Written by Ryan Kerry
on Apr 20, 2017

I'll be keynote speaking at Google Next London

I was thrilled to take the stage at Google NEXT 2017 in London, joining Google Cloud CTO Brian Stevens during the Day 1 keynote to share the story of Lush’s record-breaking 22-day global migration to Google Cloud.

This was an incredible team effort led by our project engineering team (Dan Richards, Lee Hill, Simon Ince, and myself), in close collaboration with our trusted partners: Ancoris (project coordination) and Clarinet (technical delivery) who augmented well with us.

Why We Migrated

The decision to move came as our contract with an existing, black-box infrastructure provider was coming to an end. We saw an opportunity to take greater ownership of our platform, scale more efficiently, and future-proof our architecture.

After attending one of the early Google NEXT events in London (2016) with one of my senior engineers, it became crystal clear: Cloud was the future. Google Cloud, in particular, stood out—not just for its technical capabilities, but also for its values. From being powered by 100% renewable energy to its commitment to open-source communities, Google Cloud aligned perfectly with Lush Cosmetics’ ethical principles and the foundations on which our engineering culture was built.

The Migration Challenge

Once the decision was made, we had 28 days to complete the migration before the existing contract expired. Within just a few days, we’d contacted Google, secured the right partners, signed contracts, planned the roadmap and even started writing code. What followed was an intense, fast-paced, and incredibly rewarding project.

From late-night deployments to sprint reviews on very little sleep, our team delivered a full migration in just 22 days, supporting global e-commerce operations and setting a new bar for cloud transformations.

Watch the Talks

Day 1 Keynote – Google NEXT London 2017

I joined Brian Stevens on stage to discuss how we delivered this game-changing migration.

Watch from 1:02:00:

Day 2 Deep Dive – From Idea to Execution

Alongside Google and Clarinet, I shared the behind-the-scenes details from concept through delivery, including all the challenges along the way.