Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice standardizes juvenile tracking system on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Industry: State and Local Government

Challenge: Create a scalable, three-tier, web-based architecture under shrinking budget.

Solution: Platform: Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Red Hat Network

Hardware: Dell servers
Applications: Oracle8i database, Juvenile Tracking System (custom, Oracle-based)

Benefits: Increased price/performance and stability at one-third the cost of legacy UNIX solutions

Their custom-built JTS serves as the back-bone of the department’s state-wide network for tracking juveniles through the justice system. Maintaining the system at its highest performance levels was crucial. “When we realized we only received one-third of the budget we hadrequested for the updated system, a UNIX server was out of the question,” said Kevin Ferlazzo, Data Administration and Security Manager for the department. “At that point, we concluded that a lower-cost, Intel-based approach was necessary.”

“We understood at the time, running an enterprise application on Red Hat Enterprise Linux was considered ahead of its time. But knowing that Red Hat was backed by Dell and Oracle helped us make the decision to give it a try,” said Darrell Gasaway, the department’s InformationServices Director.

Their familiarity with UNIX helped in porting applications to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. “If you are a Unix shop, my advice is to jump on in; the water is fine. Based on the hardware availability, extensive testing, and compelling price-performance, there is no reason not to evaluate and develop a Linux strategy,” Ferlazzo explained.

The department’s UNIX-to-Linux migration provided the advantage of newer, more powerful servers while also supporting the agency’s overall strategy to standardize on Intel hardware. By using the State of Virginia’s existing contract with Dell to purchase new servers pre-loaded with Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, and by taking advantagof Dell support services, the department maximized their savings.

The scalability of the low-cost, three-tiered, Web-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux architecture, has help us meet the exploding information demands of the department’s programs while giving us the stability we need.

– Kevin Ferlazzo
Data Administration and Security Manager
Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice

In addition, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux solution provided plenty of room to grow. “Five years ago JTS had about 400 data elements and was running four application modules. Today we are tracking over 1,700 elements and running more than 16 modules.” said Ferlazzo. His teamnow runs the JTS application on a server farm using a Dell, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle solution stack.

“We’ve been able to support this major explosion of data and programs through the scalable performance of the Dell, Red Hat, Oracle solution. We are very happy with the outcome of the migration. The new system is rock solid,” said Ferlazzo. “We’ve gained peace of mind fromthe extended uptime and the steady, day-to-day performance,” said Lee Moore, Unix Systems component in a robust IT infrastructure, and whileFerlazzo’s team uses a number of techniques, they rely on Red Hat Network to manage their servers and deploy software updates to keep the systems secure.

Migrating to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Dell solution allowed the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice to upgrade its Oracle-based Juvenile Tracking System at one-third the cost of a similar UNIX-based solution. Furthermore, the Intel-based solution delivered tremendous gains in performance and stability and provides high levels of scalability to support the growing information demands across the Commonwealth.