The Minnesota Star Tribune: Modernizing news publication with AWS

The Minnesota Star Tribune: Modernizing news publication with AWS

Case Study

 

Modernizing news publishing with AWS

The Minnesota Star Tribune

The Minnesota Star Tribune needed to modernize critical technical software and infrastructure for its news publishing and delivery systems.  

Architecture overhaul

The Minnesota Star Tribune, a major news organization, has been publishing content for over 150 years, becoming a critical source of information in its metropolitan area and the state of Minnesota. Over their long life they’ve augmented traditional print media with modern digital formats, including web content, video, podcasts, social media, and digital newsletters.  

When the organization’s new leadership established an ambitious strategy to expand their presence to better serve the state and region, their product and engineering teams knew they needed to modernize their cloud architecture—and that they would benefit from outside expertise. 

After evaluating a number of options, the Minnesota Star Tribune’s technology leadership engaged Solution Design Group (SDG), a Minneapolis-based business and technology consulting firm. They cited SDG’s status as an AWS Advanced Tier Services partner and long history of solving business problems through custom technology solutions as a reason for selecting SDG. 

Using their expertise in Amazon’s AWS cloud technology and project management and execution, SDG collaborated with the Star Tribune’s product and engineering teams to modernize their publishing systems from the ground up, tackling mission-critical architecture, technology, and overall resilience while improving user experience and containing costs.

Replatforming to streamline operations

The initiative required the team to re-architect core platform components, update the technology stack, and use AWS best practices to ensure the platform’s scalability and reliability. While modernizing the system, the team reworked an existing CMS’s API and front-end, originally built on Laravel and PHP, to modern frameworks using NestJS, GraphQL, Next.js, and React. The revamped platform now operates on AWS ECS with MongoDB, and takes advantage of a robust cloud infrastructure to support the customer’s high-demand, real-time news operations. 

The team recommended AWS CloudWatch and DataDog for enhanced observability, incident response, monitoring, and network topology. 

They introduced cache layers with AWS ElastiCache and CloudFront. Moreover, SDG helped set up AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, and Macie for comprehensive security management, ensuring that the platform met the Star Tribune’s stringent data security and privacy requirements. 

Other major components of this migration and modernization roadmap include: 

  • Replacing a legacy CMS with an event-driven architecture incorporating AWS SQS, SNS, and Lambda functions for real-time data processing.  
  • Migrating legacy user management systems to a third-party system. 
  • Executing a re-purchasing strategy for a classified ad and obituary management system, using a new third-party platform.  
  • Transitioning to a hub-and-spoke architectural model for a cleaner, more secure cloud network. 
  • Incorporating CI/CD standardization and container image scanning to ensure consistent and secure deployment practices. 
  • Revising the integration approach using the Directus configuration management system. 

Collaborating for success

Throughout the modernization and migration, SDG’s team collaborated closely with the Minnesota Star Tribune’s technology, product, business, and editorial staff, working together to align the platform with AWS Well-Architected best practices.  

By using a phased deployment strategy, including a controlled pilot and a limited MVP launch, the team could test new components in a live environment without disrupting existing services. Project and program leaders used weekly readiness sessions, risk mitigation strategies, and a carefully constructed launch plan to launch the initial release of the system on tight timelines with minimal disruption to workflows or user experience. The plan included extensive change management and training sessions to prepare both technical teams and business stakeholders for the new system. 

The modernization has ensured that the Star Tribune’s digital platform is ready to meet current demands and also scale into the future. The shift to containerized, cloud-native solutions has reduced both operational costs and technical debt, while the multi-account AWS environment offers a pathway to expanded cloud usage. Together, AWS, SDG, and the Minnesota Star Tribune have delivered a digital platform that is resilient, scalable, and ready to support an ambitious mission for years to come.

Outcomes

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Improved resilience
Replaced several VM-based solutions to self-healing, containerized solutions running in ECS.
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Improved content delivery and response times for readers
Deployed an upgraded CMS using NestJS and GraphQL running on AWS ECS and cloud-based MongoDB.
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Enhanced maintainability
Modernized legacy PHP applications to mainstream platforms such as React and NodeJS.
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Better observability and incident response capability
Utilized tools like AWS CloudWatch and Datadog.
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Faster response times
Implemented caching technologies such as AWS ElastiCache and CloudFront.
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Streamlined user experience
Launched a new front-end design based on user feedback.
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Contained costs
Purchased reserve instances for RDS databases.
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Reduced risk
Built on state-of-the-art AWS solutions rather than homegrown code.

