Railinc Corporation, a leading provider of rail data and messaging services in the North American freight railway industry, needed help with migrating their critical applications and data infrastructure to the cloud. Their primary business involves managing over 5 million daily data messages, requiring seamless and secure migration of their vast operations.
Railinc faced several challenges during the cloud migration:
- Complexity: The business logic of their applications was intricate, with limited documentation available, making it difficult to maintain and migrate critical operations.
- Security: Given the nature of their industry, they had strict security protocols to follow while ensuring smooth and efficient migration.
- Collaboration Across Time Zones: Working with a team spread across different time zones added a layer of complexity to the project.
- Limited Access to Systems: Due to regulations, access to Railinc systems had to be restricted, complicating the migration process.
Evizi, a trusted software development partner, stepped in with a team of experienced developers and QA experts. Evizi specializes in cloud migration and complex IT projects, making them the perfect choice to help Railinc successfully migrate their applications to the cloud.
Evizi laid out a clear and actionable plan:
- Migration Strategy: Migrate existing applications to the cloud while fixing security issues and optimizing performance. They utilized technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, and PostgreSQL.
- Security Measures: Implemented security best practices during the migration process, including integration with Okta for authentication.
- Collaboration & Communication: Created clear communication channels through daily reports, standup meetings, and recorded demos to keep all stakeholders updated.
- Testing & QA: Performed thorough testing (both manual and automated) using tools like Selenium, JUnit, Cucumber, and SoapUI to ensure a seamless transition.
Railinc was tasked with providing system logs and error data to assist in identifying potential migration challenges. Evizi’s Project Manager worked closely with Railinc’s internal team to ensure that all aspects of the migration met their stringent requirements.
Without Evizi’s expertise, Railinc risked:
- Extended downtime and service disruptions during migration.
- Compromised data security and regulatory violations.
- Missed deadlines due to the complexity of their systems and lack of detailed documentation.
Evizi mitigated these risks through careful planning, thorough testing, and continuous communication, ensuring a smooth migration.
The collaboration led to the successful migration of several critical applications, including:
- Umler: The source of essential data for over two million pieces of equipment across North America, providing secure access and reporting tools.
- Umler Surge: A refreshed UI for the Umler system using Angular 13.
- CMDB: The Configuration Management Database for storing Railinc’s IT information.
- RMC: The Railinc Messaging Console, enabling customers to view messages and analyze routing configurations.
Evizi’s involvement allowed Railinc to modernize its operations without compromising security, performance, or functionality.