Unleashing the Power of Liberty and Instana: A Modernization Journey with zero downtime at Carey International
Carey International Inc., a storied name in the premium ground transportation industry, has been redefining luxury travel since the 1920s. Their sprawling operation comprises a robust network of subsidiary, franchise, and affiliate partners across 400 cities worldwide. With a staggering record of 550K trips in 69 countries in 2022, their centralized reservation, billing, customer service, and event management systems represent a complex backbone of operations that demands relentless uptime and security. However, dated legacy systems faced modern pressures, prompting Carey to embark on a transformative journey of application modernization.
Legacy Limitations and the Need for Change:
Navigating a veritable minefield of operational challenges, Carey's legacy systems, sprawling across a mix of traditional platforms including IBM WebSphere ND, RedHat EAP, and Oracle databases, began to strain under customer demands for enhanced security, the need for high-availability services, and rising costs—all exacerbated by the specialized skills required to maintain these aging technologies. The tipping point came with the realization that their systems could not keep up with a swiftly changing digital landscape without significant operational risk and unforeseen expenses.
Adopting Cloud Fluency with WebSphere Liberty:
Carey's strategic move to cloud architecture, specifically RedHat OpenShift in AWS (ROSA), marked a paradigm shift towards agility and scalability. By transitioning their Java applications to the WebSphere Libertycontainer platform, they embraced a seamless, efficient system capable of meeting the needs of an operation that never sleeps. Alongside, Oracle databases moved to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and APIs were elegantly managed, demonstrating how modern containerization and cloud-native services could refurbish even the most deeply rooted systems.
IBM Instana: Insightful Monitoring for the Modern Age:
The introduction to Instana to Carey's tech stack was pivotal. Legacy applicationsbecame transparent under Instana’s fully automated real-time observability platform. Instana provided Carey with the X-ray vision to pinpoint performance bottlenecks, resource anomalies, and operational issues in real-time, ushering in a new era of reliability and proactive maintenance.
The Bold Transition - Carey Goes Live with Confidence:
The final leap into modernized operations was a meticulously planned cutover - a testament to Carey's all-in commitment to modernization. With thorough documentation and practice runs, the team executed a smooth transition. Carey has experienced nearly Zero unplanned or planned downtime since the migration. Performance and reliability numbers have met and often exceeded those for the on-premise system.
The Measure of Success in a Modernized Infrastructure:
In the wake of these sweeping changes, Carey now boasts an architecture that not only competes with but surpasses the on-premise performance metrics of yore. Zero downtime has become the new standard, and the nimble, rolling release process signifies a newfound operational agility. As Carey continues to fine-tune their system and explore further cost optimizations with RedHat and AWS, the narrative is clear: Application modernization elevates service capabilities, bolsters security, and ensures a company's relevance in today's dynamic tech environment.
Carey International's journey to application modernization with WebSphere Liberty and Instana is more than a case study of technological upgrade—it is a celebration of timely transformation, matching the pace of an ever-evolving industry while laying a sturdy, future-proof foundation for the legacy of luxury travel.
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