Software Operations and Updates: It Takes a Team

By Lisa J. Reith, Database Engineer at LoadSpring Solutions™

When it comes to applications hosted in the cloud, there’s more to software operations and updates than meets the eye. Before delivering to our customers, the LoadSpring Team establishes standards to ensure the best customer experience, while providing a complete enterprise solution. To ensure peak performance throughout the process, LoadSpring has both the experience and cutting edge technology. Our delivery and infrastructure engineers work together to increase the value to you. It takes a team of experts and we have it.

Here are the steps our unique team of application engineering experts follows:

1) Test and perform application qualifications for new software. LoadSpring tests new applications to ensure the investment in software will yield a significant increase in productivity and return on investment. To give the Delivery Team the information they need to provide you with the best result, we do the following:

• Create sizing guidelines
• Establish performance guidelines
• Set security standards
• Document the process

2) Validate updates for current applications, like the transition from P6R8 to R15. We don’t just recommend software and abandon you to your fate. When a new update comes out, our team of experts will do the following to see if the update is recommended:

• Test new features (do they REALLY improve user experience?)
• Evaluate changes that impact performance (do we need to add resources such as memory and CPU to support these new features?)
• Check for changes that impact security (will the updated version continue to be as secure or are there additional security requirements to support the new features?)

3) Audit existing applications to ensure they are following best practices. LoadSpring’s experienced team works continuously to ensure your apps are optimized to maximize your productivity.

• Database health checks are performed to verify current settings meet SLA requirements
• Database security is applied
• Database monitoring allows proactive checks on database metrics and notifications to the DBA Team

4) Evaluate new releases of MS SQL and Oracle. For this, our database engineering experts:

• Install, test and configure database releases in our lab environment
• Identify ways to improve database performance to provide customers with the best application experience
• Track, test, and apply database fixes for bugs and security vulnerabilities
• Set monitoring standards to determine trend analysis and proactively prevent outages
• Apply database backup and recovery strategies by leveraging native database backups, replication, and VMware

As an example, here’s what we did differently to make each R15 upgrade a smooth and successful transition.

• For a customer currently on an MS SQL database, we recommended converting them to an Oracle database, prior to upgrading to R15 as part of our enterprise solution. To provide a faster conversion, we used our unique expertise and methodology.
• We analyzed how Primavera changed the Oracle Database Security Model for Admuser.
• We updated our process for R15 database refreshes in order to recognize Primavera notes.
• We updated our tuning methodology for R15 on order to support the differences between versions.

In summary, you can be sure that applications hosted by LoadSpring are maintained in excellent working order and that upgrades work properly to maximize your benefit. We understand your business depends on it.