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eBusiness Portfolio > MetCouncil Case Study

Project Category:
Custom Development Hosting

Project Title:
Metropolitan Council Host Transfer & Custom Development

Client Profile:
The Metropolitan Council is a unique governmental body for the seven county area surrounding the Twin Cites of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Council operates the region’s bus system, handles environmental services, prepares long-range growth plans and manages parks and open space for the metropolitan area.

Project Description:
The Metropolitan Council’s site receives over 5 million hits a month. Content on the site is continually being changed by a variety of Council staff members and outside contractors.

The site also includes many interactive and dynamic features, such as multiple databases using differing technologies, search features, Active Server Pages, online credit card processing, a licensed Java Applet, email forms, digital certificates, and a bulletin board feature. This site directory held over 1700 HTML pages, some in current use, others older versions of pages.

The Council was not satisfied with their previous host and developer. The site was experiencing increased service interruptions and the Council felt the developer was locked into one set of technologies.

An RFP was issued by the Metropolitan Council requesting a host environment that was stable, capable of handling the site’s increasing traffic volume and run by a developer that could help them evolve the site with more diverse and leading edge technologies.

ArchWing Innovations responded to the RFP and was awarded the contract.

Project Solution:
The solution for the Metropolitan Council involved 3 parts:
1 - Transfer of the existing site to a new server.
2 - Hosting Environment.
3 – Ongoing Development.

1. Site Transfer
The site needed to be transferred from the previous host to ArchWing Innovations with minimal service interruption. The Metropolitan Council site was hosted in a shared server environment. The site’s HTML files, related databases, scripting, digital certificates, etc. would all have to be copied from the shared server, sent to ArchWing and reassembled on the new server. The challenge was to identify all of elements of the site that needed modification due to the transfer and then formulate a plan to implement and test the modifications thoroughly.

The first task in the site transfer was to inventory the entire site. The site had experienced rapid growth in the past several years and a current site inventory was not available. ArchWing thoroughly explored, tested, and documented the state of the web site.

The inventory revealed several interesting challenges:

	The credit card processing software had become obsolete and a replacement was needed.
	The custom software designed to manage the fulfillment of bus pass purchases was not working properly and needed to be rewritten.
	The digital encryption certificates had not been properly licensed to the Metropolitan Council.

A new credit card processing and order fulfillment system, based on VeriSign Payflo Pro and Microsoft SQL Server was designed and thoroughly tested by ArchWing.

The old certificates were cancelled and new digital certificates were purchased, properly licensed, and installed.

During inventory of the site, it was discovered that 20 additional domain names had been purchased and setup for the site, but had not been documented. ArchWing worked with the Council to centralize the registration data on all the domain names.

2. Hosting Environment
The Metropolitan Council wanted to get away from a shared server environment but was unprepared to invest a significant amount in hardware. ArchWing offered the Council the option of leasing a server with a buyout option, should they choose to change their host in the future. This option allowed them the added stability of not sharing a server with other web sites, and will significantly decrease the cost of moving the site in the future, since they will be able to simply connect the server at a the new host without the extensive testing and rebuilding that was need for the transfer to ArchWing.

The Metropolitan Council web site runs on a dual processor Pentium III system. It is backed up on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. ArchWing provides continuous monitoring of the server; personnel on call 24x7; load management; database management; site traffic reports; and backups.

3. Ongoing Software Development
ArchWing provides ongoing software development services and consulting to the Metropolitan Council. Presently ArchWing is developing an administrative system for users to update the employment listings on the site. This new feature will eliminate the need for outside contracting of this work and therefore reduce costs to Met Council and enhance control over the site content.

ArchWing is also developing a new search function to replace the previous version. The previous version was a known security problem.

Benefits:
ArchWing has been able to realize the Metropolitan Council’s goal of a smooth site transfer and a more stable site. Other benefits of the transfer have included:

	The new credit card processing software is easier to work with then the prior system used, it has better reporting and auditing features
	The revamped order fulfillment application gives greater control and flexibility to Metro Transit.
	Fewer consumer complaints over site performance.
	Domain name registration information has been centralized
	Since switching to ArchWing Innovations for hosting, the Metropolitan Council site has seen increased usage.
	Overall web site security has been dramatically improved.
	Redundant and separately provided connections to the Internet consist of a T-3, backed up with a T-1.
	Tape backups are done on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
	Quarterly meetings to discuss the state of the web site. This is in addition to normal weekly conversations about new work and development.

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