ACS039 – KX Infrastructure Consolidation

The KX application is one of the key commercial business systems utilised by Accommodation, Catering and Events and is used to manage processes associated with room booking, catering, conference bookings, parcel delivery etc. The application is used 24x7 and requires to be both stable and performant at all times

This project has delivered a new virtual Test environment for the Kx Application consisting of an application webserver and a database server, mirrored on the current Live environment infrastructure. This new Test environment along with the performance benchmarking tests (noted below) can now be used as a standard platform for the planned subsequent application and infrastructure projects going forward.

The project has also delivered the environment to manage and monitor benchmark performance tests going forward through the implementation of;

* The development of scripts that mimic the functionality of the top 17 identified business functions

* An application to manage the running of these scripts with regards to both repetition and parallel processes, that also time records each function

* Access is now available to the supplier Kx Configuration module to enable specific processes to be analysed on our environment

* A set of agreed monitoring tools to monitor the infrastructure performance. In this instance, Windows Performance Monitor (Perfmon) was selected to monitor the database server performance, and Spotlight for SQL Server was selected to dynamically investigate database performance

This project benefited from the input from many different sectors incorporating:

* Both business and technical staff from Accommodation Catering and Events

* Representatives from the Applications Directorate through Development Technology, Production Management, Technology Management and Project Services

* A representative from IT Infrastructure (ITI)

* Technical representatives from the supplier Kinetic Solutions Ltd.