Project Title: Automated Retrieval of Engineering Data system

The Challenge

The Automated Retrieval of Engineering Data system is a technical document management system used to store a vast number of technical documents.

A web-based interface was required to accommodate both internal company employees located globally and system users employed by partner companies, sub-contractors, etc.

The majority of the over 10 million documents maintained by the system are engineering and tooling drawings for airplanes. The system permits users with a web browser to search for documents, view documents, and print documents. Program interfaces would need to load new documents, update user entitlements, query for documents, and print documents.

The system urgently needed to be re-engineered. The previous version had become inadequate in terms of performance, capacity and security. Special importance was placed on security due to the highly sensitive and classified data handled by the system. The security system needed to recognize a wide range of user profiles with different permission sets, seamlessly work with other systems via web services, and integrate with company-wide security systems.

Lack of the right skill sets and limited relevant technology experience on the client side were the main drivers for the decision to outsource this application development project to Luxoft.

The Solution

The Luxoft team, working jointly with the client, re-engineered the system. The new system has at its core a new architecture leveraging DB2 with datalinks relational database technology. All drawings are stored in TIFF and PDF in a file system running under the Datalink File Manager. Files are accessed through the DB2 interface (SQL) as if they are stored in the database itself.

Hardware includes three distributed high-end IBM servers running AIX. The application server is IBM WebSphere.

System printing functionality is supported by distributed Batch Print Centers running as independent servers in different geographic locations.

The re-engineered system uses Web Services as the primary technology for interfacing with other enterprise applications.

Benefits
The upgraded system:

• Reduces operational and future development costs
  
• Increases the ability to support new customer requirements and host new products
  
• Supports over 150,000 users worldwide
  
• Handles over 4 terabytes of information (over 10 million documents)
  
• Is available 24x7
  
• Stores drawings with different structures and attributes
  
• Employs a distributed, clustered architecture
  
• Improves scalability, portability, productivity, manageability, and security

Tools and Technologies

• Java (J2EE) employing the EAD4J enterprise application development framework for building Web applications
  
• DB2 with datalinks
  
• IBM WebSphere
  
• OS – AIX
  
• Web services

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