Date: October 2020
Background. Before IT Modernization, Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) selected Brandt Engineering to replace its hunting and fishing licensing system. Although ITS did not participate in developing requirements or vendor selection, we were determined to ensure the transition was a resounding success.
Prior to IT Modernization, the preponderance of the interfaces, database work, and customized application development were executed by a single IDFG employee. The system relied upon hours of manual manipulation daily, which would not otherwise have changed in the transition to Brandt. Adding to the complexity, the main applications were housed on a server that was 13 versions behind, representing a massive risk to both operations and security.
Response. We put the full weight of ITS behind this initiative. The Database team methodically traced every application, interconnection, and data call between databases. This review and preparatory process took nearly a month to complete due to the complexity and the sheer number of variables. The team documented all their findings and used them to engineer a solution and transition IDFG’s data to a stable, secure environment.
- Dedicated team of five experts for nearly three months to ensure success.
- Secondary team: web hosting, server/storage, security, five-member project delivery team, lead database administrator, Chief Technology Officer.
- Rewrote eight unique, home-grown applications. Took two developers over two months to simplify, enhance, and stabilize.
- Automated over 2,000 manual data transfers per month.
- Recoded daily vendor sales processing and simplified three jobs on three different servers to a single nightly data transfer.
- Removed all legacy Oracle servers. Executed complex migration of four database systems to a new SQL environment. Stabilized databases and alleviated massive security risk.
- New environment encrypts data on all databases – a critical security enhancement,
The migration of databases and applications from the antiquated Oracle environment to the new SQL environment was executed on the day of the Brandt transition, enabling a clean cutover to the new system. Nearly 60 ITS technicians were involved in the transition, which was accomplished in just two days over the last weekend in October 2020.
Post-transition, the clean data now interfaces with a new application in which citizens can purchase hunting and fishing licenses, report successful hunts, and so much more.
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