Del Monte Foods improves system uptime by 99.99%, saves 57% on infrastructure, and reduces security risk by 50% with Microsoft solutions

Del Monte Foods Inc. (Del Monte), is one of the largest producers, distributors, and marketers of premium-quality, branded food products in the United States. The company generated approximately $1.7 billion in net sales in 2023 and operates a network of food processing plants across North America. To manage its vast operations, the company uses enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

As part of its digital transformation strategy, Del Monte decided to migrate certain systems to Microsoft Azure, using Azure capabilities to optimize its systems’ performance, scalability, and reliability. The company also wanted to enhance its security posture by adopting the Microsoft Defender security stack to provide comprehensive protection across endpoints, email, cloud apps, and identity. Because its business depends on picking and packing foods at peak freshness, Del Monte hoped to accomplish its goals with minimal downtime or disruption to operations.

After embarking on its successful Azure migration and security improvement journey, Del Monte has improved operational efficiency, enhanced its security posture, and reduced infrastructure costs and is setting a new benchmark in the industry for its landscape modernization.

Assessing the landscape and defining an Azure migration strategy and road map

Del Monte’s previous cloud infrastructure was both costly and complex, leading to high maintenance costs, a lack of scalability, performance issues, and challenges with deploying continuous security posture improvements. These hurdles underscored an opportunity for the company to not only revitalize its landscape but also harness the full spectrum of cloud benefits—agility, elasticity, and a constant stream of innovation.

Del Monte identified Azure as the perfect match for its transformation. “We were drawn to Azure due to its optimized infrastructure, seamless integration with other Microsoft services, and a wealth of support and expertise,” says Hari Ramakrishnan, Vice President of Information Technology at Del Monte. The company worked alongside Microsoft and its information technology consultants and providers to plan and deploy its migration.

The journey started with thoroughly assessing the existing landscape and crafting a detailed migration strategy and road map to guide the path forward. In the design phase, Del Monte and its partners used Azure Migrate to conceptualize the target Azure architecture, thoroughly sizing resources to help ensure a unified transition. Building upon a solid foundation, the Azure environment was carefully constructed, with keen attention to configuring the network, fortifying security, and establishing robust backup settings using Azure Site Recovery.

Completing an Azure migration in just three months

In just three months, Del Monte successfully migrated a comprehensive suite of services to Azure, seamlessly integrating its new architecture with third-party applications and databases. Rigorous testing and validation ensured that the migrated systems were not only functional but also optimized, with any issues swiftly addressed and resolved.

The company also set a new standard for minimal downtime and business disruption, which is essential in the food production industry. “We strive to pack foods within hours of picking them, so time is of the essence,” says Ramakrishnan. “We were pleased to complete the migration with minimal interruptions to our operations.”

Through its migration, Del Monte not only revitalized systems but also saved money and unlocked new dimensions of operational efficiency. “We reduced certain infrastructure costs by 57%, increased system availability by 99.99%, and improved system performance by 40%,” says Ramakrishnan. The company also simplified its system management and maintenance and gained more flexibility and scalability to meet its business needs.

Fortifying security across domains with Microsoft Defender and reducing security risks by 50%

Migrating to Azure was only part of Del Monte’s goal. It also recognized the importance of enhancing its security posture in the cloud, as it faced increasing cyber threats and compliance requirements.

Del Monte chose the Microsoft Defender security stack, a comprehensive and unified security platform that uses AI, cloud-scale, and automation to provide proactive and adaptive security across multiple domains, including systems, endpoints, email, cloud apps, and identity. “We needed a holistic and integrated security solution to provide visibility, protection, and response across our entire IT environment, and Defender could provide that,” says Ramakrishnan.

The company deployed Defender across its Azure and on-premises environments and integrated it with certain systems and additional Microsoft services. To fortify its endpoint detection and response capabilities, the company selected Defender for Endpoint. Del Monte also uses Defender for Office 365 to enhance email and collaboration security in its Microsoft 365 apps and Defender for Cloud Apps to strengthen security across the company’s connected third-party apps. For identity monitoring and access security, Del Monte uses Defender for Identity.

Ultimately, the company increased security visibility and coverage across its IT environment and reduced security risks by 50%. The solutions also improved Del Monte’s security response and remediation capabilities and achieved compliance with industry standards and regulations, such as US state data protection laws, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s standards.

Accelerating innovation and unlocking new IT capacity

After migrating to Azure and adopting the Defender security stack, Del Monte is now enjoying improved operational efficiency and an enhanced security posture.

Furthermore, the transformation has freed its IT team to focus more on innovation and value creation rather than on infrastructure and security issues. Now the company is exploring and applying additional Microsoft solutions, such as the AI learning capabilities of Azure Machine Learning and the low-code tools in Microsoft Power Platform, to further enhance its business processes, analytics, and user experience.

This transformation is a testament to Del Monte’s commitment to excellence and innovation, marking a significant achievement in its ongoing quest to modernize operations. The successful landscape modernization on Azure showcases Del Monte’s strategic foresight, technical prowess, and dedication to driving business success through technology.