Secure file transfer solutions were needed to help Railinc keep millions of rail assets rolling 24-7. A critical component of U.S. transportation infrastructure, Railinc supports commercial and government organizations with the information services they need to keep their rail assets moving day and night.
INDUSTRY
Transportation
GEOGRAPHY
North America
CHALLENGES
How can the company ensure the B2B messaging infrastructure that powers these digital capabilities is always available?
SOLUTION
RESULTS
- Delivers 99.95% availability for mission-critical B2B file transfers
- Processes 450,000 customer transfers per day reliably and securely
- Enables the smooth-running of more than 2 million rail assets
- Runs securely in the cloud, ensuring long-term scalability
Railinc keeps millions of rail assets rolling 24/7
Delivering iron-clad availability for vital file transfers
Railinc plays an integral role in the smooth-running of the North American rail
network. From its headquarters in Cary, N.C., the company builds, maintains,
and delivers information systems that empower hundreds of railway
stakeholders to coordinate millions of rail-asset movements each year.
Jeffrey Yusiewicz, Senior Middleware Messaging Engineer at Railinc, explains:
“Today’s rail industry truly runs on data, and we supply the digital intelligence
that government, freight, and passenger service operators depend on to keep
their assets moving. This includes real-time insights into the location of their
rail assets, as well as crucial administrative documents such as trip plans,
waybills, and customs declarations.”
Ensuring vital data is always available
To drive its digital services, Railinc securely tranfers files and data with around 800
different industry stakeholders .These interactions take the form of
more than 450,000 file transfers per day, a significant portion of which
come from 250 daily high-volume customers. The company’s managed file
transfer (MFT) capabilities are a key enabler of its core services, including
RailSight — a suite of applications that helps shippers, rail equipment
owners, and transportation management providers to manage rail
shipment and equipment data.
“If our MFT systems went offline unexpectedly, it would definitely have an
impact on the North American rail network,” continues Yusiewicz. “To ensure this situation never comes about, it’s essential that we ensure maximum levels of availability for MFT. And because our customers’ appetites for digital solutions are growing all the time, it’s also vital that we can scale up our MFT capabilities to process six percent year-on-year data growth.”
Choosing an enterprise-class MFT solution
To achieve rock-solid performance and reliability for crucial MFT workloads,
Railinc uses SecureTransport — an enterprise-class platform that offers
leading performance, scalability, reliability, and functionality for missioncritical
data transfers.
“In the past, we relied on a combination of legacy tooling and home-grown
software to support our MFT requirements, which became increasingly
difficult to manage and maintain as our data volumes grew,” Yusiewicz
recalls. “As Federal Information Processing Standards [FIPS] became a
requirement for certain customers, we looked for a new approach to address
those needs. SecureTransport provided what we wanted: a central, secure,
and easy-to-manage platform that delivers end-to-end control and visibility
of our MFT processes.”
Transferring millions of files on time
Railinc now relies on SecureTransport and its high-volume raw message feed
systems to support 24/7 data exchange for millions of messages per day.
“We require a service level of 99.95 percent for MFT — and that’s exactly
what SecureTransport has helped us to achieve for more than ten years,”
comments Yusiewicz. “File transfers play a key role in helping rail operators
to plan their routes, to cross national borders, and to track and trace their
rail assets. SecureTransport even helps move data gathered from customer
sensors along the rail network, which we use to proactively identify rail
assets that might need servicing or repairs.”
Targeting scalability in the cloud
Building on its success with SecureTransport, Railinc is in the process of
moving from an active/passive deployment hosted on-premises to a highly
available configuration in an AWS private cloud.
“We are always looking for innovative ways to support our customers with
new digital solutions, and our MFT volumes are growing steadily,” explains
Yusiewicz. “To support this growth in the long-term, we will be migrating
SecureTransport to the cloud. This move enables us to optimize our
operational costs as we scale out our MFT environment.”
Railinc is also exploring the possibility of augmenting the platform
with operational intelligence capabilities from Axway. “We’re very interested in adding enhanced reporting capabilities to SecureTransport, which could help us identify and close down cyber
threats more quickly,” concludes Yusiewicz. “Railinc plays a critical role
in keeping North America’s rail industry moving — and SecureTransport
will continue to be a key enabler of our mission-critical services.”
