Cegal streamlined workflows for Equalis with an Oracle Cloud solution

Equalis used an old on-prem solution and it was about time to move things up in the cloud. Oracle Cloud proved to be a cost-efficient cloud solution with great performance and scalability benefits.

Equalis offers software for external quality assessment within the domains of medicine and pharmaceuticals, image-diagnostics as well as patient-specific analyses. Additionally, they offer courses and training, standardized terminology and other activities aimed at improving research results in Swedish healthcare.

Based in Uppsala, the work is supported by health experts from all over the country. Equalis participants are mostly in Sweden, with some based in other Nordic countries.

Head of IT, statistics, terminology, and e-health in Equalis, David Afzelius, explains that they have used an Oracle database as the foundation for their self-developed systems for nearly 30 years. The current employee system is a self-developed application that’s been under development for more than 20 years and was built in a development tool now called OpenText Gupta Team Developer. Moreover, they had a 10-year-old internet application that’s built in .NET. All of this has been running in their own server room, and the database was always updated with the latest version.

The right time to make a move to the cloud

Due to the system’s need for renewal and the need to replace the server fleet, Equalis decided it was time to look for new solutions. Equalis explored different options for hosting the solution, such as Oracle Cloud, Azure Cloud and a local hosting company running VMware. 

Because we were already using the Oracle database as a foundation, it felt natural to move over to Oracle Cloud.

David Afzelius, Equalis

The solution was to move all existing systems into Oracle Cloud, while retaining AD and the domaine controls on-prem.

In addition, Cegal constructed a replacement for the web application, in cooperation with Equalis, leveraging an APEX solution based on low-code technology. Equalis then realized Cegal had the open source, operation and development competency they needed.

The combination of Oracle Cloud and Cegal felt like a safe choice for the future.

David Afzelius, Equalis

Hybrid solution - the smart choice

Cegal helped set up a hybrid solution, meaning that Equalis still has the domain control locally with a VPN tunnel between Equalis' firewall and Oracle Cloud in Frankfurt.

The legacy application is running in an external desktop solution on a Windows server, together with multiple applications that amongst other things generates reports and does image conversion. Additionally, they still had the .NET based solution until the APEX-replacement is ready.

for the development and testing of the solution there were set up mirrored environments in which servers are closed when they aren’t running, an approach that is very cost-efficient. Equalis also uses Microsoft 365 with SharePoint applications to process documents, communication, and cooperation.

"Considering Equalis had both Oracle and Microsoft applications, the hybrid solution seemed like a smart choice for us. We have high expectations for APEX. This technology helps us save a lot of time when we want to update, develop new applications, or make small adjustments. What used to take hours can now be done in only a matter of minutes", Afzelius adds.

Plenty of benefits with Oracle Cloud

There are plenty of benefits with Oracle Cloud. One highlight is not being limited to APEX, but having the possibility to develop solutions using other frameworks. The cost of saving and backup is also lower compared to other hosting solutions. Finally, the possibility to scale up or down according to demand is very positive, according to Afzelius.

"We’re using a function called Burstable Compute Instance which mean it scales itself according to demand. This is one of the great functions that comes with Oracle Cloud", adds Afzelius.

By moving to the cloud, Equalis have also contributed to a better environment as they no longer need to have local servers, which are not very sustainable.

The partnership with Cegal

Cegal have been very helpful, bringing in a highly skilled technician who’s worked closely with Equalis during the entire project, resulting in a very positive experience, says Afzelius.

It’s been an educating journey, and the strength of Cegal is their skills in both operations and development. Normally, you would have to cooperate with multiple companies, one for operations and one for development. It's great that Cegal offers both.

David Afzelius, Equalis

Cegal have delivered development of low code APEX, optimization of the cloud platform with integrations, and consulting on multi cloud licensing for both Oracle and Microsoft.

Products and software delivered:

Oracle OCI + Oracle IaaS / DBaaS + Cloud Fondation + Integrations + AD + Backup Cloud.