A Cloud-Based Self-Service Platform (Company Confidential)

A Cloud-Based Self-Service Platform (Company Confidential)

Case Study

 

A Cloud-Based Self-Service Platform

Global telecommunications firm (company confidential)

A global telecom company envisioned a transformed customer experience. They collaborated with SDG to bring it to life.

Challenges

Legacy systems
Competitive market
Complex integrations
Multiple customer profiles

SDG Solutions

Business architecture
Technical architecture
System implementation
Agile project delivery

Disrupting an industry through transformed customer experience

The communications industry can be difficult for customers to navigate, and customer expectations for digital interactions are at an all-time high. One global telecommunications firm recognized the opportunity to transform the experience of their customers by bringing simplicity to complicated processes and interactions. To do this, they envisioned a world-class self-service digital experience platform for their commercial customers. The company’s leaders imagined a single commercial customer experience that still provided personalized interactions based on the unique mix of products and services each customer deployed.

In addition to an improved user experience, the company required highly performant integrations with a wide variety of legacy systems. While this was challenging enough, the company was also in the midst of a merger. The new solution needed to meet the business and technical needs of not one but two distinct enterprises with different offerings, architectures, processes, brands, and user experiences.

Collaborating to exceed expectations

Through close collaboration, the company and SDG created a self-service digital experience that exceeded both industry and customer expectations. SDG guided the project from planning through implementation.

The project kicked off with SDG and the company co-developing both the business architecture and the technical architecture. The team devised business cases, documented key capabilities, and identified constraints. Most importantly, SDG helped the company focus on the needs of its users.

This collaborative effort resulted in an achievable agile sprint plan with supporting stories, a combined staffing plan for implementation, a target architecture for system implementation, and budget guidance for the duration of the project.

With business and technical architectures in place, the team began implementation, focusing on identity management, provisioning and management processes, and account management tools. At the same tine, SDG consultants partnered with the company on user experience design, initial portal theme implementation, and content production. The team achieved its goal of releasing to pilot users within 6 months, and initial users were thrilled with the product and experience.

Goals for the solution

  • Enable commercial customers to access and manage their cloud environments.
  • Create visibility to real-time usage, performance, and availability monitoring.
  • Replace forms and emails with fully functional self-service online transactions to remain accessible 24×7, 365 days a year.
  • Connect user identities and credentials by integrating dozens of systems.
  • Allow users to fully interact with the system’s capabilities using the device of their choice.
  • Deliver an engaging online experience that customers are delighted to use while reducing the cost of customer care.
  • Provide real-time views of services and information concerning accounts.
  • Equip customers to pay bills, place orders, view order history, change features, and upgrade services quickly and easily.
  • Supply users with online training, user guides, and system documentation.
  • Increase revenue by creating customer visibility to intelligent upsell and cross-sell opportunities for companion products and services.
  • Improve processes and reduce time required for pricing, configuration, and provisioning.

SDG consultants played a variety of roles

 

  • Agile project delivery and management
  • Solution architecture and business analysis
  • Fully responsive user experience development
  • Identity management, authentication, and provisioning
  • System architecture and application development
  • Enterprise integration and data readiness
  • Quality assurance management and test execution
  • Consultation on long-term product management and operational strategies
  • Documentation and training

A note on confidential case studies

This customer preferred that we keep their identity confidential, so we haven’t named them in this case study. While we’re proud of our work on this project, SDG respects our customers’ wishes.

Image courtesy of Unsplash.

To read more success stories, visit the our work page.

Star Tribune: Agile Transformation for a Digital News Organization

Star Tribune: Agile Transformation for a Digital News Organization

Case Study

 

Agile Transformation for a Digital News Organization

Star Tribune

Minneapolis’s Star Tribune newspaper worked with SDG to implement agile practices and roles.

Challenges

Legacy brand
Struggling industry
Leadership alignment

SDG Solutions

Product strategy
Agile coaching
Product team organizational design

A major daily newspaper company transforms to tackle new challenges

The Minneapolis Tribune published its first newspaper on May 25, 1867, just a few months after Minneapolis received its city charter. For well over a century, the Tribune and its competitor and then sister paper, the Minneapolis Star, prospered. By the 1990s, the Minneapolis Star Tribune was one of the leading daily newspapers in the USA.

In the mid-1990’s Star Tribune transitioned into a modern-day, technology-driven media company. In 1996 the company launched an online edition, eventually adding a mobile site and smartphone apps. These digital properties enabled Star Tribune to build on its strengths of delivering the news when and how readers wanted. 

