About the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT)
NDOT is responsible for the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the 5,400 miles of highway and over 1,000 bridges which make up the Nevada state highway system. NDOT’s headquarters is located in Carson City, with the three main district offices located in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko.
The NDOT GIS team within the NDOT IT department is responsible for coordinating, educating, and administering the implementation, development and maintenance of GIS technology for ~1800 employees as well as Nevada’s citizens.
The GIS team’s vision is to:
- Increase the ability of GIS at NDOT to meet business and client needs.
- Continue logical, business-driven and enterprise-based development of GIS data, systems, applications, regional coordination and staff.
- Increase the ability of NDOT divisions and citizens to make informed decisions and meet their needs through the effective use of GIS applications and geospatial data.
- Enhance the NDOT GeoHub which will give citizens access to geospatial information
The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) embarked on a significant digital transformation journey by migrating from an on-premise infrastructure to the Cloud, leveraging the expertise of ROK Technologies. This migration aimed to enhance NDOT’s operational efficiency, security, and scalability while reducing the complexities associated with managing on-premise systems. This success story highlights the migration challenges faced by NDOT as well as the transformative benefits realized through the migration.
01
A vision needs a champion
The NDOT GIS team was functioning well – they were on-premise and using ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1 when a vision arose to migrate all of NDOT from on-premise to the Cloud and more specifically to Microsoft Azure Cloud.
As visions go; they tend to be lofty and need a place to start. Therefore, the directive was to have the GIS team lead the organization in this Cloud migration journey. The GIS team was selected because of their robust development, testing and production environment of over 30+ servers. The GIS team knew this was a challenge and an honor. If they were going to be successful, they needed help.
The GIS team did not have previous experience with Azure or the Cloud.Many were trying to quickly upskill with AZ900 classes to get familiar with Azure technology and terminology. And then in July of 2019, the NDOT GIS team attended the Esri User Conference in San Diego, CA. While there, they happened to see a presentation by ROK Technologies on migrating on-premise ArcGIS Enterprise deployments to the Cloud.
Designing the ideal Azure migration approach
NDOT ultimately partnered with Esri, ROK Technologies and Microsoft to define the scope of the migration, collaborate on the design of the Azure infrastructure, and outline the process and timeline to bring their on-premise resources and data to the Cloud. “We really didn’t know what to expect, I had no experience with Azure or with server migrations. It turned out to be a very lengthy process; it’s a big effort,” shares Chad Foster, GIS Contractor, emphasizing the crucial role that ROK played in guiding them through the Azure migration process.
While the migration took close to a year to complete; it was done so to ensure everyone was aligned and learning as they went – NDOT’s IT team, Microsoft, ROK Technologies and Esri. NDOT’s lack of expertise in Cloud technologies and the considerable time required to acquire such knowledge were significant hurdles that the GIS team faced in its pursuit of modernization and future-proofing.
Through a collaborative effort,, the NDOT team pushed through and successfully migrated their three environments – development, test and production, across 30 servers to the Cloud.
02
In the Cloud, things feel familiar
The Azure Cloud environment brought significant improvements for NDOT. It also maintained a sense of familiarity for their team. As Chad Foster explained, “It felt different even though the look and feel of the ArcGIS was the same and our general workflows were the same.” The Azure environment enabled NDOT employees to work directly from their laptops, eliminating the need for remote sites and desktops. This was further facilitated by the use of multi-factor authentication, which enhanced security and reduced the need for on-site visits allowing for more remote work and ease of access for contract employees.
Dr. Nally Bukenya, GIS Contractor, highlighted the convenience, stating, “when we need to reboot servers, there is no need for me to go all the way inside the network. We can use Azure Portal to reboot servers so it makes it very streamlined and easy for us to use”.
The flexibility of the Azure platform made it easier for NDOT to allocate and adjust resources compared to their on-premises infrastructure. Joe Paiva, GIS Supervisor, noted that adding resources and increasing storage was straightforward, sharing an example, “a few days ago, we increased storage on one of our servers and built another server for a map project. It is easy to add resources and everything just works”.
From 10.6 to 11.1 and gaining confidence along the way
The most important benefit of having ROK Technologies as a partner during and post migration was the educational benefit – the subject matter expertise of the ROK Technologies team. Whether software installations for upgrades or system tunings, ROK Technologies plays a crucial role in knowledge transfer and issue resolution with consistent and thorough documentation about Esri products and Azure IT needs.
