“We implemented a big system using Microsoft technologies in a little more than two months. We could not have implemented it so quickly if we had gone with another cloud provider.”

S. Vishnu Shankar, Vice President for Software Development, Tricubes

Tricubes needed to provide every Malaysian citizen 12 years old and above with an authenticated email address. It wanted a hybrid IT solution that could be used to store sensitive data on-site. Tricubes chose Microsoft technologies and, by doing so, gained strong security that seamlessly synchronizes locally stored and cloud data. Tricubes also gained scalability, ease of use, and a low-cost solution to help it go to market quickly.

Business NeedsTricubes Berhad is a Malaysian technology company specializing in mobile computing and identity authentication. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Tricubes has been a Microsoft partner for more than five years.

In April 2011, the Malaysian government endorsed a plan to provide every citizen a unique, authenticated email address. The project will help the government minimize printing and mailing costs because citizens would be able to receive and pay bills electronically. Tricubes offered to develop the solution at no cost to the government; it will recoup revenues through additional services on the email portal and by offering e-billing services to other billers.

“Our system differs from other email systems because we authenticate each address using the citizen’s national ID card,” says S. Vishnu Shankar, Vice President for Software Development at Tricubes.

Although Tricubes was experienced with authentication—having previously done several projects involving the Malaysian national ID card—this new project posed many challenges. First, the company needed the capability to provision 19 million email addresses. It had to keep the data associated with each e-address secure, and the government required that citizens’ sensitive data be stored locally in Malaysia rather than in the cloud. Finally, Tricubes had to accomplish all of this quickly and at low cost, because its expenses were coming out of its own pocket, and it would not start to earn revenues until after the system was built.

To meet these challenges, Tricubes needed a low-cost, scalable, secure, flexible, easy-to-use solution that could support the requirements for on-premises data storage.

Customer: Tricubes Website: www.tricubes.comCustomer Size: 60 employeesCountry or Region: MalaysiaIndustry: Professional services—IT servicesPartners: Sitecore Partner Websites: www.sitecore.net

Customer ProfileTechnology company Tricubes Berhad specializes in mobile computing and identity authentication. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tricubes has done more than 200 hardware and software projects involving the Malaysian national identification card.

Solution Spotlight Took advantage of existing

investments and skills to get its solution to market quickly.

Met its client’s security requirements with a hybrid IT solution that stores sensitive data on-premises.

Gained a low-cost, pay-as-you-go solution that can scale to its needs.

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit:

Software and Services Windows Azure Platform− Microsoft SQL Azure− Microsoft SQL Azure Data Sync− Windows Azure− Windows Azure AppFabric

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Datacenter Microsoft Visual Studio− Microsoft Visual C# .NET− Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Services− Windows Live Hotmail

Hardware HP Proliant server computers

Partners Reading Room Sitecore

Microsoft SQL ServerCustomer Solution Case Study

Technology Firm Targets 19 Million Email Accounts Using a Hybrid IT Solution

SolutionAlthough Tricubes considered other cloud providers, it quickly turned to Microsoft. Two factors convinced Tricubes to use a Microsoft solution. The first was Windows Live Hotmail online email service. “If we had gone to Google, we would have had to pay for each inbox,” says Vishnu. “But Microsoft did not charge for the email platform.”

The second was the combination of Windows Azure and Microsoft SQL Azure. “These products have a great feature called the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus, which can synchronize sensitive on-premises data with nonsensitive data in the cloud,” Vishnu says. “We would not have had this level of flexibility in designing our innovative hybrid solution if we had chosen another cloud platform.”

Tricubes began working on the solution in June 2011. The site, www.myemail.my, was launched on August 15, 2011. It is now fully operational, and citizens are signing up.

“Microsoft provided a great deal of help,” says Vishnu. “Its people were very responsive on issues related to the service bus and data synchronization, sometimes working over the weekend.”

Tricubes deployed a content management system (CMS) from Sitecore, a Microsoft partner with a Gold Independent Software Vendor competency. “The Sitecore CMS was the best fit for us because it has been proven in deployment at many sites, and it can handle millions of concurrent transactions,” Vishnu says.In Kuala Lumpur, Tricubes stores the sensitive data using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter data management software on HP Proliant server computers. It communicates with SQL Azure using a preview version of the SQL Azure Data Sync data synchronization service. Users register for email on the myemail portal, and then access it through the myemail portal or directly through Windows Live. Modules developed by Tricubes are based on Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development tools.

Through 2012, Tricubes will extend the solution to Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded CE devices. Tricubes will also seek value-added services for its portal.

BenefitsWith Windows Azure and SQL Azure, Tricubes was able to complete its solution quickly and easily, with effective security, and at low cost.

Rapid, Easy Development Tricubes used Windows Azure and SQL Azure to get to market quickly. “We implemented a big system using Microsoft technologies in a little more than two months,” says Vishnu. “We could not have implemented it so quickly if we had gone with another cloud provider.” Tricubes was able to take advantage of its existing technology investments, easily migrate applications to the Microsoft cloud, and rely on Microsoft for effective support. Vishnu says, “Our engineers are familiar with Microsoft interfaces, and we did not have to spend time and money training them on other platforms. It’s easy to deploy Windows Azure and SQL Azure.”

Strong SecurityTricubes used the Microsoft solution to easily meet the government’s security requirements. “Ensuring against attacks meant rebuilding our data center with all the certificates in place within a very short time,” says Vishnu. “Windows Azure had all the features to handle this.” The hybrid solution also met the government’s need to keep sensitive data on-premises. Vishnu says, “With SQL Azure Data Sync, we could assure the government that the user profile was stored locally and any data in the cloud was effectively encrypted.”

Scalability at Low CostWith Microsoft technologies, Tricubes developed a scalable solution at low cost. Vishnu says, “With Windows Azure and SQL Azure, scaling is simple and immediate, requiring only some configuration adjustments.” Additionally, the pay-as-you-go pricing helps Tricubes lower its up-front costs. Vishnu says, “With Windows Azure and SQL Azure, we scale to what we need, and Microsoft charges only for what we use.”

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published May 2012