Journey to OCI

Dermalogica, a profession grade-skincare product company was using JD Edwards, but recently decided to begin running it on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Dermalogica products are highly customizable used by over 100,000 therapists in 100 countries. Therefore, Dermalogica must function with speed and precision across its internal systems and warehousing processes. A few years ago, technology leaders began to feel concerned about outdated procedures and disorganized data. They chose to take action before disaster struck, which is how their journey to OCI began.

To begin their search for a new business regimen, Dermalogica leaders invited the expertise of Redfaire, who helped them determine the best option for their shift to OCI.

How OCI Keeps JD Edwards Healthy

In a presentation at Quest’s BLUEPRINT 4D Conference in May 2023, Redfaire’s CTO, Christian Fronteras, shared details about Dermalogica’s journey to OCI, and he compared healthy skin recently to JD Edwards.  According to Fronteras, the two aren’t as different as you may think. Just as healthy, young-looking skin requires gentle and frequent cleaning, JDE requires frequent care and attention—and protection against four major culprits.

The 4 Culprits of Healthy Skin & Smooth Business Operations

• Exposure
  • Just as too much sun exposure can hurt skin, too many users can hurt JD Edwards.
• Repetition
  • Repeating certain facial expressions can lead to fine lines, while repeating bad habits (that may have been trained incorrectly in the first place) can lead to inefficient processing.
• Age
  • As skin ages, it loses elasticity; as JD Edwards ages, it loses simplicity and becomes a more complex configuration.
• Gravity
  • The force of gravity leads to sagging skin, just like the weight of data can slow down JD Edwards.

Before Dermalogica began treating its issues, its daily regimen looked like the following:

• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1
• Unsupported middleware
• SQL Server
• Customizations
• Legacy data
• Aging infrastructure
• Support resources

Historically, rather than customizing JDE, Dermalogica found ways of building stored procedures into the SQL that would then invoke logic that wasn’t within JDE.

In other words, they would write a record to the F2411 and then a SQL stored procedure kicked off another process that updated EDI files or other processes. Unfortunately, the people who had written those procedures were long gone, so there was no documentation. The team felt tethered to the SQL server database because those stored procedures were running critical functions, and this was a huge concern.

Metaphorically speaking, they looked in the mirror and thought, “I’m not really liking what I’m seeing. It’s time to make a change.”

Options with OCI

So, Dermalogica explored three OCI options:

• Technical (Lift & Shift) – replicating “as is” design on OCI
  • Pro: Fast model, reduced disruption
  • Con: No redress of infrastructure support issues
• Hybrid (Move & Improve) – re-platform infrastructure and replace unsupported operating systems and middleware
  • Pro: Improved solution, more stable, scalable and supportable
  • Con: Greater dependency on customer to test all technology components
• Upgrade (Latest & Greatest) – technology consolidation, upgrade to latest tools and application release on OCI
  • Pro: Migration becomes catalyst for business change
  • Con: Extends migration project scope into an upgrade requiring much greater involvement/engagement with business sponsors

Ultimately, Dermalogica decided to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of JD Edwards.

Today, their tech stack looks young and vibrant due to a potent regimen of:

• Upgrading to 9.2
• Upgrading all middleware to Oracle Cert
• Ensuring technology alignment
• Removing customizations
• Archiving legacy data
• And moving to agile cloud architecture

Key Takeaways

Dermalogica’s journey to OCI was more than just a technical upgrade; it was a strategic shift in their approach. They left behind bad habits, simplified complex configurations, and found opportunities for data archiving.

The result? A rejuvenated business with confidence in its team and infrastructure.

Dermalogica’s fast response times and high performance make it look younger than it has in years.

To learn more about Dermalogica’s upgrade, you can view the full BLUEPRINT 4D presentation here: Hear from Dermalogica on why they chose OCI.

If you’re interested in connecting with other JD Edwards users who are considering a shift to cloud, consider joining our Move to Cloud for JD Edwards Special Interest Group.