Helen

About Helen

Helen, a pioneer in its industry, is based in Finland and is known for providing reliable and sustainable energy solutions. The company produces electricity, heating, and cooling in power plants and heating plants around Helsinki. Helen is dedicated to achieving carbon neutrality and plays a crucial role in the energy transition, serving both residential and commercial customers.

The Challenge

Helen was searching for a new, reliable cloud service provider that could not only support the agile development of the company’s cloud services but also maintain the business-critical systems running in the cloud 24/7. Helen’s goal was to find a service provider that could enable high-quality cloud architecture capabilities and versatile technology management, while also supporting the company with its digital strategy.

Helen’s cloud services primarily operate on Microsoft Azure. As a provider of energy services, Helen is a critical societal player operating in a regulated industry. These constraints also affect the choice of a cloud partner, which must be able to meet the specific requirements associated with this type of business.

“Helen chose Cloud2 as their cloud partner because they are agile and possesses extensive cloud expertise. Additionally, Cloud2 is a cost-effective option for Helen, capable of supporting our various strategic business objectives. Cloud2’s ability to deliver complex multi-cloud environments, even within regulated industries, was a decisive factor in our selection.”

Jani Laine, Head of Digital Workplace, Helen

Our Solution

Cloud2 is responsible for the comprehensive management, monitoring, maintenance, and renewal of Helen’s cloud services. Helen has an ambitious digital strategy that is cloud-first, which includes, for example, the development of customer service in digital channels. Cloud2 supports Helen in developing and maintaining these digital services.

Cloud2 ensures the compliance of Helen’s cloud environment and has further enhanced its efficiency and security. In a regulated industry, maintaining a top-notch environment is essential. Cloud2 has also introduced 24/7 monitoring to the cloud services.

The collaboration has brought about a strategic Cloud Center of Excellence function, effectively a cloud steering group, which Cloud2 implements in partnership with Helen. A controlled and unified operating model has been created around cloud services, covering the entire company and facilitating communication between different business units.

Results

Cloud2 tackled technical debt by completing a year and a half’s worth of work in just four months, ensuring that the management, monitoring, and security of the Microsoft Azure platform function flawlessly. When Cloud2 took over, Helen gained the ability to react swiftly and maintain business-critical systems 24/7.

Cloud governance has helped Helen’s business units cooperate more closely with each other, and efficient cost optimization helps the company keep cloud-related costs under control. Cloud2 has also helped bring agility to the development of digital services, such as various consumer applications while creating a secure and efficient environment that supports Helen’s business. Cloud2 is an agile partner that is easy to work with, yet it also possesses the strength and backbone necessary to support Helen.

“We have been able to solve long-standing issues very quickly compared to previous efforts. At the same time, we have been able to address governance and FinOps aspects in our work. As a result, we have significantly flattened the ‘cost curve’ regarding cloud expenses.”

Jani Laine, Head of Digital Workplace, Helen