Providing Applications Efficiently and Flexibly: Introduction of OpenShift for the City of Vienna

The rapid and reliable provision of applications is an important prerequisite in times of rapid digitization to bring digital solutions to customers. The city of Vienna, as a provider of countless digital services, has recognized this challenge. As part of the technology renewal program, the city is therefore using Kubernetes based on Red Hat OpenShift to orchestrate container applications. This significantly increases the efficiency and flexibility in software development and provision.

The Challenge

The numerous applications in the environment of the city of Vienna must be horizontally scalable on the one hand to absorb sporadically high load peaks (for example due to new applications, legal application deadlines or the like). On the other hand, the services must be continuously developed to meet current requirements (new needs, legal changes, security, etc.). For this purpose, new applications or versions must be provided in a demand-oriented and rapid manner, which requires a high degree of automation. In addition, the solution must correspond to the complex enterprise technology environment as well as the data center architecture of the city of Vienna with multiple locations. It should be future-proof and offer the simplest possible administration and precise scalability.

Our Approach

The experts from Spirit in Projects were entrusted by Wien Digital (MA 01) with the project management and enterprise architecture. Initially, with the help of the enterprise architects from Spirit in Projects, a comprehensive concept for the integration of OpenShift into the existing enterprise landscape of the city of Vienna was created. The main focus was on building an infrastructure in several data centers of the city of Vienna that ensures the high availability of all applications operated there by the city of Vienna. Thanks to the in-depth technology expertise of Spirit in Projects, it was ensured that this concept meets current standards, internal regulations, and the concepts from the overarching technology renewal program. The project management by Spirit in Projects ensured that there was always close coordination with other ongoing projects within the city administration. Thanks to the synergy of program management and project management (both experts from Spirit in Projects), the desired solutions could be advanced holistically.

The Benefit

With the support of Spirit in Projects, Wien Digital (MA 01) was able to implement a platform with Red Hat OpenShift that optimally utilizes container technologies. During the introduction of the technology in the city of Vienna, it became particularly clear what advantage the deep roots of Spirit in Projects in technology and engineering bring. Thus, even during the project, the first applications were successfully put into operation in the newly created infrastructure. This milestone on the way to a modern and flexible infrastructure will enable the city of Vienna to design its digital services more efficiently in the future and to better respond to customer needs. Read the City of Vienna´s blog post here.