Leaping from Mainframes to AWS: Technology Time Travel in the Government
summary
Helps migrate a legacy CBP Global Entry site onto AWS using infrastructure as code, switching from six-month VM waits to minute-scale provisioning; launches with Login.gov for shared identity, hits a traffic spike that requires 400x scale and exposes a session-encryption bug caused by per-process keys, mitigated by running 50 single-process Ruby instances until a proper fix; uses ELK-style log aggregation to detect exploits, resolves SMS/email rate limits with vendors, and records 500,000 applications plus 50 pushes and zero downtime in the first 30 days.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction to USDS
- 0:48Government context
- 2:44The challenges of bureaucracy
- 6:16Hiring, firing, and buying
- 11:12Login.gov and modernization
- 13:36Trusted Traveler launch
- 18:36Scaling and troubleshooting
- 23:34Lessons learned and playbook
- 26:30Cultural change and impact
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