Caltrans and the Connected Corridors I-210 Project were recently honored by Amazon Web Services (AWS) as an Honorable Mention in their 2017 City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge. Connected Corridors was among 13 finalists in the "Best Practices (Large)" category, which recognizes a local or regional government leader, or public or private school or district who has deployed an innovative solution to solve a government challenge. The I-210 Project is using the Amazon cloud to host its Data Hub, real-time Decision Support System (DSS), and Corridor Management Subsystem. The award includes a $10,000 credit to CC's AWS account, where the Pilot's cloud services are being developed and will eventually be hosted.
"The future is in the cloud," says Joe Butler, PATH's Connected Corridors Program Manager. "We are designing our systems to enable Caltrans to leverage the scalability, shared access, and reduced maintenance costs associated with cloud applications. Amazon has been an excellent supportive partner in helping us achieve this goal."
The CC team is already seeing a cost savings and improved workflow by moving to the cloud. UC Berkeley's data center had over 45 devices dedicated to CC, but is now down to one physical server (and its days are numbered). At the same time, the program gains the ability to scale resources as needed, paying only for what is used. Research engineers are able to do new work supported by simulation runs in AWS at scales not previously supported by the physical hardware environment.
"This new way of working has allowed the PATH team to focus on core program deliverables, and we've enjoyed working closely with our Caltrans IT colleagues throughout the process," says Greg Merritt, PATH Connected Corridors Technology Transfer Coordinator. "We appreciate this recognition and support from Amazon as we move towards deployment."
October 4, 2017