EDB Postgres Delivers 92% Improvement for Costain’s London Traffic Monitoring System

EDB Postgres prevents downtime with new application developed for mission-critical traffic management systems running 400 tunnel cameras across London

Date -2017-05-10 Location - BEDFORD, MASS. and LONDON “We achieved our goal of greater resiliency by combining EDB Postgres and the EDB Postgres Replication Server for strategic replication,” said Sibin Paul, Principal Engineer, Costain. “This configuration reduced the transition time from the primary system to the standby tunnel camera system from two minutes to 10 seconds—a 92% improvement.”

The application for tunnel controls was one of two mission-critical systems that Costain developed for Transport for London using EDB Postgres. The other manages surface systems. Tunnels are a critical part of the road network and as such are a specialized, complex area that involves reliably integrating a large range of inputs and associated operations and outputs in response to this information. The inputs include those from air quality, smoke/fire detection, flood and sump level sensors, loop or video-based detection of vehicles, and video-based detection of animals and pedestrians.

Consequently, it is important that the underlying database technology is robust and able to process significant volumes of structured and unstructured data. The EDB Postgres Platform gave Costain access to the innovation of open source-based technology, but with the assurances of enterprise-ready functionality backed by EnterpriseDB.

The EDB Postgres platform creates a cohesive data management fabric that accommodates a wide range of workloads and tasks. The performance of EDB Postgres ensured Costain could meet new resiliency standards. Flexibility in the tools integrated into the platform also enabled Costain to modernize the system with strategic use of replication.

According to Sibin Paul, “We had considered building in-house solutions using a mix of open source technology and proprietary technology, drawing from our specialty in traffic monitoring. Building it in-house, however, meant the company was risking expert personnel moving on; not having support for the open source software; and investing resources to build what was already on the market. Ultimately, we determined that EnterpriseDB’s high performance, low-cost, and superior quality of offerings, as well as the prospect of having a long-term partner, was a better investment.”

A key feature of EDB Postgres™ Replication Server also proved strategic in configuring the system. Two-way synchronization ensured no data would be lost should the backup system take over and then the primary system be restored. Any changes made while the backup system was running would be preserved and recorded in the primary system when it took over.

“Costain showed strategic foresight by choosing to partner with EnterpriseDB and combining their expertise in traffic monitoring with our database experience. The application’s success proves the legitimacy of their strategy to work with a proven partner that has the technology and expertise to solve real-world challenges,” according to Marc Linster, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Product Development and Services, EnterpriseDB. 

To read the case study about Costain's deployment of EDB Postgres and the EDB Postgres Replication Server, click here. For more information about EDB Postgres, email info@edbpostgres.com.

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