With previous experience in Defence accredited networks, brightSPARK Infrastructure Engineers set about designing and building a network which would meet the stringent requirements of the Defence Security Authority (DSA) and Information Assurance (IA). To meet the needs of the client and the requirements for accreditation, brightSPARK deployed a network with the following characteristics:

• Centralised Policy Management
• Centralised Group and User Management
• Virtualised Server Infrastructure
• Standard Operating Environment (SOE) for both client and server machines
• Network wide backup and auditing

Once the proposed hardware was procured, brightSPARK were able to build and obtain Defence accreditation for the network within six weeks. A secondary phase of work was then granted in which brightSPARK extended the network with:

• High-availability and failover of all critical services
• Capacity to host upwards of 200 virtual machines
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings to other projects in the company
• Enterprise grade storage and backup

Starting from an unknown codebase, brightSPARK Application Engineers spent a two week design phase to:

• introduce an underlying system architecture to the application
• eliminate redundant and poorly written code
• integrate unit level testing across the application
• add class level commenting to the entire codebase

With the codebase now tamed, brightSPARK set to work introducing new functionality requested by the customer. Utilising our mature development process, brightSPARK were able to deliver weekly operational ready releases to the client. Direct engagement with end users was conducted on a fortnightly basis to ensure the application was tailored to the job.

Receiving an application tailored specifically to their needs and delivered on a weekly basis, the client could not have been more pleased. The refactored application remains in active service with plans to further increase its capabilities.

Over the course of half an hour, brightSPARK Infrastructure Engineers outlined a modified design in which:

• all data in the extant system could be migrated across securely into the new system
• all services could be ported and then accessed using secured connections
• existing hardware could be re-purposed to prevent any dramatic increases in costs
• a transition plan was instantiated to make the change as seamless as possible for the end users

The client implemented the modified design proposed by brightSPARK over their transition window. All data was migrated to the new environment successfully. User engagement ensured end users were acquainted with the outage periods during the transition, and were able to carry out all previous functions with only minor training.

With a keen understanding of operational product support and the architecture of the DSN, brightSPARK Infrastructure Engineers designed a solution with the following characteristics:

• Protected service exposure to the greater DSN
• Proxied nodes to support service expansion without network reconfiguration
• Support for Release Management processes and tools
• Central repositories for incident management and escalation
• Accessibility from disparate support sites

With a solid design and strategy in place, the client has progressed to looking for an appropriate sponsor for the proposed enclave. Once established, the enclave will place our client in a very strong position for future tenders in the Defence space.

Collaboration was never going to be an easy feat with vendors based in different continents. brightSPARK Application Engineers independently worked with each vendor to introduce support for information exchange using a NATO data standard. With information now accessible from each system, brightSPARK application and Infrastructure Engineers built an enterprise service bus (ESB) to allow enterprise level integration between the three products.

With an integration layer now in place, the client was able to optimise business processes to achieve their goals faster. The consolidated service layer has also simplified system usage and training, allowing staff to focus on their mission and not their toolset.

With a demanding schedule in place and an equally demanding end user awaiting a system, brightSPARK took charge of a team of software engineers provided by our client. Mapping out a strategy for coordinating the roll-out, brightSPARK were able to ensure:

• Multiple build activities by disparate team members were conducted in parallel
• All application servers across all sites were built consistently
• Network communication and storage issues were managed and resolved
• Dry-run testing was successfully conducted across all instances
• All servers and applications were delivered to the end user in an operationally ready state

Despite the tight deadlines, brightSPARK were able to deliver the roll-out on time, and help our client reach an unprecedented level of success with formal user acceptance testing.