Case study: Nexus Ecebs HOPS migration

When Unicard acquired smart ticketing specialists Ecebs from Visa in 2023, a plan was devised to unify Unicard’s and Ecebs’ infrastructures by merging their products into one cloud environment on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Migrating services to a cloud environment brings numerous benefits to Unicard’s customers, including:

  • Reduced costs: the economies of scale available when operating in a cloud environment mean the cost savings can be passed on to our customers.
  • Agility: our customers can take advantage of new opportunities more quickly without having to upgrade hardware or install new software in an on-premise environment.
  • Scalability: cloud environments allow capacity to be ramped up and down quickly to meet customers’ surges and dropoffs in demand.
  • Reliability: cloud environments can provide failover options that on-premise solutions cannot, meaning less disruption for customer services.

Our plan to move services to the cloud began with the migration of all of Ecebs’ on-premise HOPS to the latest version of the Unicard HOPS, hosted in Unicard’s AWS environment. Ecebs had multiple HOPS that supported 16 customers across the UK, including ScotRail, TravelMaster and Nexus.

Nexus is responsible for improving transport networks throughout Newcastle and the rest of Tyne and Wear

It was decided to carry out this HOPS migration process in two stages:

  1. Migrate all Ecebs HOPS with a third-party CMS to a Unicard HOPS with the third-party CMS.
  2. Migrate all Ecebs HOPS with an Ecebs CMS to a Unicard HOPS with Unicard’s Smart Office CMS.

This case study focuses on the first of these HOPS migrations to be completed for Nexus – the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive – as an example of how the general HOPS migration process works.

Project requirements

The existing Ecebs Nexus HOPS on premises at the Ecebs offices was to be replaced with a Unicard HOPS hosted on AWS. This required all existing account and transaction data to be exported from the Ecebs HOPS and imported to the Unicard HOPS on AWS.

The Ecebs HOPS was fitted with HSAMs that were profiled by Fujitsu. The AWS HOPS would instead connect to the Unicard HSAM Service, using HSAMs profiled by Unicard.

The Ecebs Nexus HOPS communicated with various other HOPS including RDG CBO HOPS (for LNER/Northern train journeys), Arriva, Stagecoach and Go-Ahead. It also linked to the Yotra HOPS, where ITSO on Mobile was used to deliver smart ticketing services via an Android app designed by Nebula. Nexus needed all these HOPS to remain accessible via the new Unicard HOPS on AWS.

The Ecebs Nexus HOPS was also linked to Ticketer and TransMach ETMs, along with S&B gates, TVMs and validators. These also had to remain accessible via the new Unicard HOPS on AWS.

The Ecebs HOPS used an ESP/SAM CMS and ESP/SAM Nexus Portal to handle customer data, and a Euclid bureau for card creation. These services were to continue with the new Nexus Unicard HOPS.

Business reporting in the Ecebs environment used JasperReports. In the Unicard AWS environment, reports would be provided via Amazon Quick Sight.

Project solution

Migrating the Nexus HOPS from Ecebs to the Unicard involved not only providing a more modern Unicard HOPS but also ensuring it worked as expected with the existing third-party CMS and portal.

Once Unicard and Nexus had reached agreement on the new solution and its implementation, the migration took place and included the following steps.

  • Carrying out the initial setup of the new Nexus HOPS in AWS
  • Setting up the Nexus OIDs on the new HOPS
  • Transferring the HSAMs to the new HOPS
  • Reaching agreement on the Interface Control Documents (ICDs) with stakeholders to ensure that all components in the new HOPS solution could communicate properly, including those designed by third parties
  • Bulk exporting the existing data from the on-premise Ecebs HOPS to the AWS HOPS
  • Completing the Nebula Android app updates (this involved Unicard working with Nebula)
  • Completing testing (including SAM testing of its third-party CMS in the new solution)

Key outcomes

After the new solution went live, Nexus and Unicard shared feedback on its performance and reviewed the impact on the third-party software.

Once Nexus indicated that it was satisfied with the new setup, Unicard went ahead with decommissioning the old Ecebs HOPS.

The successful migration of the Nexus HOPS solution from Ecebs on-premise to Unicard AWS has provided the following benefits:

  • We now have a single AWS account where we can manage all the Unicard products for Nexus
  • We have simplified the complex former architecture and increased system performance
  • We have reduced the system costs involved in datacentre hosting
  • We now have resources working across one product catalogue, instead of supporting two
  • The new environment enables Unicard to provide better product development and roadmaps

Customer background

Nexus is the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive and administers funds on behalf of the Joint Transport Committee of the North East Combined Authority. Its task is to improve the quality of life and fortunes of everyone in Tyne and Wear, by creating better transport networks.