Project Overview
Y.CO required application transition management for its core systems, Y.CO Live and Y.Box—ASP.NET MVC and SQL Server apps running in the cloud and on vessels—to stabilise operations and evolve the software that manages certifications, safety procedures and crew rotations.
Transparity migrated source control to Azure DevOps, set up Dev/Test VMs with IIS and SQL Server, obfuscated test data for GDPR, validated deployments through DEV→TEST→UAT→LIVE, and established ongoing support and a feature roadmap—drawing on our App Innovation, Azure and Managed Services practices.
The Challenge
Y.CO was looking for a company to take over the management of its core applications – Y.CO Live and Y.Box – in order to stabilise and evolve them to modern standards. These applications are hosted in the cloud and also installed on each vessel managed by Y.CO.
The applications manage certifications, safety procedures and crew rotations. They were originally developed using the Microsoft development platform, ASP.Net MVC, and SQL Server in particular. The core application is deployed in a data centre, and Y.Box is deployed on circa 50 yachts worldwide.
The Solution
The transition of the Y.CO core application was done with the following steps:
We began by setting up an Azure DevOps subscription and Azure subscription for Y.CO. The first step was then to copy the source code from the current source control system and move it to a GIT Repo in Azure DevOps and implement an appropriate branching strategy.
We then set up projects in Azure DevOps for the development team to manage development backlog items. This was followed by creating and configuring a Developer Virtual Machine (VM) in Azure and installing and configuring Visual Studio, SQL Server and other tools needed by the developers to change, build and test the system.
The next stage was to create and configure a Test Virtual Machine (VM) in Azure and install and configure IIS and SQL Server for Test and UAT purposes. That done, we obtained a copy of the test database from the existing on-premises servers and transferred it to the new Dev and Test VMs in Azure.
Next, we wrote and executed a SQL Script to obfuscate any client data in the test database, for GDPR and set up the Dev VM so that the Y.CO Live software could be successfully built and deployed to the Azure Test VM.
With that done, we moved onto the Y.Box software. Beginning by setting up the Test VM so that the Y.Box software could be successfully deployed to an Azure Test VM.
Finally, we carried out a full review of the source code and the database schema to ensure that the BC support engineers had basic familiarity with it; made a simple change to the system and checked that it could be deployed to live versions of Y.CO Live and Y.Box.
The final steps of the transition were a written deployment document to support manual deployment from DEV to TEST to UAT and LIVE and the setup of our support ticketing system, for Y.CO to raise and manage support tickets.
The Outcome
The transition was completed successfully and Transparity now fully manages the system and is undertaking ongoing critical support and enhancements to the system. The support is flexible and uncomplicated, being used for fixes and updates, as well as training, mentoring, informal Q&A, routine maintenance and system health checks.
As the next stage, a detailed roadmap was created in order to add new features to the existing application and eventually specify and develop a more modern replacement system.
