The NRE site provides a comprehensive online journey planning capability, including a pass-through to other sites to purchase tickets. As a company dedicated to helping make rail traffic easier for its customers, consistent service on its mobile site was imperative. Prior to signing on with Amazon Web Services (AWS), NRE operated two traditional data centers, each of which hosted more than 100 physical servers. To maintain consistent service, NRE maintained enough servers so that the site had the potential at all times to handle loads three to four times that of a normal day. The solution needed to be prepared for the kind of high-capacity loads that occur during rail service disruptions, such as heavy snows.

Because this overcapacity was the exception, rather than the rule, usage was often as low as 10 percent of the architecture’s potential. Jason Webb, Head of Online for NRE, says, “We weren’t making full use of the physical hardware that we had, because if there was a disruption on the rail network, then suddenly additional capacity was required. We had no flexibility to add in, so it had to be there from the start.”

The contract for the data-center solution was ending, and Gary Ashby, Hosting Strategy Lead, was tasked with helping to determine a new strategy: one that would be flexible, efficient, high-performing, and cost-effective. NRE used a single service provider that delivered all the elements of service, from application to hosting, and wanted a more commoditized model that would be more flexible. Ashby says, “This meant looking at how NRE could move to a multi sourcing approach, or breaking down the supply chain, looking at commodity suppliers, and understanding how best we could get more efficiency but maintain control over that supply chain.”