Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads simplifies operations with OCI

Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) provides a safe and reliable transportation network that serves all people and respects the environment. TMR manages Queensland’s road, rail, and sea infrastructure and strives to seek innovative solutions to improve livability in all communities and enhance the state’s economic well-being.

With the transportation industry undergoing rapid change, the department was seeking to increase agility and responsiveness, improve customer satisfaction and data quality, and enhance cost and service performance while ensuring cross-functional efficiency.

Oracle databases are a key component of TMR information technology platforms supporting all the department’s business channels, including online services, partner services, and counter services across registration, licensing, and asset management. The aging on-premises infrastructure lacked the capabilities to drive performance and scale virtual machines efficiently.

To adapt to rapid change, TMR needed to modernize its core operational systems and infrastructure. Building digital solutions to increase operational efficiency meant replacing on-premises infrastructure with a scalable, cloud-based infrastructure.

TMR had been leveraging Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for over a year. However, the Oracle databases were running on-premises.

TMR chose to move to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer to minimize disruptions, maximize security, and stay under budget.

Oracle Cloud also aligned to TMR’s existing skill sets and capabilities, making the transition easier.

“TMR has been an Oracle database customer for many years,” says Brett Stenson, executive director of technology at TMR. “When we were ready to embark on a cloud journey for our critical applications, Oracle showed themselves to be a true partner. The OCI platform, including Oracle Cloud@Customer, will enable us to have clarity on cost governance, identifying and attributing the costs to the applications and their databases.”

By moving some of its critical workloads from on-premises to Exadata Database Service on OCI, TMR reduced servers by 40% and simplified its database platform. The move also added high availability, improved peak performance management, and increased its security posture.

Deploying Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer enabled TMR to address the latency of bespoke applications without the need for significant redevelopment, all while meeting key timeframes of the implementation.

The use of OCI, including Exadata Cloud@Customer, has enabled TMR to maximize efficiency, better serve customers, and improve time to market. The company has also improved governance and security.  

Of the OCI suite of services, TMR has initially focused on the full-featured Enterprise Database capabilities, including Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Active Data Guard, and securing data at rest with Oracle Data Vault.

TMR now has a robust digital foundation to swiftly build new applications and consider emerging technologies, including machine learning, robotic process automation, and natural language processing.

Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads engaged Data Intensity to build a modern cloud platform collaboratively.