Contributors PulteGroup: Joe Drouin

Building a Home in the Cloud

“If I were to advise a company in a similar position, I would say it helps to adopt a cloud-first mentality. Assume that everything is going to the cloud as a rule, and really challenge the exceptions. I don’t think it’s bold anymore; it’s what you have to do today, and in my mind, it’s proven.” Joe Drouin
Chief Information Officer, PulteGroup

TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

CIO Joe Drouin manages connectivity and security for the PulteGroup home construction corporation, a company with branch offices across the United States. When he joined the company, PulteGroup relied on legacy technology that no longer supported the needs of its evolving business.

Drouin worked to move PulteGroup forward from its “accidental architecture” of legacy hardware, applications, and point solutions. The Pulte team developed a transformation roadmap for a cloud-centric, modular, flexible, elastic, scalable, API-centered architecture. The changes weren’t all technical: The team had to transform a culture of outdated, custom-developed, built-on-prem mindsets. After cloud transformation, PulteGroup stakeholders have reduced MPLS and maintenance expenses, accelerated performance with local internet breakouts, and reduced their administrative overhead.

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COMPANY BACKGROUND

Company: PulteGroup
Sector: Home Construction
Driver: Joe Drouin
Role: CIO
Revenue: $7.6 billion
Employees: 4,000
Countries: 1
Locations: 700
Company IT Footprint: Currently at Pulte, there are almost 5,000 employees. Pulte serves approximately 35 national markets across the United States, and has 600 to 700 active communities and 36 divisional offices around the country. The company’s IT footprint is around 5,000 desktop endpoints.

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Move forward from “accidental architecture”: legacy hardware, applications, point solutions

Reduce MPLS backhauling

Prioritize data-center, internet traffic with direct connectivity

Flexibility: Simplify systems management

THE SOLUTION

Roadmap a cloud-centric, modular, flexible, elastic, scalable, API-centered architecture

Transform outdated DIY, built-on-prem culture

Shift on-prem .NET, SQL stacks to Azure

Roll out Office 365

Deploy local internet breakouts

IMPACT

Reduced costs: MPLS, on-prem hardware maintenance

Faster connectivity, user experience with local internet breakouts

More flexible architecture:

  • Easier app management
  • Reduced administrative overhead

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CUSTOMER JOURNEY
PulteGroup: A Network and Security Transformation Journey