After spending nearly a year with another contractor, this Federal Agency turned to Neosynapse to solve their seemingly insurmountable database challenge – in just two weeks.
The Problem.
The client needed a web-accessible, multimedia database containing photos and text for millions of individuals, including links to facial recognition software. A previous contractor spent 50 weeks on the project, with no solution. Neosynapse was contacted just 14 days before the project was due for a very public launch.
The challenges included:
- High Risk – The project called for developing a complete application from partial pseudo code, with no test plans, under shifting requirements.
- High Scale – The solution needed to scale effectively from hundreds of queries per second at launch to thousands of queries per second in full production.
- High Security – Protecting personal data from hackers was essential.
- Full Availability – The system could not ever be out of service, for any reason.
The Solution.
Neosynapse successfully developed software, as well as database, network, and hardware systems on the customer’s schedule.
The components delivered:
High Scale
- The design allowed scaling from 500,000 to 10 million visitors per day within two months, all without any interruption of service.
High Performance
- Interfaces were created for end-users, administrators, quality control agents, and reporting tools.
- Human visitors experienced a responsive web site.
- Automated visitors could complete transactions in <5 seconds.
- After tuning, the database achieved performance approximately equivalent to a memory-only database – at a fraction of the cost.
High Reliability
- Regression and-load testing tools validated any system change.
- Review of system test data led to high customer confidence.
High Security
- A multi-layer security strategy prevents successful hacking attempts.
- The system design prevented personal data from “leaking” as the result of bugs or attacks.
The Results.
The multimedia database went live – on schedule – servicing millions of customers. Within two months, the system grew to include tens of millions of records with text and photographic data. The application was upgraded repeatedly to add new functions. All without a single minute of downtime.