To maintain its import independence strategy, the company planned a phased transition from foreign software to the Yandex 360 platform. The migration was expected to take 6 to 12 months.
However, a critical issue arose during the transition: Yandex 360's native functionality lacked the ability to synchronize calendars with Microsoft Exchange. This created the risk of losing up-to-date information on employee and meeting room availability during the hybrid period.
Thus, the client turned to ICL Services to fulfill this task.
Key Challenges
- Develop a software solution that provides:
- real-time synchronization of calendars and their internal parameters between Microsoft Exchange and Yandex 360,
- display of participant and meeting room availability in both systems,
- synchronization of additional attributes (including emojis in meeting titles and descriptions),
- guaranteed 95% SLA compliance for synchronization time—no more than 5 minutes,
- scalability to 15,000 users,
- prioritization of synchronization for key employees (VIP group).
First, an expert project team was assembled, consisting of two system architects, two DevOps engineers, and a project manager.
The project was implemented in several stages.
1. Requirements Collection and Analysis
Critical functional requirements for the client were identified: availability synchronization, meeting room support, etc., within 5 minutes.
2. Architecture Design
The solution is based on ICL Services' proprietary platform, which enables real-time task management: creating handlers, scheduling, tracking execution, and sending alerts in the event of failures.
3. Synchronization Handler Development
Modules were created for reading changes from Exchange and writing to Yandex 360 (and vice versa). Metrics, logs, and an administration portal for IT specialists were also created.
4. Implementation of a Prioritization Mechanism
At the customer's request, two user groups were identified: VIP (top management) and the general public. If throttling or system overload occurs, the solution automatically processes changes for VIP users first, followed by those for the remaining users.
5. Load Testing
Testing the solution's operation at target volumes (up to 15,000 users) in a test environment. All functional requirements were met, and the target SLA was achieved.
6. Preparation for Industrial Deployment
At this stage, the solution was "wrapped" into a service ready for production.
Project Results
The project was implemented as a pilot project, confirming the solution's functionality and readiness for industrial deployment. The implementation period was only two months.
Products and technologies
- Microsoft Exchange
- Yandex 360 for business
Results
- We created an independent service that can be used to synchronize Microsoft Exchange and Yandex 360 and will be further developed for use in hybrid email systems.
- The SLA for synchronizing calendar changes for 95% of users within 5 minutes has been met.
- VIP user prioritization has been implemented—critical employees are synchronized first, regardless of workload.
- The solution's readiness for 15,000 users (the customer's scale) has been confirmed.
- ICL Services has developed internal expertise in integrating Exchange and Yandex 360—unique expertise in demand in the import substitution market.