Dish TV boosts platform performance by 2x with Microsoft technology and Unified Support

On-prem environment limiting growth

DishTV's subscriber base exceeds 15 million and continues to grow. To cater to the diverse needs of its customers, DishTV regularly introduces new offerings. However, during live events,  its applications face up to 10 times more traffic, necessitating significant capital investment in compute, memory, and storage to maintain operations. Unfortunately, the on-prem platform was limited in its ability to manage the delivery of various offerings and efficiently handle varying loads, resulting in capacity constraints, business downtime, revenue loss, and customer dissatisfaction. DishTV needed a solution to address these challenges, increase its capacity, enhance its security posture, and consistently deliver value to its customers.

Abhishek Gupta, Corporate Head – Information Technology, DishTV, says, “Most of our target market is very cost conscious. During the broadcast of major events, they raise service requests for access to the relevant channels. It results in an intense spike in call volumes and website requests. To deliver prompt services to a growing customer base, we needed a secure and scalable solution to process requests quickly and guarantee minimal wait times irrespective of the load.”

To fulfil its customers' demands effortlessly and securely, DishTV chose to migrate its applications to a cloud-based environment that offers scalability and security. In its transition to the cloud, DishTV sought a trusted partner to resolve complex IT challenges and accelerate its success in the cloud. With Microsoft Unified for Azure, DishTV could get access to superior technology, world-class cloud expertise from a designated team, and the opportunity to leverage best practices in DevOps processes, application architecture, and AI integration. It could also build digital capabilities and extract value from the constantly evolving technology. DishTV had been relying on Microsoft technology for many of its business applications and had developed a deep trust in the expertise and guidance provided by the Microsoft team. DishTV was confident that the migration would enhance the security of its platform, leveraging Microsoft's cutting-edge security tools and technologies. Given the potential for increased value, DishTV decided to utilize Microsoft Azure's cloud capabilities and security framework with Microsoft Unified support.

Driving more innovation and scale with less

DishTV has a history of being an innovation-driven company, having pioneered various services such as the first hi-definition channel, Android box, and missed call service for channel subscriptions. The company's transition to the cloud allowed it to modernize its platform and access new cloud-based technologies and tools for greater agility and productivity. Despite the complexities of the project, including the merger with Videocon d2h Ltd., DishTV and Microsoft completed the implementation in nine months. The project also included an end-to-end Azure backup and disaster recovery solution, resulting in cost optimization and streamlined business operations provided by the Microsoft team. Additionally, DishTV was confident that the migration would enhance the security of its platform, leveraging Microsoft's cutting-edge security tools and technologies. 

The key benefits of the solution include:

Cost savings: DishTV was able to achieve significant cost savings by migrating from expensive commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products to a comprehensive, custom cloud-based solution from Microsoft, which also offered attractive commercial terms. In doing so, DishTV was able to do more with less.

Operational excellence: DishTV receives a high volume of calls in 12 different languages, as well as missed calls from various states throughout India. With the aid of an efficient routing system, all calls are handled with optimal efficiency, boasting an average call handling time of three minutes. The company has also made significant progress in terms of quality, achieving 27 zero-defect days per month compared to just three previously. Additionally, DishTV has improved system availability, achieving an uptime of 99.9% per day compared to 99.9% per year and setting its sights on achieving 99.99% uptime per day.

Continuous innovation: By utilizing the Microsoft solution, the company was able to drive innovation in several business operations such as the setup of DishTV connections and product placement within stores. As a result, it experienced greater customer satisfaction, increased revenue potential, and improved agent productivity.

Scalability for high-traffic events: During highly popular events like live sports matches, the system experiences a sudden increase in traffic by up to ten times, leading to an influx of requests for recharges, calls, text messages, and website inquiries. By utilizing Azure Application Gateway and Azure virtual machines, DishTV can easily scale up or down in response to changing traffic load patterns, ensuring that it can operate at optimal performance levels. 

More secure digital infrastructure: DishTV has significantly enhanced the security of its digital infrastructure by utilizing several Microsoft products such as Azure Active Directory Premium, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Identity, Microsoft Cloud App Security, Microsoft Information Governance, Microsoft Information Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Discover, and Respond. DishTV also benefits from the guidance of the Microsoft team, that offers advice on best practices to maximize the value derived from these security investments.

Greater efficiency and collaboration: With the implementation of Microsoft 365, DishTV experienced a rapid transition to digital collaboration during the pandemic. This shift enabled streamlined communication and collaboration across different work modes, improving overall efficiency. The use of Microsoft Teams allowed team members to effectively brainstorm, collaborate, and troubleshoot, resulting in a significant decrease in the mean time to resolve (MTTR). In addition, DishTV utilized Teams live events to conduct town hall meetings, reward recognition programs, and team bonding events, facilitating meaningful connections among employees and promoting engagement in the workplace. 

With Microsoft Unified support, DishTV gained an end-to-end customer experience, including leading-edge technologies, intelligent solutions, and comprehensive support. In addition, a dedicated customer success account manager (CSAM) supported DishTV in delivering more business value to its customers. As DishTV’s advocate within Microsoft, the CSAM guided DishTV to maintain business continuity and proactively utilize credits in critical areas like database performance, improving the security posture, etc.

V K Gupta, CTO and Business Head, Watcho, DishTV, says, “DishTV has always been at the forefront of adopting the latest technology for innovation. By harnessing Microsoft Unified for Azure, we have achieved more with less. We have lowered our operating costs, optimized our business performance, and delivered cutting-edge products to exceed our customers' expectations.”

Future-forward

DishTV is now looking at leveraging Microsoft technologies to develop even more innovative business solutions. Among its plans is the integration of ChatGPT and anomaly detection in its operations. DishTV is also eager to utilize Microsoft Security to gain an integrated view of its security posture and make more informed decisions regarding its security investments. With its successful migration to a custom cloud-based solution and the benefits it has realized, DishTV is confident in its ability to continue delivering delight to its customers with the help of Microsoft.