Filed Under: Tech Insight by midas — Comments Off on Cloud Infrastructure Upgrades – December 2024
December 17, 2024
Last week we undertook some upgrades in the three client data centers where our cloud-hosted customer’s MIDAS systems reside.
These data centers are located Atlanta, Georgia (US East Coast Data Center), Seattle, Washington (US West Coast Data Center), and Amsterdam, Netherlands (European Data Center).
When a customer chooses a cloud-hosted edition of MIDAS, they can choose which of these data centers their booking system runs from. (We also offer a self-hosted edition too, for customers wishing to run MIDAS on their own infrastructure)
The upgrades to the sever ‘nodes’ where our cloud-hosted client’s MIDAS systems run include:
Increased CPU cores by 50%
Increased Memory capacity by 50%
Increased port speed by 50%
These upgrades were performed seamlessly without any downtime or impact on customer’s MIDAS operations.
The result of these upgrades is that we can deliver more powerful client nodes, with improved network connections.
In turn, this translates to even more responsive MIDAS booking systems for our customers. It’s all part of the service and commitment we have to our end-users!
Data Centers exist all over the world. They’re used to stored all sorts of computer data, including websites and web apps, like MIDAS.
The location of the data center that houses your cloud-hosted MIDAS system can have an impact on the quality of your overall experience.
One of the unavoidable aspects of long-distance internet communications is high latency.
What is latency and why is it important?
The term “latency” describes a measure of delay between two events.
In the context of the internet, latency refers to the amount of time it takes for data to perform a round-trip between two points in a network. In the case of your MIDAS system, these two points are represented by your web browser and the server in a data center which runs your MIDAS system.
The amount of time it takes for a unit of data to travel from the server in the data center to your browser is considered the latency of the network. This is usually measured in milliseconds and expressed as ms. This is also frequently referred to as the response time of a server.
We recently added two new data centers to our network, including one in Europe.
In our testing, we saw lower latency leading to an approximately 30% improvement in page loading times for Europe-based users accessing a MIDAS system in our EU data center vs our East Coast US location.
How does a data center’s location help reduce latency?
Being geographically closer to a data center can have several benefits, including:
Lower Latency: When the distance between a user and a data center is shorter, the time required to transfer data is reduced. This results in lower latency and faster response times.
Improved Performance: Lower latency can result in improved performance for applications and services hosted at the data center, such as faster loading times for websites, smoother streaming, and reduced lag in online gaming.
Increased Reliability: By being geographically closer to a data center, users are less likely to experience network congestion, data loss, and other issues that can affect the reliability of their connections.
Better Compliance: Data centers located in specific regions may be subject to local laws and regulations, such as data privacy and security standards, which can affect their suitability for hosting certain types of data. By being closer to a data center, organizations can more easily ensure compliance with these regulations.
We added new client nodes in a data center in Europe (in Amsterdam, Netherlands), and in a data center on the West Coast of the US (in Seattle, Washington).
These two new data center locations are in addition to our existing nodes residing in our East Coast US data center (in Atlanta, Georgia).
We then looked at the location of each organization with an active cloud-hosted MIDAS service. Those which were geographically closer to either our EU or West Coast US locations were seamlessly migrated to those data center locations.
Naturally, we provided customers with advance notice of proposed migrations, and allowed individual customers to opt-out, or to choose a different data center for their MIDAS system.
Because our cloud-hosted MIDAS systems can now be run out of three different geographic regions (US East, US West, and Europe), we now offer all new cloud-hosted customers a choice of data center where they’d like their MIDAS system to reside.
We’re adding additional new client nodes in Europe (in Amsterdam, Netherlands), and on the West Coast of the US (in Seattle, Washington).
We’ll also be upgrading existing client nodes in our East Coast US data center (in Atlanta, Georgia) too.
We’re adding new data center locations on the West Coast USA and in Europe
Why are we doing this?
As part of our continued commitment to the service we provide, we’re investing in new additional hardware, upgrading older hardware, and expanding our network infrastructure.
What are the benefits?
Our network expansion is designed to further improve the speed and performance of existing cloud-hosted MIDAS systems.
By relocating cloud-hosted customer’s MIDAS systems to data centers which are geographically closer to them, faster communication speed between an end-user’s device and their MIDAS system can be achieved.
As a result, customers should notice that their MIDAS systems will load and respond quicker than before.
For new cloud-hosted customers, going forward our network expansion will also mean that we can offer a choice of data center for where their hosted MIDAS system will reside.
What’s happening and when?
Our network expansion and upgrades are scheduled to take place during February and March 2023. The work is being done in 5 phases, which are outlined below:
Phase 1: (Expected completion: End of February 2023)
The first phase of our network expansion involves provisioning new client nodes in Amsterdam, Netherlands and in Seattle, Washington.
Phase 2: (Expected completion: End of March 2023)
Once the new client nodes are up and running, the second phase involves migrating existing cloud-hosted customer’s MIDAS systems to the new Amsterdam or Seattle nodes where appropriate.
For example, if a customer is geographically closer to one of these new locations than they are to the current East Coast US node where their MIDAS system resides, we’ll move them to a closer node.
Phase 3: (Expected completion: End of March 2023)
Once applicable existing clients have been relocated onto the Amsterdam or Seattle nodes, phase 3 sees a reorganization of existing client nodes located in our East Coast US data center (in Atlanta, Georgia).
We’ll be retiring some older client nodes in this data center after we’ve moved customers to the new West Coast and EU nodes. The remaining East Coast US client nodes will be consolidated, which will mean that some customers may move nodes within the East Coast US data center.
Phase 4: (Expected completion: End of March 2023)
The forth phase of our expansion plan sees an upgrade to the server hardware which runs our main website, blog, and our public demo and private trial systems.
Phase 5: (Expected completion: End of April 2023)
The final phase of our network expansion sees the upgrading of remaining East Coast US client nodes to bring their hardware up to date and in line with the new nodes in the West Coast US and EU data centers.
Will there be any downtime?
We do not envisage any loss of access to our customer’s cloud hosted MIDAS systems during these network upgrades.
However, when we migrate a customer’s MIDAS system to a new node, we’ll temporarily place their system running on the old node into “Maintenance Mode” whilst the migration to the new node is performed.
“Maintenance Mode” essentially puts a MIDAS system into a special “read only” state. So you’ll retain full access to all your booking information, but won’t be able to make any changes.
Once the migration to the new node is complete, your MIDAS system will come out of “Maintenance Mode”, and you can continue using the software again as normal.
We anticipate that any “Maintenance Mode” period will last less than one hour.
We plan to carry out migrations at a time when a customer’s MIDAS system is typically least active (i.e. in the middle of the night)
We’ll also notify the “Primary Contact” we have on record in advance of any server migration and provide an estimated time when their migration will take place.
Can I choose which data center my MIDAS system will reside?
We’ll be contacting all existing cloud-hosted customers by email in advance if their MIDAS system is proposed to be migrated to a different data center. We’ll provide details of the data center we propose to move their MIDAS system to, and an estimate on when their migration will take place.
Customers will have a chance to respond to these emails to request a different data center, or that their cloud-hosted MIDAS system remains in their current data center.
Where can I get updates on the progress of these network upgrades?
We have a dedicated page over on our Service Status site, that we’ll continually update during these network expansion and upgrade works.
What if I have further questions?
If you have any questions or concerns in relation to our network expansion, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, and we’ll be happy to help!
