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Many companies are now exploring the advantages of utilising cloud technology. DDB’s Regional IT Director Wayne Moy saw its potential nearly a decade ago, and explains how the advertising firm continues to provide increased flexibility for its customers
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stablished back in the 1940s, multinational corporation (MNC) DDB Worldwide has become one of the oldest (and largest) advertising holding companies worldwide. Its strong brand reputation and work with both international brands, such as McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Exxon Mobil and Unilever, and national brands across Asia has enabled the firm to deliver innovative, personalised products and services to its clients on a global scale. Working in the TV industry for a decade, Regional IT Director Wayne Moy joined DDB with the aim to overhaul the company’s fragmented IT infrastructure. Whilst it remains essential for DDB to adapt
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to different working cultures as a global enterprise, its operations are also influenced by the emergence of new digital tools and solutions. “Many companies are moving towards the cloud. A decade ago, people in IT were very hesitant. I was laughed at for putting email on the cloud eight years ago, because people were claiming this to be insecure, but nowadays, if you don’t put your email on the cloud, you will be laughed at,” explains Moy. “Another area of global focus is IT security. People are increasingly conscious because it’s becoming costly for businesses, if their data is breached. IT security may be expensive, but a company’s reputation
“Many companies are moving towards the cloud. A decade ago, people in IT were very hesitant. I was laughed at for putting email on the cloud eight years ago, because people were claiming this to be insecure, but nowadays, if you don’t put your email on the cloud, you will be laughed at” Wayne Moy, Regional IT Director, DDB w w w. d d b . c o m
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is priceless. It’s also very difficult space. With departments purchasing to hire people in this particular their own systems to undertake area, as it’s in high demand and similar functions, Moy worked to there is a significant skills gap. standardise DDB’s IT infrastructure “Additionally, there is an opportunity and procurement capabilities across in advertising for artificial intelligence its Asia operations with the support (AI) and machine learning,” continues of its parent company, Omnicom. Moy. “Whilst AI solves “Standardisation has problems like humans, helped get us gain machine learning bigger discounts is understanding for procurement, ‘DDB has a pattern, as we’re one big partnered which we can global company with VEEAM apply to how when purchasing to support consumers equipment, its disaster consume services or recovery products or systems. We also strategy’ services. see what is going on “Lastly, there in the world in other are opportunities in offices,” comments Moy. big data, which is being “Our standardisation used by Google and Facebook. It has also helped our IT teams focus targets different types of advertising on technical skills. Members are depending on the consumer.” able to be trained faster, reducing issues with compatibility.” Cloud implementation Having moved DDB’s email systems Upon joining DDB, Moy found that a into the cloud, Moy has also migrated number of its operations were siloed, its office apps and company data. particularly within the procurement “Migrating our global apps to
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the cloud has enabled global access,” he says. “We don’t have to be worried about owning equipment, as it’s in a local data centre. Also, cloud technology helps us with business continuity. “We’re very flexible and fast to offer services. We have the technical skills because we are limited on standardisation and infrastructure to certain brands.” Enhanced flexibility Throughout DDB’s cloud transformation, multiple cloud
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platforms have been implemented to enable the business to utilise both public and private clouds, providing further choice and flexibility to its clients. Whilst Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has been instrumental to DDB’s infrastructure overhaul, the use of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft’s Office 365, Office Suite, email, and Azure, as well as Adobe, has seen the company’s operations become strengthened throughout the region. “Clients tend to inform us of the
cloud platform they prefer, which could be due to policy compliance or other preferential conditions where they need to use a particular cloud provider,” observes Moy. “If this is not the case, we will choose the platform which could be one where we have the most clients and have increased visibility.” However, not all applications are placed in DDB’s cloud systems, as downloading large files would become increasingly timeconsuming. Large files are still archived to the cloud for backup. Financial and client data is kept locally according to local compliance issues and for financial reporting, which needs to be generated at a rapid pace with minimal delay. “Our Creative division completes artwork, photography or video. These files are over a gigabyte in size. This group therefore works with these files locally and they are housed locally. It could take an hour to download such files from the cloud,” says Moy. However, the company’s latest project surrounds its disaster