Once the migration was complete, NDOT was now on ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7.1. Post migration, ROK Technologies has been responsible for upgrading the NDOT development environment and then the test environment. Once ROK completes the development upgrade, the NDOT GIS team tests the configurations to make sure they understand the new capabilities before moving to deploying the upgrade to the test environment. Once the upgrade is complete in the test environment, ROK Technologies provides extensive documentation – both written documentation and video – for the NDOT team to review and learn how to then deploy on their own to the production environment.
“With the documentation provided to us by ROK Technologies, we have successfully upgraded to 10.8.1 in production ourselves as well as 10.9.1 and we are currently upgrading to 11.1 in development and testing the configuration,” explains Mr. Foster when asked about the benefits of having ROK as a partner. ROK has provided the NDOT GIS team with the right training, experience and expertise to allow them to ultimately “own” their new Cloud environment with confidence. “With ROK’s support, we can now handle major issues with our environment, like restoring servers from backups and addressing portal crashes, with their guidance and documentation.”
“I applaud ROK for making it very down to earth; very easy to understand,” explains Charles Lucas, GIS Analyst, when speaking about the hands-on training they’ve received. This education ensures the NDOT team could learn and become self-sufficient in managing their Azure environment. This approach not only resolved immediate issues but also empowered the team to handle future challenges independently.
03
Empowering NDOT with new technologies and strategic guidance
The partnership between NDOT and ROK Technologies has been instrumental in educating NDOT’s GIS team and advocating for the adoption of new technologies to enhance their infrastructure. A prime example of this is the implementation of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) for an extra layer of security. “We had no idea that a WAF was even needed, or an application gateway was necessary until we got to our production environment,” remarked Chad Foster. Despite the successful configuration and testing of their development and test environments, it was during the production migration that ROK highlighted the need for an application gateway to manage traffic and authentication for all three environments.
ROK’s expertise was crucial in this process.. Foster acknowledged, “If it were not for Ryan Daly and the ROK Technologies team, I don’t think the WAF would have ever stood up or been configured successfully”.
The GIS team now possesses the knowledge to perform essential tasks, such as updating certificates. This newfound understanding and capability were not even on their radar before partnering with ROK Technologies. ROK’s educational support has empowered NDOT’s GIS team to effectively utilize new technologies, ensuring the security and efficiency of their GIS environment.
NDOT becomes a self-sufficient Azure IT team
In the words of Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” Success is achieved when the members of the partnership actively engage, leveraging collective strengths to accomplish NDOT’s goals.
ROK Technologies strengths include:
- Subject matter expertise in both Azure and ArcGIS Enterprise deployments, significantly reducing the time and effort needed for migrating.
- Support and guidance for the inevitable migration challenges, getting to resolution faster than if NDOT did it on their own.
- Infrastructure design and planning assistance
- Thorough documentation and Esri software upgrades.
- Recommendations on complex issues like workflow manager configuration that Esri support had challenges resolving.
- Ongoing monitoring, support and strategic recommendations to future-proof the environment.
- Facilitated knowledge transfer to build internal skills for long-term management and upgrades once the initial migration was complete.
04
In Conclusion
In conclusion, Charles Lucas shares the analogy of “buy once, cry once” aptly capturing the significance of expertise and planning, as illustrated through NDOT’s partnership with ROK Technologies. By leveraging the expertise of a cloud specialist, NDOT avoided the time-consuming process of trial and error, ensuring a smooth transition from on-premise infrastructure to the Cloud. This collaboration has not only streamlined operations but also positioned NDOT for continued efficiency and cost savings. NDOT’s successful migration exemplifies a transformative journey, setting a benchmark for similar organizations and highlighting the invaluable role of strategic partnerships. With ROK Technologies as a trusted ally, NDOT stands ready to continue its mission of delivering superior transportation services in Nevada.
At ROK, we take your GIS to the Cloud.
Contact us today to see how we can help your organization.
The phrase “buy once, cry once” is often used in the context of purchasing high-quality, durable goods or services. It suggests that while the initial cost may be higher, investing in something of superior quality ultimately saves money and frustration in the long run.
This case study was conducted virtually via a 1:1 Zoom interview in April 2024 with members of the NDOT GIS team – Chad Foster, Contractor, Nalishebo Bukenya, Contractor, Charles Lucas, GIS Analyst and Joseph Paiva, GIS Supervisor.
