DVIDS – News – Kessel Run and TTS collaborated to build capacity capable of hosting 100 million users per hour with Cloud.gov

BOSTON (March 30, 2022) – Today, the Air Force’s Kessel Run and the U.S. General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) announced a collaboration that enables cloud.gov to host 100 million users digital per hour.

The successful partnership is a proof of concept for the future development of the website. The whole-of-government approach shows how federal agencies can come together to improve customer experience and build digital capabilities for the benefit of the public.

“This is a great example of cross-agency collaboration producing real, scalable results and government-wide benefits,” said Dave Zvenyach, Director of TTS. “The capability developed as a result of this partnership is another important step in our efforts to improve digital service delivery and ensure an efficient, fair and secure digital infrastructure for the public.”

TTS’s cloud.gov team has built and maintains a shared platform that can support large usage spikes and provides agencies with a simple and efficient way to manage their digital solutions. Kessel Run’s Bowcaster team provided “chaos engineering” services to help cloud.gov scale its capacity to 100 million post requests per hour. Bowcaster provided load testing, penetration testing, and other services that helped ensure the cloud.gov platform could meet the availability and resiliency requirements needed by high-traffic applications during its inception. scaling.

“While government websites typically host thousands to tens of thousands of users per hour, cloud.gov is designed to scale, allowing for increased seasonal demand or emergency needs,” said Lindsay Young, director by interim of Cloud.gov. “This means any government agency can be ready for an increase or need of up to 100 million users/hour.”

“From a reliability and resiliency standpoint, we wanted to push the system to its limits, so we threw everything out, including the kitchen sink,” said Omar Marrero, Technical Chaos and Performance Lead and Deputy Head of Testing at Kessel Run. “Based on these steps, they were able to revamp their rollout to handle an increase, until we got to the point where we were able to explode it to 100 million users without any issues.”

The collaboration took place over 10 days, with all participants working remotely. This highlights both the speed and versatility agencies can achieve by working together.

“We can collaborate together and provide this kind of functionality from anywhere,” Marrero said. “We proved it in ten days by helping cloud.gov build this capability.”

TTS applies modern methodologies and technologies to improve the lives of the public and public servants. This includes using cloud.gov, an easy-to-use cloud hosting platform, as a hosting service for critical agency applications. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Detachment 12, also known as Kessel Run, has a proven track record of improving efficiency, reducing costs, and modernizing Air Force operations through its development nimble software. With its user-centric development approach, Kessel Run’s mission is to rapidly deliver combat capabilities to warfighters and revolutionize the Air Force’s software acquisition process.

“We can build the high-quality government services the American people deserve,” said Col. Brian Beachkofski, Kessel Run commander. “By working together, government can deliver high-quality services at the pace of need.”