But in the 21st century, new challenges emerged. The news industry’s financial fortunes and subscriber base have steadily declined, and website audience traffic, after some years of growth, has leveled off.

Star Tribune’s leadership realized that to compete in this challenging industry, they needed to transform their technology and product processes to a more agile model. And in 2019, they engaged SDG to help.

Guiding an agile journey

SDG began by assessing how the Star Tribune digital organization planned and delivered software. The goal: to better understand their agile maturity and improve their product planning and delivery processes. Through close collaboration with Star Tribune’s leadership and operational staff, SDG identified opportunities to improve and partnered to implement agile process that aligned with Star Tribune’s organizational goals.

They implemented the Scrum framework, working with Star Tribune leadership on foundational tenets. As a part of this implementation, Star Tribune introduced roles of product owners and Scrum master and defined products and aligned them to the newly established roles and cross-functional teams.

SDG coached the employees of Star Tribune during this transformation. Workshops included an overview of agile, Scrum basics, agile estimation techniques, story creation, and story mapping. They paired this work on agile with the continual maturation of Star Tribune’s DevOps processes.

To ensure alignment and focus on technical excellence, SDG’s agile coach worked closely with the teams to establish agile ceremonies, including weekly planning sessions, two-week sprints, and reviews and retrospectives. The retrospectives proved especially valuable, serving as a forum for the team to share feedback and strenghten their working relationships — and ultimately the quality of their products. Many people in the organization had not worked together closely before, so this was a significant shift in how Star Tribune’s software was built.

After the initial project, SDG remained engaged with Star Tribune to support a successful transition and ensure they’re meeting their product goals and fulfilling their important mission. SDG continues to consult with Star Tribune leadership on their agile transformation, and the organization’s advertisers and audience are seeing the results.

Benefits of the transformation

  • Acceleration of software delivery
  • Greater adaptability to changing market priorities
  • Increased productivity 
  • Enhanced software quality
  • Improved team morale

    SDG roles

    • Process analysis and consulting
    • Product strategy
    • Agile coach
    • Scrum master
    • Documentation and training

        To read more success stories, visit the our work page.

        Header image courtesy of Unsplash

        New York University: Building the Global Campus

        New York University: Building the Global Campus

        Case Study

         

        Building the Global Campus

        New York University

        New York University (NYU) and SDG partnered to create an award-winning, online campus to support their students, staff and faculty.

        Challenges

        Students, faculty, staff
        International user base
        Legacy systems
        Academic scheduling

        SDG Solutions

        Product Strategy
        Enterprise Architecture
        User Experience
        Technology Delivery
        CMS implementation
        Machine Learning
        AWS Cloud Adoption

        Global Reach

        Entering a phase of growth beyond New York City to three primary campuses and dozens of satellite locations, NYU desired a digital portal focused on supporting students, faculty, and staff. This digital campus would integrate with services to intelligently present a custom-tailored experience to each user based on that user’s roles, needs, activity, location, and preferences.

        Additionally, NYU envisioned a system that would: 

        • Feature a modern, responsive design.
        • Integrate numerous student, staff, and faculty services.
        • Foster connections between people across the university.
        • Remain highly available and performant for a global audience.
        • Be flexible to maximize the speed-to-market for future development.

         

        It begins with planning

        Based on our extensive portal experience as well as our commitment to academia, NYU engaged SDG to refine and implement NYU’s vision. This included:

         

        • Providing guidance through planning phase.
        • Gathering requirements.
        • Partnering with NYU to refine the user experience vision.
        • Recommending technology and enterprise architecture.

        Guiding the process

        SDG developed a robust algorithm to determine the relative “hotness” of content and functionality for each user based upon that individual’s history of interactions. In addition, SDG: 

        • Oversaw system development and configuration.
        • Coordinated deployments.
        • Implemented mature product management and software development practices.

        SDG consultants played a variety of roles

         

        • Agile project delivery and management
        • Business analysis
        • Enterprise architecture and application development
        • Fully responsive user experience development
        • Consultation on long-term product management and operational strategies
        • Documentation and training

        Exceeding Expections

        The new NYU portal, branded Global Home, received a great reception at launch, exceeding expectations from the original vision.

        Going forward, NYU Global Home is positioned to support the current needs of the university, and allows the flexibility to create and differentiate experiences to meet the changing needs of faculty, staff and applicants, as well as individual schools and programs.

        To read more success stories, visit the our work page.

        Images courtesy of Unsplash and NYU.