From established structures to a future-proof cloud landscape

Cloud modernisation as a basis for growth and innovation

In the fashion and lifestyle industry, speed is the key to success: new collections, changing trends and growing online demand require flexible systems. TB International faced the challenge of transforming an IT landscape that had grown over many years into a modern, scalable infrastructure – without jeopardising day-to-day business. Together with the Public Cloud Group (PCG), a cloud architecture was created that not only meets current requirements but also paves the way for innovation and new business models.

TB International GmbH is an internationally active fashion and lifestyle company with a strong focus on e-commerce. With more than 20 brands such as Urban Classics and Southpole, over 15,000 customers worldwide and state-of-the-art logistics facilities covering 85,000 m², TB International is one of Europe's fastest-growing fashion wholesalers. Dynamism, short innovation cycles and the ability to connect new distribution partners within a very short time ensure the company's business success. State-of-the-art technologies and annual growth of around 30% make the company a pioneer in its industry.

TB International's system landscape had grown organically over many years. A wide variety of systems fulfilled their respective purposes, but remained isolated and difficult to control. With the increase in online business and a growing partner network, this model reached its limits: peak times were difficult to manage, integrations were costly, and the risk of technical bottlenecks grew.

Together with TB International, we developed a target vision for a modern, cloud-native system landscape that brings together technology, business and future innovations.

• Architecture vision: Development of a MACH-based overall architecture as the foundation for current and future services – API-first, modular, flexible and aligned with business goals.
• Cloud-native scaling: Migration of services to Google Cloud Run and Cloud Functions – elastic serverless systems instead of expensive overprovisioning.
• Event-driven integration: SAP Business One was embedded in an event-oriented system landscape, making processes faster and more resilient – for real-time data flows and omnichannel scenarios.
• Reusable services & API strategy: Development of microservices and a unified API layer that serves both internal and external use cases. This allows new business areas, marketplace integrations and shop systems to be connected in a virtually ‘plug & play’ manner.
• Governance & automation: Infrastructure as code, CI/CD and observability ensure reliability, security and transparency.
  Strategic foresight: Development of a concept for a data platform that enables a 360° customer view, predictive analytics and AI-driven personalisation.

Modernisation thus became an enabler for new business models and partner ecosystems – not just an IT project, but a driver of business transformation.

The project was characterised by a close integration of strategy and implementation:

• PCG Architects worked with TB International to develop a clear target vision as a guideline for business and IT decisions. Best practices such as domain-driven design and capability mapping were used to combine strategic goals with technical feasibility.
• Interdisciplinary teams implemented practical technical solutions and established sustainable standards. On this basis, a MACH-based reference architecture, clear domain boundaries and an API-first approach were defined.
• Joint workshops and hackathons kept the business perspective constantly in mind and made IT an active enabler for the growth of TB International.

Today, TB International has a transparent, modular and elastic cloud infrastructure. It stabilises day-to-day business, enables rapid scaling during peak periods and creates the basis for new partnerships and digital business models.

The next steps are already planned: with a data platform, TB International wants to make greater use of data to better understand customer behaviour, optimise business processes and implement AI-based scenarios.

Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.

With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.

We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.