Our Client

A New South Wales State Government Agency.

‍The Challenge

A State Government Agency faced performance bottlenecks and security vulnerabilities with their existing Oracle Standard Edition infrastructure, hindering the operation of a mission-critical application. The agency needed to:

• Increase transaction processing capabilities to handle peak workloads.
• Improve system resilience and disaster recovery preparedness.
• Enhance data security, including protection against unauthorized access and internal threats.
• Gain comprehensive insights into system performance for proactive management and optimization.

‍The Solution

Pebble IT designed and implemented a comprehensive upgrade to the agency's Oracle Standard Edition technical stack, focusing on these key areas:

‍1. Avoiding upgrading to Oracle Enterprise Edition

• Oracle Enterprise Edition: The client avoided the only other option to obtain the capabilities they required which would have been to upgrade to the expense Oracle Enterprise Edition (EE) Database.
• Oracle Advanced Security: Over and above the cost of EE the client would also need to purchase an extra cost option called Oracle Advanced Security to obtain database encryption.
• Oracle Performance and Tuning Packs: A further cost would be having to acquire Oracle Performance and Tuning packs that are extyra cost items.

2. Performance Optimization:

• Operating System and Virtualization: Migrated from Microsoft Windows to Oracle Linux and KVM virtualization for significant performance gains.
• Hardware Enhancements: Deployed latest-generation HP servers with high-speed RAM, NVMe disk drives, and faster CPUs for increased throughput and reduced I/O bottlenecks.
• Database Replication: Created a separate replicated database using third party replication software for reporting, offloading strain from the main production database during peak hours.

3. Enhanced Resilience:

• Remote Disaster Recovery: Near real-time replication to a remote DR data centre ensured minimal downtime in case of a major outage. Also, a fully replicated version of production was replicated to a reporting database which could also serves as a local DR option in case of production database failure

4. Data Security:

• Database Encryption: Implemented Database Encryption with third party software on the Oracle Standard Edition databases rendering it unreadable to unauthorized users. The encryption solution deployed had a tiny impact of resources and performance and exceeded all expectations in full production
• Backup Encryption: Encrypted local backups to prevent and protect from data breaches.

5. Performance Monitoring:

• Comprehensive Monitoring Solution: Implemented a monitoring solution to track key database metrics, analyze performance, and identify areas for optimization.

Outcomes

• Saved a huge amount of money: The client avoided the very high cost of having to purchase Oracle Enterprise Edition Database, Oracle Encryption and Oracle Performance and Tuning to achieve the requirements.  
• Increased Transaction Processing: The upgraded infrastructure significantly enhanced transaction processing capabilities, exceeding the agency's requirements and providing ample headroom for future growth.
• Reduced Peak Time Strain: The replicated reporting database effectively offloaded workload strain during peak hours, ensuring consistent application performance.
• Improved System Resilience: The combination of local and remote DR solutions minimized the risk of downtime and data loss.
• Enhanced Data Security: Database and backup encryption provided robust protection against unauthorized access and data breaches.
• Proactive Performance Management: The monitoring solution enabled proactive identification and resolution of performance bottlenecks.

By partnering with Pebble IT, the State Government Agency successfully modernized its Oracle Standard Edition infrastructure, while saving a huge amount of money and achieved significant improvements in performance, availability, data security, and performance tuning and monitoring. The upgraded system provides a robust and scalable foundation for the agency's mission-critical application, ensuring efficient operations and data protection. Contact us to learn more.

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