Also, one of the solutions in use is Azure Virtual Desktop, which now allows agency staff to log in and work from anywhere they have Internet access. In addition to easier updates, this feature also adds significant value to the agency’ s business continuity strategy. Another benefit to using Azure Virtual Desktop is that the COTA team no longer has to worry about“ touching” each workstation to deploy product and Operating System patches, as the Azure Cloud architecture allows these updates to be done within the hosted environment. The cloud-hosted environment provides COTA peace of mind from a security and business continuity standpoint. With Azure, they get a 24 / 7 / 365 Network Operations Center and upto-date security protocols that sync with industry best practices. Vontas and COTA created a robust network architecture using IPSec tunnels to securely connect their facilities and vehicles to Azure. Finally, by deploying Disaster Recovery in the Cloud, business continuity responsibility largely shifts to Vontas, and downtime is nearly non-existent. Azure includes several cost-effective, highly available, and secure services, such as Azure Site Recovery, which allows the agency to replicate their workloads to a secondary Azure Region. This allows the agency to fail over their Vontas products and move them to another physical location so they can focus on their business instead of supporting local infrastructure.“ Microsoft Azure provided the ability of standing up resources at more than one location”, Goff said.“ Opting for our disaster recovery service enables the solution to fail over from one Azure region to another without the need for complicated process changes for their end users. Just a few clicks gets you the ability to stand up a second environment without the added cost of duplicate physical infrastructure and headache of managing those resources.” The project included upgrading to the latest version of OnRoute and moving OnSite and OnBoard from on-premises to the Vontas Cloud. A project of this magnitude can be very time-consuming because it impacts so many areas of COTA’ s business and so many of COTA’ s stakeholders. Despite this, the COTA and Vontas teams completed this upgrade and Cloud migration within six months, with minimal issues and no impact on business operations.“ A project of this magnitude can be very time-consuming, Goff said. We were able to get it done in under six months. It involved quite a bit of training on the upgraded software, but we have a wonderful, experienced customer care team that provides ongoing support and resources as needed.”“ As COTA now looks forward again, we are looking to implement Vontas OnRoute Supervisor,” said Bartlett.“ We will also develop more of a SaaS model, three to five years down the road for managing our software applications.” Vontas OnRoute Supervisor is a modernized, web-based application enables supervisors to engage with dispatch and operators during operations by providing dynamic assistance and ensuring routes stay on schedule. The dynamic tool enables field support staff to swiftly address accidents, incidents, and customer inquiries at layover terminals, all while accessing vital operational data without cumbersome radio communication or mobility restrictions. Vontas is in sync with these goals as we continue to modernize our OnTransit system architecture to support our many customers best as we drive into the future together.
BUSRIDE. COM | 19