Microsoft Technology Center
Customer Solution Case Study
Electronics Firm Saves Product Development
Time, Money, with Expert Database Guidance
Customer: Thales
Web Site: www.thalesgroup.com
Customer Size: 68,000 employees
Country or Region: France
Industry: Manufacturing—High tech and
electronics
Customer Profile
Thales, based in Neuilly-sur-Seine,
France, develops technology solutions to
serve the aerospace, space, defense,
transportation, and security industries.
The electronics company has operations
in 50 countries.
Software and Services
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Enterprise
 Services
− Microsoft Technology Centers
“The ease of access to the MTC’s first-rate knowledge
base is second to none. Working with its architects and
knowing that we could tap into their expertise
significantly eased my burden as a program manager.”
Lewis Jones, Program Manager, Thales
Thales, an electronics company, was bringing a new hardware
security product to market and needed to ensure that it would
seamlessly interoperate with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data
management software. Thales worked remotely with a Microsoft
Technology Center to conduct thorough product testing and
modification. The company achieved full compatibility, saved
more than five percent of project costs, and cut a full month off
its project schedule.
Business Needs
With business roots that go back to 1893,
France-based Thales has grown to become
a more than €12.5 billion (U.S.$17 billion)
electronics company that delivers
information systems and services for use in
aerospace, space, defense, transportation,
and security markets. One of the
company’s product lines consists of
hardware security modules, which are
electronic vaults that store cryptographic
keys to protect sensitive data from
hackers.
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The company wanted to ensure that the
new release of its nShield product family of
hardware security modules would be fully
compatible with Microsoft SQL Server
2008 data management software. “We
wanted the nShield product line to provide
central management of the database
encryption keys for SQL Server 2008,” says
Lewis Jones, Program Manager for Thales.
“But there was certain detailed technical
information that we didn’t have at our
disposal during our development cycle. It’s
difficult to ensure proper interoperability
unless you have access to the internal
workings of both products. So obtaining
that knowledge and carefully testing the
nShield module was critical to releasing a
successful product.”
Solution
Benefits
Thales accepted an invitation from
Microsoft to participate in a Microsoft
Technology Center (MTC) Proof-of-Concept
workshop, which the MTC would deliver
remotely to the Thales office in the United
Kingdom that was working heavily on the
project. MTC architects configured an
environment for comprehensive testing, and
then Thales spent about four weeks in
March 2009 doing just that. The company
evaluated the possibilities of offering
nShield in failover and clustered
environments, and tested transparent data
encryption as well as cell-level encryption.
Thales came away from its MTC experience
with the knowledge it needed to ensure
that nShield was fully compatible with SQL
Server 2008. “The ease of access to the
MTC’s first-rate knowledge base is second
to none,” says Jones. “Working with its
architects and knowing that we could tap
into their expertise significantly eased my
burden as a program manager.”
Throughout the four weeks, Thales relied on
MTC architects for expert direction and
advice. “We learned so much about SQL
Server 2008 from an internal perspective,
including shortcuts and different ways of
working with it,” says Jones. “The MTC
architects covered all the things we wanted
to know but didn’t know to ask for.”
During the MTC engagement, Thales gained
access to sample implementation code and
practical workarounds to deal with issues.
Of particular value was the MTC architects’
response to a SQL Server 2008–related
problem that arose during testing. “The
MTC architects helped us set up debugging
tools, which would have taken us ages to do
on our own, and they also helped us
analyze some trace output that we gave
them, leading to a solution within a couple
of days,” recalls Jones.
In July 2009, Thales successfully launched
the nShield Database Security Option Pack,
accompanied by a thorough integration
guide.
The workshop also helped the company
complete its project faster and at a
reduced cost. Continues Jones, “All in all,
the assistance provided in our MTC
engagement has been invaluable in
reducing our project timeline and budget,
and has also increased our knowledge of a
complex product.” The MTC experience
contributed to:


Shorter time-to-market. Thales
released its SQL Server 2008–compatible
product into production more quickly as
a result of its MTC experience. “We
saved approximately one month out of a
six-month project schedule, which is a
significant and worthwhile time saving,”
comments Jones.
Access to experts. The company could
progress quickly in its testing and
troubleshooting with the ready help of
MTC architects. “Having a month’s
worth of available expertise was
incredible,” says Tony Crossman,
Director of Strategic Partners for Thales.
“It was like adding resources to the
development team, but with no rampup time. The MTC architects were useful
from the very start. There was no hidden
sales agenda, just plenty of guidance
and help.”
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SUMMARY.
Document published June 2010

Reduced project costs. In addition to
the gain from trimming a month off the
timeline, Thales also saved money
because the MTC offered the flexibility
to conduct the Proof of Concept
remotely. “As a broad estimate, I think
the involvement of the MTC team
reduced our project cost by about 5
percent, just from a time standpoint,”
says Jones. “Additionally, we were able
to keep our development costs down
because we avoided buying a
consultant’s time and a SQL Server 2008
test cluster of the right size and shape,
which in total probably saved us another
5 percent or so in staffing and hardware
costs.”

Better technology understanding.
Thales gained valuable knowledge
about SQL Server 2008 at the MTC. “We
saw SQL Server 2008 through the eyes
of experts and achieved a more solid
understanding of it, resulting in a
project deliverable that was more robust
and far better documented,” says
Crossman.

Increased confidence. Because it had a
better technology understanding, Thales
was more comfortable with its product
as it related to SQL Server 2008. “Not
only did we finish the workshop
knowing with certainty that we could
support a clustered environment, but we
also were able to produce an integration
guide for customers that is a golden
example of its type,” says Jones. “It really
reflects the input and influence of the
MTC.”