Security, Reliability & Performance in Upgrade to Cork County Council’s Critical Planning Application Suite  

Odyssey System Migration Upgrade Case Study – Cork County Council 
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Industry: Public Sector Government Local Authority 
Headquarters: Co. Cork, Ireland 
Services: Housing, Community Services, Roads, Transportation, Planning, Development, Recreation, Amenity, Culture, Environment, Waste Management 

The Challenge

Cork County Council’s Planning Applications were processed through a proprietary legacy software called the Odyssey System. Faced with the End of Support of critical parts of this system, Cork County Council engaged OpenSky to futureproof its Odyssey web application and backend database. 

The Solution

The legacy Odyssey system was secured and upgraded through a Server Software Upgrade and a System Migration enabling the Odyssey web application to continue to deliver business critical services with optimal compliance and security. 

The Result

Cork County Council’s vital Odyssey System was brought into full security and compliance, with updates and upgrades to the latest server frameworks and software versions, with minimum disruption to its services.  

Key Benefits of The Odyssey System Migration

100%
Secure data and systems that prevent losses and breaches.
100%
Compliant with county and city regulations & data requirements
Scalable & Futureproof
Best-in-class architecture that reduced technical debt and simplifies expansions.
Zero Downtime

Servers and legacy system secured with no disruption to services. 

Modern Server

Operations now fully data secure on the latest server software.

Fully Supported

Legacy systems now fully supported by the latest frameworks and technologies. 

Testimonial

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"Odyssey is a critical system in Cork County Council’s Planning application suite. Security, reliability and performance of the system are crucial to the Business. The services provided by OpenSky were key to ensuring a smooth transition to the new servers with minimal impact to the Business. From the get-go, their dedicated team worked in close collaboration with our ICT staff culminating in a well-planned migration and successful outcome, which ensures Odyssey continues to perform with optimal compliance and security.” 

Kay O'Keeffe

IS Analyst - Cork County Council

Background

Faced with looming End of Support for key technologies used by its Odyssey System, Cork County Council knew it needed to act fast to upgrade and secure the tools that it relied on to deliver its Planning Application services.  

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The Situation

The Odyssey system had been running on a combination of Microsoft Windows and SQL Server versions 2008, the support of which was ending in January 2020. This was a pivotal factor in the decision to upgrade the system to mitigate the risks associated with hosting a business-critical application on legacy software. 

The Solution

About The Odyssey System Migration

Working closely with in-house Council IT staff, OpenSky carried out a full migration of the system to new servers and technology frameworks. A Phased project approach was taken to ensure that infrastructure and changes vital to security and compliance would be delivered immediately. 

In this project, we deployed new servers with up-to-date versions of MS Windows and SQL Server Software and migrated the Odyssey production and test applications to a fully supported and compliant server software configuration. 

Maintaining web applications and associated databases on supported versions of Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server platforms was extremely important from both a security and supportability standpoint. Microsoft Windows and SQL Server 2017 are fully compliant & secure and will receive ongoing patching by Microsoft to prevent security and data breaches. Upgrading/migrating to these server software versions also provided enhanced system performance for web applications. 

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A Secure New System That Allows Fast and Secure Planning Application Management 

The new Odyssey System was migrated and delivered in two phases.  

Phase 1 involved a migration of the core Odyssey web application and databases to new servers that were running newer versions of Microsoft server software. Migration projects tend to be risky where there are many integrations to other systems so collaboration between Cork County Council and OpenSky was key to the success of the project. Downtime was kept to an absolute minimum throughout, and when required for testing purposes it was scheduled at optimal times and out of hours to minimise disruption to business operations and delivery of services. 

Phase 2 consists of migrating the Online Submissions component to the same newer versions of underlying Microsoft server software on new Online Submissions servers which will be located in the Cork County Council network’s demilitarized zone (DMZ). Phases 3 & 4 recommendations target upgrade of the versions of third-party components software within the Odyssey application and related software. 

Hallway with a row of servers in server room

Key Functionality & Features

  • The migration of the odyssey test and production applications to a fully supported and compliant Microsoft Server software configuration. 
  • The online submissions service fully supported and secured on newer Microsoft server versions. 
  • New servers with up-to-date versions of Microsoft Windows and SQL server. 

 

Key Technologies Used in This Solution

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microsoft-sql-server-logo

The Result

Legacy System Secured and upgraded so that critical operations can continue with zero disruption.

Thanks to this migration and upgrades, Cork County Council was able to secure their critical Odyssey System against future vulnerabilities and security risks. The migration was carried out in close consultation with in-house staff to ensure the System was launched with the utmost usability, and with minimal disruption of ongoing Council services.  

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