Containers became the solution for public transportation i Kalmar

The challenge

An outdated platform

The task was to solve the operation of a new ticket system for public transport. But soon, the technical system management within Kalmar County and its unit manager Michael Ceder realised that there was another goal to achieve: a new way to develop system operation within the region. OpenShift, container technology, and collaboration with Binero provided new innovative paths forward.

The public transport company in Kalmar County had an outdated payment system for tickets. It was built on a platform and technical components that were complex to maintain and lacked the ability to handle trips across county borders. Additionally, there was a new nationwide standard - BoB - for payment and management of tickets in public transport to adhere to.

Therefore, the four county's of Halland, Jönköping County, Kronoberg County, and Kalmar County decided to develop a new system together. The development was carried out jointly by the four regions, but it was decided early on that the operation would be managed by Kalmar County. The reason for this was partly that Kalmar already had a well-functioning operational organisation, but also that they had a strong desire to take on new technology and meet the challenges it posed.

The solution

A open environment

Since Kalmar County had previously worked with Red Hat, they decided to start with their product OpenShift, after evaluating various alternatives. However, they needed the help of a technical partner with experience in both OpenShift and development in containers. This is where Binero came into the picture, to assist in setting up the solution.

The ticket and payment solution was delivered in the form of containers, with a central backend where a large part of the business logic is found. There were two important success factors the solution needed to live up to: 1) It could serve public transport in several different regions and 2) the OpenShift platform would have the potential to operate several of the systems that Kalmar County uses.

The result

A solution to many problems

The ticketing system itself will be operational in the spring of 2020, and it will give travelers in the four regions the opportunity to buy tickets and view their travel history in an easy-to-use app or via a regular browser. In addition, travel across county borders is considerably simplified, which also contributes to the goal: to get citizens to travel by public transport to a greater extent.

Another important merit lies in the OpenShift platform itself, which has given Kalmar County's technical system administration the opportunity to run containerised applications themselves. In addition to the pure consulting effort, Binero has been an important partner of the region's operations unit, which has assisted with great knowledge transfer regarding OpenShift, which has contributed to the rapid start.

OpenShift and the container technology have in themselves broadened the county's opportunities to develop and operate system solutions together with many different suppliers. The end result: a more modern regional operation and better service for citizens.