Emmelibri is the holding company of the Emmelibri Group, today the largest platform for books in Italy. As a key pillar of the Messaggerie Italiane Group, one of the most important and historic publishing conglomerates in the country, the Emmelibri Group stands as a market leader, acting as a strategic partner for hundreds of publishing brands, from large groups to small and medium-sized independent publishers.

Over time, its activities have evolved to form today’s Group which - through subsidiaries and affiliates - operates in book distribution, wholesale, physical and online bookstores, large-scale retail, and bargain book sectors.

The starting point

In 2024, Emmelibri launched a comprehensive multi-year Cloud Transformation program: a strategic journey designed to meet new business needs and the evolving requirements of key partners such as SAP, Salesforce, and Microsoft.
Four main challenges emerged:

- End of life for on-premise hardware: a robust platform, but no longer aligned with performance, scalability, and efficiency needs.

- New VMware licensing model: with unexpected cost increases, the previous model had become economically unsustainable.

- Evolution of the IT role: the team needed to be freed from daily operational management to focus on value-added activities and innovation.

- Cloud transformation journey: the need to adopt a modern, scalable infrastructure aligned with the three-year transformation plan.

The choice for a Private Cloud

After an initial evaluation phase, which also included Public Cloud options (such as lift & shift and replatforming), Emmelibri identified risks and challenges related to variable costs, application complexity, and timing uncertainties.

What made the difference was the approach: not a pre-packaged offer, but a continuous, concrete, and transparent exchange. From this came the decision to continue the journey with CDLAN, co-building a Private Cloud platform truly tailored to the client’s specific needs.

Scalable computing architecture

Two dedicated Linux and Windows clusters, optimized for cost and performance, with standby hosts ensuring resilience without impacting VMware licensing.

High-performance multi-tier storage

Full NVMe SAN with latencies below 0.9 ms and hybrid SAN for file sharing: speed, reliability, and scalability.

Virtualized and secure network

VMware NSX with dynamic routing, overlay tunnels, vMotion traffic isolation, and VM micro-segmentation to strengthen control and security.

Managed services and continuous monitoring

Full 24/7 management, proactive monitoring, and integrated LAN-free backup to guarantee security and business continuity.

A journey built together

Delivering the new infrastructure was not just a technological handover, but a journey made of listening, analysis, and continuous collaboration.

- Shared architectural design, shaping the solution around real needs and avoiding prepackaged solutions.

- Pilot phase, crucial to validate performance, processes, and choices before production.

- Guided migration, with coordinated activities between Emmelibri and CDLAN ensuring a smooth transition.

- Proactive management of complexities, addressed and resolved together throughout the project.

More time for innovation, thanks to infrastructure management entrusted to a dedicated external team

Continuous and competent support, with constant alignment on architectural choices

Flexibility and personalized attention at every stage of the project

Reduced TCO, with a sustainable economic model

High performance, even for the most critical workloads

Faster backup and restore, ensuring operational continuity

Native scalability, to grow safely and smoothly

A best seller private cloud