“Performing maintenance at night works well enough when the majority of a system’s users are asleep, but that window narrows quickly when expanding to different time zones. ”
Operational continuity
Improving existing infrastructure
Everyone knows the old adage that refers to the practice of leaving something alone that is not broken. However, exceptions can be made when peak loads exceed the limits of a system that performs well under normal conditions.
Whether it’s an increased number of users, expansion to markets in different time zones or certain events that cause temporary leaps in traffic, even a well-working system can be improved to allow for certain contingencies that would otherwise overwhelm it. However, capacity isn’t the only reason to make such improvements. More effective use of external resources for instance can lead to lower costs as well as an improved level of service.
Even if it’s not broken
Examples of our work
Operational continuity in practice
Industry: healthcare
Problem
A mental health organization that provides online therapy through self-hosted video conferencing saw a fifty-fold increase in requests after the start of the Covid19 pandemic. However, the way their hosting was engineered could not accommodate the massive increase in traffic. Daily manual intervention kept the service going for a while, but a more permanent solution was needed.
Solution
The manually configured hosting service was replaced with an automated and software-defined infrastructure that can scale up or down as the number of requests increases or decreases. In addition to much more consistent service, the overall costs of infrastructure were lowered as well thanks to a much greater degree of flexibility with regards to capacity.
Industry: time registration
Problem
A provider of currency counting hardware and auditable time registration devices is steadily adding new customers throughout the world. Since a lot of the new customers live in different time zones, the ‘after hours’ service window was no longer available. The company needed a way to perform maintenance without inconveniencing newly added markets.
Solution
By replacing the infrastructure with a new solution that allowed for zero downtime deployment, Utilus was able to provide the client with the option to perform upgrades and necessary maintenance while the system is running, thus remaining operational at all times for 1.5 million end users.
Why you should work with Utilus
Communication is key
One of our priorities is to keep you up-to-date throughout the process, allowing you to make informed decisions when needed.
Complete package
We don’t just come up with a plan to revitalize the software that supports your business, we have the experience and the manpower to actually build the solutions as well.
Unbiased
We are not bound to a specific application or software suite. This means you can trust our recommendations to be unbiased and made with your situation in mind.
Closely involved
Projects that involve the software side of business are never inconsequential. That is why our work is characterized by intelligence and sincerity.