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In the fall of 2017, the Government of Quebec began searching for a supplier to create the AWS architecture for the TYPO3 content manager for the future Québec.ca site. This project aims to consolidate several hundred Quebec government websites and services, ensuring greater coherence in government communication.
Due to our expertise in AWS and TYPO3, Toumoro was selected as the supplier for this project.
Our task was to create the cloud architecture for the Québec.ca site using Amazon Web Services (AWS). This site was intended to become the primary reference for the population, requiring impeccable performance.
The architecture we implemented enabled the government to effectively use Québec.ca to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Our project was a success, with impressive statistics: 50 million page views in a few weeks, peaks of 53,000 simultaneous visits, and 11 million users.
Despite being heavily accessed by millions of Quebecers during the Prime Minister's daily press briefings, Québec.ca maintained flawless performance with zero downtime.
Québec.ca has become a digital benchmark and its reputation extends beyond the borders of Quebec.
This type of project presents its own set of challenges. The TYPO3 CMS was initially not suited for stateless use in Docker containers, which is essential for the horizontal scalability needed for this project. The Toumoro team developed the necessary tools to ensure all TYPO3 components could function properly despite this change in approach
Special attention was given to adapting the CMS cache tools to AWS services like CloudFront and ElastiCache to achieve the performance required for the project.
By working in an Agile manner directly with the Department's experts, we were able to quickly deploy a prototype infrastructure and determine its suitability for all stakeholders. This approach allowed us to promptly test improvements and prioritize feature requests.
Adapting several critical components of the TYPO3 core was necessary to meet the project's requirements. We designed, documented, and implemented a development environment and process compatible with the developed infrastructure to maintain the load capacity of the Québec.ca website.
Toumoro installed, validated with the ministry, documented, and implemented a 24-hour monitoring process for the availability of infrastructures and applications.
The key to stability for Québec.ca is its foundation on TYPO3, a well-established and robust content management system hosted in the cloud in Quebec. Our infrastructure is elastic, automatically adjusting to demand by adding or reducing capacity until it reaches an established minimum threshold.
Using stateless Docker containers, a load balancer, and a suite of AWS-managed services, we created a distributed backend system that enabled extremely rapid scaling.
This system was put to the test during Quebec Alert messages when a link to Québec.ca was sent to the cellphones of millions of Quebecers, who then simultaneously accessed the site.
The deployment system developed by Toumoro is based on Docker application containers. Using AWS tools, releases are fully automated to limit oversights and human errors.
This approach was critical during the pandemic, as several dozen editors and developers were able to deploy code and content at any time of the day, without any interruption to the site, at the pace dictated by the Government's communication needs.
Here are two articles from Québec.ca that present, among other topics, the results of our work:
Québec.ca, the Quebec government's digital flagship (in french)
While it is being stormed by millions of Quebecers during the Prime Minister's daily press briefings, Québec.ca consistently delivers flawless performance with zero downtime.
Behind the scenes at Québec.ca during the COVID-19 pandemic (in french)
The team behind Québec.ca answers 12 questions to explain how the government's digital response during the pandemic is structured.
