Mythics reduces the complexity and cost of cloud security with OCI

Systems integrator Mythics ranks in the top 50 largest government contractors in terms of the volume of work it’s done within the industry. At some point in time, almost every state and major city in the United States has used the company’s services.

In the past, Mythics developed its solutions in a co-located data center cage. With the rise in popularity of cloud infrastructure and software-as-a-service applications, the firm’s leadership sought to increase agility, reduce support costs, and decrease the amount of time spent on operational and maintenance tasks. The company wanted to use automated capabilities in the cloud for activities such as database patching, to free up skilled resources for more high-value, client-focused engagements.

Even though Mythics has often received accolades from, Oracle, the firm had multiple options for choosing a cloud infrastructure provider. As such, the company evaluated potential cloud providers following the  same methodology used when assisting clients that were going through the same process.

Mythics’ evaluation of cloud infrastructure providers compared cost and security, with the criteria based on the cost model for resources like compute, storage, and bandwidth. Google Cloud Platform was immediately ruled out because Mythics’ existing Oracle licenses could not be used. The firm’s technical staffers had the opportunity to work with Azure, AWS, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) cloud platforms while their environments were still in the co-located data center. The evaluation quickly zeroed in on two key differentiators, which were pricing and security.

By dissecting the intricacies of each provider’s pricing structure, Mythics determined that OCI was superior when it came to price-performance. Taking into consideration its anticipated computing needs, typical configurations, and the upcharges associated with operating in multiple cloud regions, OCI was the lowest-cost option. Also, the suite of security services included for free in OCI would have required additional expenses within AWS or Azure. Based on this evaluation, Mythics decided to use OCI to migrate its workloads to the cloud.

Mythics now supports thousands of end users and dozens of bespoke applications within its OCI environments. Oracle’s straightforward pricing structure helps technical staff to dial in ideal performance at the optimal cost. With OCI, Mythics avoids hidden costs that other providers may charge, such as having to pay for cores in increments rather than individually or having to pay extra when data travels between data center regions.

Mythics also upgraded from Oracle APEX version 5 to version 22.2 in order to gain new features such as Progressive Web Application, which enables applications to be installed on desktop and mobile devices to deliver a more native app experience. The firm uses APEX to develop and maintain many internal and customer facing applications. For example, License Orchestrator is an external application used by Mythics customers to track their license usage. As a result of the upgrade, users experience better security and an improved interface that increases productivity.

Oracle Autonomous Database for transaction processing and mixed workloads eliminated the complexity of operating and securing high-performance databases. Oracle ATP automates maintenance tasks such as provisioning, configuring, tuning, scaling, patching, encrypting, and repairing of databases. This significantly reduced the amount of time Mythics’ technical staff spent on operation and maintenance activities. Autoscaling capabilities now allow applications to scale up and down throughout the day as workloads change. Previously, some databases would not be updated for months at a time but with ATP, all databases are continuously updated with no manual intervention.

OCI facilitated cloud security by offering a complete suite of security services, many of which were included with the purchase of OCI without additional charge. For example, while other providers may offer one or more components to help customers reach a Zero Trust architecture, OCI supports it as a methodology, not just pieces of software. Accordingly, many of OCI’s security services were incorporated in both development and client environments, including OCI Identity and Access Management, Oracle Data Safe, Oracle Cloud Guard, Oracle Cloud Advisor, Oracle Web Application Firewall, Oracle Threat Intelligence Service , and Oracle Vulnerability Scanning. OCI’s security-first approach helps the firm’s clients reduce the risk of security breaches and cyberthreats.

Overall, Mythics reduced IT support costs internally and for its customers, while also increasing performance and system availability when compared to its legacy data center. In addition to these benefits, Mythics decreased the cost and complexity of establishing and maintaining the highest levels of security internally, while subsequently passing that expertise on to clients.