Client Context
Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain and a global leader in geospatial precision.
They maintain the National Geographic Database, providing foundational data for emergency routing, flood risk modelling, and 5G network planning.
The Challenge
The organisation faced several interconnected challenges:
1. Reliance on manual validation
Existing processes required human-intensive checks for high-precision data, serving as the primary barrier to scalability when processing 48 million buildings and structures.
2. Ageing infrastructure constraints
Expensive and complex on-premises hardware limited innovation, drove up operational overheads, and presented a rigid cost model.
3. Undocumented legacy systems
Limited existing documentation from the current platform meant the team had to reverse-engineer legacy processes to ensure Building Height Attributes remained accurate during transition.
4. Complex system interdependencies
Because the infrastructure was a “System of Systems,” any migration sequencing failure could trigger a domino effect, requiring meticulous management to avoid disrupting daily operations for existing customers.
The Approach
Scale Factory partnered with Ordnance Survey to design and deliver a scalable foundation for growth, migrating them to the Customer Data & Service Platform (CDSP).
Our approach focused on:
Establishing modern data pipelines
Replacing legacy processes with modern raster/vector pipelines using Azure Databricks and the Hadoop ecosystem.
Automating data validation
Replacing manual checks with a fully automated validation process integrated into CI/CD pipelines for high-speed, high-precision engineering.
Managing strategic migration
Migrating high-value products like BHA and Change Caches while enhancing system visibility through advanced observability tools.
Executing robust DR testing
De-risking the complex application landscape through rigorous Disaster Recovery testing to ensure zero disruption during the transition.
This phased approach allowed progress without disrupting day-to-day operations.
- Assess
Reverse-engineering legacy processes to ensure data consistency. - Design
Architecting modern pipelines with Azure Databricks and Hadoop. - Deliver
Implementing automated validation into CI/CD pipelines. - Enable
Decommissioning legacy infrastructure and establishing observability.
Outcomes & Impact
The organisation achieved:
Eliminated critical security vulnerabilities
The risk profile was successfully moved from over 1,000 vulnerabilities and an Amber status to zero and Green following the decommissioning of legacy infrastructure.
Accelerated processing and delivery times
Established a framework that reduced the end-to-end processing time for product creation by six weeks.
Significant reduction in maintenance effort
The Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) effort required to maintain the system was reduced from eight weeks to just 1-2 hours, allowing for resource reallocation.
Streamlined production and cost efficiency
Achieved £85k in annual support savings by centralising operations via a single, revised Area Heighter module on the CDSP.
“Scale Factory were able to provide skilled test engineers who were able to quickly integrate with the existing data team, and get up to speed with our tech stack. They not only worked within the existing approach, but devised and implemented new ways of testing to handle the unique aspects of the system.”
