Customer Stories
Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) had been experiencing severe performance degradation in their on-line grade posting system. During busy periods, such as during mid-terms and finals, when the 3200 teachers all tried to log in and post grades, the system would crawl to a standstill. A process that should take each teacher no more than 10 minutes could take as long as 4 hours, with many often giving up in frustration. This caused significant delays in the overall process, preventing the timely issuance of report cards. The situation was intolerable.
Data Knowledge professionals went onsite to perform an assessment. Their thorough review encompassed overall system configuration, disk partitioning, and performance. System statistics were monitored to capture details relating to user activity and resource utilization. The application itself was also examined, along with the data design and disk layout, with an eye towards efficiency and best practices.
After studying the statistics output and dissecting the application, Data Knowledge consultants formulated a plan to remedy the situation that addressed issues in both the system configuration and in the application itself. First, the database was reorganized to improve disk utilization. Along with this, changes were made to the database server configuration to make better use of overall system resources. The data model itself was analyzed, and a more robust indexing strategy was implemented to improve response time. Finally, the application was reworked to optimize database queries and better exploit the revised indexing scheme.
After these enhancements were put into place, the teachers saw a dramatic improvement during their next major grade posting period. All teachers were able to post their grades on time, and report cards were issued on schedule.
This example shows how the resolution of a problem can often require a unique blend of skills. Data Knowledge consultants performed system administration functions, reorganizing disk layouts and modifying server configuration files. They acted as database administrators, studying the data model and improving the indexing strategy. Finally, they demonstrated their knowledge of applications, modifying the code to optimize the query statements.
Data Knowledge can do the same for you. To put our skills to work for you and become the next Data Knowledge success story, please contact us.