High-end Library Management System

A secure, scalable, and cost-effective library management system to automate all library functions.

CASE STUDY

Requirement

A well-established school wanted to upgrade its IT infrastructure to automate circulation, cataloging, administration, reporting, and other primary bookkeeping functions of their library. They wanted a system capable of maintaining a database and tracking books, their checkouts, as well as maintaining a record of the library members, their profiles, subscriptions, etc.

The client had received an estimate of $44,000 for the new equipment and four years of upkeep. However, due to declining enrollments and fewer funds, they were not in a position to invest so much.

Besides this, one of the biggest concerns for the client was purchasing and maintaining the new equipment, especially when they saw a decline in enrollments. They wanted to automate library functions to reduce time and costs but did not want to invest too much to do so.

Solution

After carefully analyzing the problems and needs of the client, we advised them to build the library management System on the AWS cloudsystem and benefit from its high-end technologies and infrastructure.

Instead of building on-premise infrastructure, we used Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to create a virtual private network connection between Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) and the school computers.

The client agreed that AWS cloud is a better option over on-premise infrastructure considering the decrease in enrollments for the school library since AWS charges as per usage. With AWS, the client could increase or lower the EC2 instances as per their requirements and pay only for what they use.

Benefits

Our client knew that an additional investment in on-premise infrastructure would increase its year-on-year maintenance costs. AWS became an apt solution for them, providing advanced technology and security while saving costs.
With AWS, our client saved 25% over the typical 5-year lifespan of on-premise infrastructure.
The school saved a considerable amount of energy by switching off their old on-premise servers.
With AWS, the client could set up the infrastructure within 20–30 minutes, as opposed to the 4–5 days required to set up an on-premise infrastructure.
The client cut its capital expenditure on purchasing new equipment.
The school replaced annual maintenance costs with the fees it paid for AWS and saved on the same.
Gradually, the school also started using Amazon RDS and Amazon S3 to store its critical information as well as for the backup of the same.