Kessel Run, TTS Collaborated to Develop Capability Able to Host 100 Million Users Per Hour with Cloud.gov

  • Published
  • By Richard Blumenstein, Kessel Run Public Affairs
BOSTON (30 March 2022) – Today, the Air Force’s Kessel Run and the U.S. General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) announced a collaboration that allows cloud.gov to host 100 million digital users an hour.

The successful partnership is a proof of concept for future website development. The government-wide approach demonstrates how federal agencies can come together to improve customer experience and enhance digital capabilities for the benefit of the public.

“This is a great example of an interagency collaboration yielding concrete, scalable results and governmentwide benefits,” said Dave Zvenyach, TTS Director. “The capability developed as a result of this partnership is another milestone in our efforts to improve digital service delivery and ensure an effective, equitable, and secure digital infrastructure for the public.”

TTS’ cloud.gov team built and maintains a shared platform that can support large spikes in usage, and offers an easy and efficient way for agencies to manage their digital solutions. Kessel Run’s Bowcaster team provided “Chaos Engineering” services to help cloud.gov scale its capacity to 100 million post requests an hour. Bowcaster provided load testing, penetration testing, and other services that helped ensure the cloud.gov platform could meet availability and resiliency requirements needed to highly trafficked applications as it was scaled up.

“Although typically government websites host thousands to tens of thousands of users an hour, cloud.gov is built to scale, allowing for increased seasonal demand or emergency needs,” said Lindsay Young, Acting Director of Cloud.gov. “This means any government agency can be ready for a surge or need that would amount to up to 100 million users/hour.”

“From a reliability and resilience perspective, we wanted to push the system to the limit, so we tossed everything including the kitchen sink at it,” said Omar Marrero, the Chaos and Performance Tech Lead, and Deputy Test Chief with Kessel Run. “Based on those steps they were able to re-architect their deployment to handle a surge, until we got to the point where we were able to blast it with the 100 million users without any issues.”

The collaboration took place over the course of 10 days, with all participants working remotely. This highlights both the speed and versatility agencies can achieve by working together.

“We can collaborate together and deliver these sorts of capabilities from anywhere,” said Marrero. “We proved that over the course of ten days helping cloud.gov develop this capability.”

TTS applies modern methodologies and technologies to improve the lives of the public and public servants. This includes use of cloud.gov—an easy to use cloud hosting platform—as a service for hosting mission critical agency applications. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Detachment 12, also known as Kessel Run, has a proven track record in enhancing efficiency, saving cost, and modernizing the way the Air Force operates with its agile software development. With its user-centered approach to development, Kessel Run’s mission is to rapidly deliver combat capabilities to warfighters and revolutionize the Air Force software acquisition process.

“We can build the high-quality government services the American People deserve,” said Col. Brian Beachkofski, the Commander of Kessel Run. “By working together, the government can deliver high-quality services at the speed of need.”