EDUKATOR.PL MEETS THE AVAILABILITY CHALLENGE DURING THE PANDEMIC

CASE STUDY: EDUKATOR.PL

Edukator.pl is a free-of-charge Polish online platform maintained by the Nauka i Wiedza Foundation. It provides digital resources and tools for the collection and creation of materials as well as organization and conduct of remote education.

Nauka i Wiedza had already started using Oktawave services a few years earlier. The main requirements at that time had included system simplicity as well as the supplier’s close and quickly responding technical support. Time told that it had been an excellent choice. The Oktawave cloud allowed Edukator.pl to perfectly overcome the critical challenge caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

CHALLENGES

When schools were closed due to the pandemic, the educational system suddenly had to move from blackboards to computer screens and Internet connections. The foundation needed to expand the Edukator.pl infrastructure and quickly prepare for increased traffic and server use the scale of which was difficult to estimate.

From February to April 2021 Edukator.pl remotely held two stages of the Polish nationwide chemistry contest for primary schools — Poland’s greatest subject contest for primary schools, under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Education and Science and the President of the Jagiellonian University. They were attended by 4000 pupils from more than 1000 schools all over Poland. The platform had to provide the participants with smooth, reliable access to the tests.

SOLUTIONS

After consultation with Oktawave specialists, a new production environment was deployed in a very short time. It was prepared with full component redundancy and high application availability. Oktawave provided the object storage for resources (videos, graphics, documents, and arbitrary file types), ensuring their continuous availability to end users. Server configuration allows for easy scaling of cloud infrastructure both vertically (adjusting existing instances) and horizontally (adding additional nodes) without affecting application availability. To minimize the risk of downtime, application and database instances operate within HA clusters and are distributed across geodiverse data centers.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

The new cloud environment protects users againsproblems stemming from hindered or slowed-down access to the resources and tools made available by the website. It has ensured uninterrupted, convenient remote education, making it easier for teachers and students to adapt to the new conditions.

Our aim is to provide the best tools for school work and education process management. The tools should be easy to use yet technologically advanced and should offer the highest efficiency level — all this free of charges or subscription fees. As we pursue these aims, we need to be certain that we have firm support of a technological partner that understands how important and necessary these projects are.

Bogdan Wróbel, President of the Management Board at Fundacja Nauka i Wiedza