Mission: Possible - ThoughtWorks

Mission: PossibleThoughtWorks helps a major retailermeet an aggressive business deadlineto deploy a new disaster recoverysolution for an online store in twelveweeks.A Fortune 100 retailer lacked an effective disaster recovery solutionfor its online store. The existing backup, used for both planned andunplanned outages, simply requested that customers check back later,potentially sending those customers to competitors. With online salescomprising a major and growing source of competition, the retailer’sexecutive team mandated a more robust solution be put in place beforethe next holiday shopping season, which was only 3 months away.You need it when?Looking for answers in the Clouds.Because the client faced an extremely tight deadline, their IT group selectedThoughtWorks to deliver the new and more versatile backup solution. We quicklydeployed a core team of skilled Agile technologists to work with the retailer’sinternal team.Building a new website to seamlessly handle disruptions due to demand spikes injust a few months was already a major undertaking, but the retailer faced anotherchallenge. A new disaster recovery website, although it would be designed to beas lightweight as possible, would require fully-featured servers with capacity to scaledepending on hard-to-predict user traffic. The client had only one datacenter, andintegrating and provisioning a second datacenter was out of the question due to thetight timeframe; the retailer’s internal purchasing process would take too long toaccomplish what was needed.Instead, the joint client and ThoughtWorks’ team looked for a virtual solution, andevaluated multiple cloud providers. Factoring in technical advantages, includinghandling features for holiday demand spikes, and contractual terms, a disasterrecovery platform was chosen. The solution also optimised the investment tobuild this functionality.“The incumbent vendor quotedthree times more and could notmeet the deadline. ThoughtWorks’partnership translated into millionsof dollars in project savings andwe delivered on time.”A ThoughtWorks Client PartnerBenefitsNew website delivered with back-endand Bing Maps integration, in justtwelve weeks, at one-third the cost.Cloud Service Provider pricingminimizes cost of the DisasterRecovery solution. Load balancingand auto-scaling allow for immediateramp-up when needed, and scalingwithout manual intervention forunpredictable traffic loads.The retailer’s IT team has adoptednew software practices that they willapply to future projects.TechnologySpring 3 Java development frameworkApacheJSP, Javascript and Xtremeback-end web servicesIntegration with Bing MapsAmazon Web Services:EC2, load-balancing, cloud watchChef

Australia Sydneyt: +61 2 9224 1700email: info-au@thoughtworks.comBrazil Porto Alegret: +55 51 30 793550email: info-br@thoughtworks.comCanada Calgaryt: +1 403 263 3287email: info-ca@thoughtworks.comChina Beijingt: +86 10 6407 6695email: info-cn@thoughtworks.comGermany Hamburgt: +49 40 300 95 880email: info-de@thoughtworks.comIndia Bangaloret: +91 80 2508 9572email: info-in@thoughtworks.comSingaporeFirst things first:Business users acquire an Agile mindset.The client’s business team had already prepared a desired set of features forthe backup site as the project started. Engaging with an Agile mindset, theThoughtWorks team quickly came to an agreement on the business-criticalfeatures that could be delivered within the timeframe. Features were prioritisedto make sure the ‘must-haves’ were ready in a very short time. The sponsorswere involved at every step of the project, with frequent showcases of theworking software. This helped the client’s executive team redefine their prioritiesand allow adjustments to the requirements and design of the project. This alsoallowed highly desired features to be included based on the remaining time.Virtual datacenter. Real features.Twelve weeks.The new disaster recovery website, with features designed to keep shoppersaway from competitors during planned and unplanned outages of the mainonline shopping site, was delivered in just twelve weeks—fulfilling theexecutive mandate to be ready for the holiday shopping season. Instead ofasking customers to come back later, the new site lets customers search andsort the product catalogue using a variety of criteria. It integrates with maps,to find local stores, and can check store inventories to find out whethera desired product is available at a store within 50 miles of the shopper.All the features are designed to encourage shoppers to continue their shoppingexperience with the retailer by directing them to a nearby brick-and-mortarlocation for immediate purchase.t: +65 6631 2928email: info-sg@thoughtworks.comSouth Africa Johannesburgemail: info-sa@thoughtworks.comUK Londont: +44 20 7497 4500email: info-uk@thoughtworks.comUS Chicagot: +1 312 373 1000email: info-us@thoughtworks.comthoughtworks.com