‘DDB has worked with McDonald’s, Volkswagen, ExxonMobil, Wrigley, and Unilever in the Asia Pacific region’
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“We have some countries, China for example, where laws dictate that private data cannot be stored outside of the country. We are therefore required to look for internal Chinese providers which will keep the data in China� Wayne Moy, Regional IT Director, DDB
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recovery and backup strategy. Partnering with Veeam, DDB is harnessing its software when taking snapshots of virtual machines (VMs), which also filters into DDB’s business continuity solution. “VM snapshots are stored locally and they are quickly recovered if needed. We also store a copy of those VMs in the cloud and Veeam supports us in doing that,” says Moy. “These snapshots can be spun up in the cloud during disaster recovery (DR). If there’s a disaster in the local office, we are able to spin up the VMs in the cloud, where our data is also backed up for quick recovery. The cloud is our DR site. This saves costs in actually creating and maintaining a DR site.” Complex privacy laws Whilst Moy remains heavily involved in all projects which require IT operations across DDB’s Asia Pacific division, he acknowledges that the company will face a number of challenges surrounding the increased need for digital security, in order for the
business to comply with various governmental privacy laws. “IT helps the business with all the systems, applications, and infrastructure including the cloud services, and also helps the business units relating to digital services,” he says. “We have some countries, China for example, where laws dictate that private data cannot be stored outside of the country. We are therefore required to look for internal Chinese providers which will keep the data in China. “Having a provider within the country helps with the privacy law and also with the speed and robustness of the product that’s being marketed,” Moy continues. “These are all new laws which were not in place 20 years ago – this is on a global scale. In May, the General Data Protection Regulations in the European Union are set to shift, and we have to keep catching up with different laws in different areas. Are we going to move the data out? How are we going to handle this?
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“Machine learning is an opportunity that we should invest time in because advertising in the traditional sense is slowly declining” Wayne Moy, Regional IT Director, DDB
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It’s quite a challenge for us.” Additionally, DDB works with a significant number of financial and insurance companies, which request that the DDB’s IT team complies with the individual internal company data security compliance policies which each company houses,” adding another layer of complexity. Strong team Despite this, DDB’s operations are underpinned by an exceptional workforce. At senior level, weekly meetings with influential management figures from across the business enable the company to discuss key issues which will impact DDB’s operations, both nationally and internationally. “Everyone’s involved, even finance and procurement. We handle issues and talk about projects that are global,” notes Moy. On the ground, Moy expresses immense pride in his team and observes that it is one of the main drivers behind his long-term tenure at DDB.
“I work with a very good regional team. They are very dedicated to their roles and their work ethic is impeccable. The global IT management team includes great people and it’s a pleasure to work with them,” he says. “I think the most important thing is that we listen to each other. Listening is not enough; we have to respond to what we listen to. This creates respect. We listen to all the
issues, we listen to all sides and then we respond. We talk about it. We each give our recommendations on how to handle an issue and we respect each other’s comments or questions. It makes a very good team that collaborates well together.” Future growth DDB is home to many clients and success stories and will continue to look at future areas of growth within
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Established in 1949, DDB is one of the oldest and largest advertisers in the world
the digital space. New technologies will reshape traditional business models, and DDB will need to further adapt the ways in which it supports clients in marketing products and services to remain one of the most prestigious MNC’s in the world. “The internet of things and machine learning are really two areas that we should tap into,” comments Moy. “Machine learning is an opportunity that we should invest time in because advertising in the traditional sense is slowly declining. Less people are watching traditional TV. They are watching online media. When they’re online we can capture data of what they like and dislike and their viewing habits. “We can gear towards marketing towards specific people with specific marketing. There are many advertising companies in the world but what differentiates us from the rest is the services or products that we can provide that others do not.” Moy concludes: “These technologies are opportunities where we can provide services that others do not, and we will take this opportunity to develop new products and services to offer our clients. This differentiates us from the rest of the pack.”
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DDB Hong Kong Unit 1201, Core E, Cyberport 3, Hong Kong +852.2828.0328 christie.giera@ddb.com www.ddb.com