Transforming Data Accessibility and Analytics for Government Agencies: A Case Study on Socrata and AWS
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Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Cities & Municipalities
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Autonomous Transport Systems
- Time Sensitive Networking
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Testing & Certification
The Customer
Socrata
About The Customer
The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is a government agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of public transportation infrastructure in the state of Utah. UDOT was struggling with data accessibility and analytics due to limited access to their business intelligence software. The organization needed to consolidate different systems and provide more people with access to information and basic analytic tools. This was particularly important as UDOT relied on updated data to secure funding for projects from the state legislature. UDOT became a customer of Socrata, seeking a solution to their data accessibility and analytics challenges.
The Challenge
Socrata, an Advanced Technology Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN), often encountered customers struggling to unlock data from siloed, difficult-to-access systems and put it into a self-service accessible platform. This was crucial for strategic use of data in delivering program outcomes. A prime example was the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), a Socrata customer, which had difficulty using data and analytics in its daily work due to limited access to their business intelligence (BI) software. Only a small group of employees had access to the BI tool, leading to delays in simple tasks like changing a color on a graph. UDOT needed to consolidate different systems and provide more people with access to information and basic analytic tools. This was particularly important as UDOT relied on updated data to secure funding for projects from the state legislature.
The Solution
Socrata migrated its platform from Microsoft Azure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2016, attracted by the elasticity and scalability of AWS. This allowed their engineering team to focus more on developing new solutions. The Socrata platform now runs on 172 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances and stores platform data in the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). To address customer compliance requirements, Socrata worked with AWS to support FedRAMP certifications, achieving the FedRAMP Moderate Authority to Operate (ATO) certification in 2017. To help UDOT, Socrata collaborated with technology integrator and consulting firm Grant Thornton to consolidate data from 15 of UDOT’s business systems into Socrata’s cloud-based platform. The platform was configured and operational in six weeks, with continuous value addition every two weeks on an AGILE sprint schedule.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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