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This article will introduce how MetaAge AWS MSP team assisted the RSL Hotel Group's Zhonghe branch in solving IT technical issues related to cloud and on-premises integration after migrating their hotel management system to the cloud, delivering the best user experience and convenience within the enterprise.
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RSL Hotel Taipei Zhonghe was established in the year 2000, partnering with international hotel group before founding and managing its own brand in 2018. RSL Hotel Taipei Zhonghe is a subsidiary company of RSL Corporation, which was founded in New Taipei City. It is the first international standard hotel in the city, providing foreign and local guests with an exceptional dining and accommodation option in the area.
(Image source by RSL Hotel web page : https://suao.rslhotel.com/ )
Compared to specialized tech industries, the traditional hospitality sector faces more challenges and resource limitations in terms of data center maintenance and IT staffing. Whether implementing large systems or extensive system changes, it presents a significant challenge. In this context, leveraging AWS's flexibility and stability not only reduces expenditure on information systems but also alleviates the burden on IT personnel.
Moreover, the hospitality industry has a large inventory of peripheral hardware devices on-premises, such as card readers, POS cash registers, etc. When these devices need to connect with cloud systems, user experience considerations are paramount. In the case of RSL Hotel, when introducing a cloud-based ERP system, the initial strategy was to keep the client software on-premises and directly connect to the cloud ERP. However, this led to unstable connection issues, affecting user experience adversely. To address this problem, the MetaAge team helped the client implement AWS virtual desktop streaming technology, namely AWS AppStream 2.0, successfully solving the issue of connection delays in operation.
Using AWS AppStream 2.0 to Optimize User Connection Experience
To solve the issue of connection delays, users only need to install the lightweight AWS AppStream 2.0 client application on their local devices. This moves the client programs from on-premises to the cloud environment, thereby reducing the data transmission traffic between the cloud and on-premises and alleviating the communication burden.
How Amazon AWS AppStream 2.0 packages the Client program to the cloud
In AWS AppStream 2.0, the ERP client program is packaged into an image file and deployed on a lightweight virtual machine (AWS EC2). When users connect to the system through AWS AppStream 2.0, they are actually connecting to an AWS EC2, which handles the connection to the cloud-based ERP host, and the users receive only the final result display. The traffic from the ERP client program to the ERP application goes through the AWS backbone network.
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AWS AppStream2.0
(Image source by AWS Workshop: https://aws.amazon.com/tw/AWS AppStream2/?nc=sn&loc=1 © Amazon Web Service)
MetaAge Resolved Some Issues that RSL Hotel Encountered by using AWS AppStreams 2.0:
1. Solving On-Premises Network Traffic Problems
The MSP team, through monitoring systems, identified internet service provider (ISP) network flow issues, leading to abnormal delays in on-premises network flow, which also affected internet speed, resulting in poor user experience. Through proactive monitoring and quick problem identification by the MSP, the on-premises network issue was resolved, reducing network latency from 200ms to 35ms and optimizing cloud connection quality.
2. Localized Custom Solutions
Initially, AWS AppStream 2.0 was not designed with the ChangJie input method, widely used by many users in Taiwan. Leveraging the 24x7 operations of the MSP maintenance team, MetaAge quickly researched the ChangJie input method and other rare input methods, customizing adjustments and settings to align more closely with customers original operational habits when using AWS AppStream 2.0. Additionally, the "Zhong Yi Dao" receipt printing format, commonly used by finance or clerical units in Taiwan, was corrected and tested repeatedly by the MSP team after understanding the client's environment, enabling clients to continue printing in the "Zhong Yi Dao" format on the cloud. The around-the-clock operation of the MSP ensures many technical issues are resolved in a shorter timeframe!
3. Eliminating Anomalies for Improvement
Due to the diversity of customer environments or devices, anomalies inevitably occur in various applications. In this case, the client encountered a problem where the QR Code of electronic invoices could not be displayed. MetaAge directly borrowed the same invoice printing devices from relevant businesses, then the MSP team conducted continuous testing and corrections to operating systems and drivers, quickly restoring normal printing functions and continually optimizing the printing process.
The MetaAge MSP maintenance team is dedicated to enhancing the overall performance of client architectures, necessitating a comprehensive monitoring platform, and Amazon CloudWatch is the best tool for achieving this goal.
Whether it's applications, infrastructure, or even network traffic, Amazon CloudWatch covers all bases, providing a consistent dashboard and seamless integration with over 70 AWS services. Consequently, the MSP team has developed a comprehensive monitoring platform, enabling them to detect any discrepancies between daily user consumption and initial planning early on, and design corresponding Auto Scaling, successfully achieving cost optimization for clients.
By integrating Amazon CloudWatch with the latest AI technology for anomaly detection, a unified dashboard was established, and automated event responses were set up to maintain a certain standard of reliability. This enables the team to detect and respond to issues early.
The Amazon CloudWatch monitoring graph
Amazon CloudWatch: Achieving Cost Optimization for AWS AppStream 2.0
The MSP team used Amazon CloudWatch as a key tool to optimize the costs of AWS AppStream 2.0. Initially, it was anticipated that 25 users would connect to the system simultaneously. However, actual monitoring revealed that the number of users was lower than expected, with fewer than 10 people actually connecting. This over-provisioning led to unnecessary costs. Facing this issue, the MSP team adjusted the operation model of AWS AppStream 2.0, considering actual usage scenarios and choosing a more flexible pay-as-you-go billing model, where costs are incurred only when users actually connect. This effectively avoided idle resources and successfully reduced costs by nearly 30%.
Traditionally, hotel staff had to install specific programs on their computers to use the PMS/ERP systems. But, with the architecture of AWS AppStream 2.0, there are more than one method available. AWS AppStream 2.0 provides two types of user connection entrances:
1. Installing the AWS AppStream 2.0 Client application locally, offering an experience closer to that of a local application, including local integration, faster startup times, and better performance.
2. Through the Web Streaming mode in a browser, users simply need to enter the designated AWS AppStream 2.0 URL in their browser to log in and access applications.
Businesses can choose the suitable connection method based on the needs and conditions of their users.
In this project, AWS provided the enterprise with a more flexible and secure IT infrastructure. By breaking away from the traditional user-to-system host connection methods and utilizing AWS AppStream 2.0 as a solution, the internal personnel's ERP connection delay issues were effectively resolved, successfully assisting the client's IT system in transitioning to the cloud.
After the cloud environment was established, the MetaAge MSP team became the client's cloud consultant, continuously monitoring and improving the cloud IT environment's performance through managed services, providing reliable and stable IT services.
The MetaAge MSP team, recognized as an AWS MSP (Managed Service Provider) by the AWS, has a professional engineering team that can reduce information security risks, enhance service performance, and minimize potential service interruptions. This allows you to focus on your core business while also enjoying the support of AWS's technical team.
MetaAge boasts extensive hands-on experience in server, network, and database management, backed by a team of deeply technical architects and maintenance teams, making it the premier consultant and service provider for enterprise cloud services.
Whether it concerns deploying AWS services, Cloud Managed Service, Infrastructure-as-code, API integration, or integrating cloud and on-premises solutions, MetaAge can provide customized designs to meet a multidimensional of needs in a one-stop solution.
Also, the MetaAge AWS MSP team has further introduced next-generation monitoring systems, providing clients fully managed and comprehensive monitoring MSP integrated services.
Contact Information ——
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Email: aws@metaage.com.tw
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