AlphaInsurance through HFLabs transferred a CDI system to PostgreSQL

2019: Implementation of PostgreSQL DBMS

On March 23, 2020 the HFLabs company reported that it AlphaInsurance supported a trend on use of software open source. The company decided to increase experience in this direction, and one of steps — the translation of the Customer Data Integration (CDI) system on SUBDPOSTGRESQL.

CDI AlphaInsurance works at "The uniform client" of HFLabs. Support of PostgreSQL to this platform was added relatively recently — in the middle of 2019. The insurance company decided to use it at once.

PostgreSQL well proves to be in work with large volumes of data. It is easier to scale bases on this DBMS: the price of a product is not tied to the power of servers as it is accepted for the proprietary software. Plus DBMS actively develops, among developers a noticeable role is played by the Russian programmers.

Also for AlphaInsurance it is important that PostgreSQL provides the high level of customer service. Thanks to this solution reliability and availability of systems increases, time of scheduled works is reduced,

AlphaInsurance became the first company with "The uniform client" which transferred already operating CDI system to PostgreSQL.

The insurance company works across all Russia therefore it is impossible just to take and disconnect in company CDI. The personal account of the user and mobile application therefore a technical window for migration — only several minutes are connected to a system.

But it is impossible to move all data from old DBMS to implemented even in a night — it is too much information. The specialists of HFLabs executing the project found the modern solution.

We thought up that we will break the project into two parts. The most part — historical volume — we will transfer in advance. And in night of moving we will take from old base only the delta — what appeared recently. Then it is not necessary to copy everything at once. On this project we were very much helped by colleagues from Postgres Professional. They shared experience: told about the thin PostgreSQL settings, advised tools,

In night of moving the command completely synchronized bases and carried out tests: on correctness of data and load. As the main volume was transferred in advance, work took only four hours. At this time "The uniform client" worked in the read-only mode, for users nothing changed.

After that "The uniform client" switched off, changed DBMS and again started — already on PostgreSQL. The downtime was 12 minutes.

Transition to PostgreSQL of a critical system of one of insurance companies of Russia — a good signal. The fact that migration was carried out seamlessly, speaks about the high level of a maturity of DBMS. Similar projects become more and more around the world. Our partners from AlphaInsurance, selecting Postgres, keep up to date, commented Ivan Panchenko, the deputy CEO of Postgres Professional

CDI AlphaInsurance works for PostgreSQL without problems and restrictions. The project is considered successful: the company got experience with the open source software and promoted on the way of import substitution. And CDI became scalabler.