided to move the administration system to Google Cloud. This is because it has a data center in Taiwan to comply with the regulations and offer lower latency, and its virtual machine (VM) pricing is the lowest.
"We needed the most cost-effective infrastructure to reduce IT maintenance workloads and improve operational efficiency through cloud migration," says Yang. "The Taipei CPA Association also needed to ensure data security, something we believe the secure and powerful data center of Google Cloud located in Taiwan, could provide."
"We needed the most cost-effective infrastructure to reduce IT maintenance workloads and improve operational efficiency through cloud migration. The Taipei CPA Association also needed to ensure data security, something we believe the secure and powerful data center of Google Cloud located in Taiwan, could provide."
—Max Yang, Executive Director, SYSCOMImproving administrative efficiency while reducing IT operational costs
Having years of experience using Google Cloud products and working with the Google Cloud team, SYSCOM moved the Taipei CPA Association’s seal of approval processing platform to Google Cloud in just two months. The platform is now supported by VMs on Compute Engine as servers and Cloud Storage as backup data storage. SYSCOM also uses Cloud SQL to store the Taipei CPA Association’s member data and credentials.
For the Taipei CPA Association, the most evident change brought by the new platform is the fully digitized process. Before, when the association’s CPA members wanted to apply for seals of approval for their official documents, they had to print out the documents and go to the association’s office to receive the stamp. The whole process was time consuming and labor-intense, and it led to unnecessary paper waste. As the new seal of approval processing platform supports electronic seals, the Taipei CPA Association’s members can now have their digital documents stamped online within a few seconds. This not only improves administrative efficiencies, but also helps reduce paper waste.
Compared with on-prem devices, the Google Cloud infrastructure requires less maintenance. This means that the Taipei CPA Association no longer needs to purchase excess hardware as backup or replace old devices regularly. As the association doesn’t have its own IT team, SYSCOM easily covers the maintenance workloads of the cloud infrastructure with a team of five engineers. Steven Wu, sales executive at SYSCOM adds that in comparison with other VM offerings, the VMs of Compute Engine cost 30 to 40% less, which further lowers the IT operational costs for the association.
"With Compute Engine and other infrastructure tools of Google Cloud, we’re able to build a fully digitized seal of approval processing system for the Taipei CPA Association. Not only have its administrative services been greatly improved, but its IT operations have also become more cost-effective," he notes. "A few months after the launch of the new platform, 80% of the Taipei CPA Association’s members had become users."
Running web application at lower operational costs with Cloud Run
For the Taipei CPA Association, another advantage of moving to Google Cloud is that it can build new web applications more rapidly and flexibly. After successfully launching the seal of approval processing platform, the association wanted to add an event registration platform to its administration system on Google Cloud. Since the registration platform is only needed when there’s an upcoming event, SYSCOM chose to deploy it on Cloud Run, which supports a pay-per-use scheme and a serverless architecture that costs less than VMs. This way, the operational costs and maintenance workloads of the new platform can be greatly reduced.
"Cloud Run brings many advantages for new feature development, because it offers a more economical way to build and run web applications. On top of that, the scalability and performance are not compromised. During our pressure test, the Taipei CPA Association’s event registration platform can simultaneously accommodate up to 500 users, which is 2x more than the peak traffic," says Wu.
"Cloud Run brings many advantages for feature development, because it offers a more economical way to build and run web applications. On top of that, the scalability and performance are not compromised."
—Steven Wu, Sales Executive, SYSCOMKeeping information secure with a local data center and default encryption
As its CPA members receive their licenses from the Taiwanese government, the Taipei CPA Association is required to store all its members’ data in Taiwan. With the data center of Google Cloud in Taiwan, the association can rest assured that its digital operations always comply with the Taiwanese information security regulations. In addition, all its data stored and transferred through Google Cloud is encrypted by default using the AES-256 algorithm. As a result, data security and privacy are further strengthened.
"For public organizations in Taiwan, information security is the primary concern when they consider moving their IT infrastructure to a public cloud," notes Wu. "By deploying its systems on Google Cloud, the Taipei CPA Association is able to enjoy the benefits of using a public cloud platform without worrying about security issues."
Bringing successful cloud migration models to other organizations
After successfully completing the cloud migration project for the Taipei CPA Association, SYSCOM has implemented the same model for the National Federation of CPA Associations of ROC, the Taiwan CPA Association, the Taichung CPA Association, and the Kaohsiung CPA Association using the infrastructure of Google Cloud. The system integration company plans to leverage the hybrid cloud management features of Anthos to help more organizations transition from on-prem to cloud infrastructure.
"The Taipei CPA Association’s successful migration to Google Cloud proves that public-sector organizations can complete cloud transformation without compromising information security," says Yang. "We’ll take this use case as best practice to bring the efficient and cost-effective Google Cloud infrastructure to more organizations."
"The Taipei CPA Association’s successful migration to Google Cloud proves that public-sector organizations can complete cloud transformation without compromising information security. We’ll take this use case as best practice to bring the efficient and cost-effective Google Cloud infrastructure to more organizations."
—Max Yang, Executive Director, SYSCOMTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About SYSCOM
Founded in 1975, SYSCOM is a leading system integration company in Taiwan offering on-prem and cloud solutions to organizations in both private and public sectors. Currently providing services to more than 600 organizations, SYSCOM helps accelerate digital transformation through reselling products of top tech companies and developing customized solutions.