The MIPS tool, responsible for managing the missions of staff across the Commission and EUIBAs, achieved a major milestone in December 2022. It was the pilot application for the new infrastructure of the Datacenter of the Commission and became the first application in the entire Commission IT landscape to be “cloud-ready”.

What does “cloud-ready” mean? 

MIPS is now hosted internally within the Commission’s on-premise ‘private’ cloud. You can rest assured that all manner of data protection is respected as the data managed by MIPS remains entirely in the Commission's Datacentre. 

The new Cloud Delivery Model (CDM) allows for a more streamlined way of managing the system by utilizing an infrastructure-as-code process during the build and deployment phase – in simple terms, this process allows for more automatic and efficient ways of making changes to the system during the development and maintenance phases.

What are the benefits? 

With this change, MIPS is now equipped with stronger security features and has increased flexibility in managing its infrastructure. The Cloud Delivery Model empowers the development team to respond to issues faster with full control over the different application environments. In addition, the groundwork that was laid down makes it simpler to move to other cloud services in the future. 

An update on MIPS+ 

In our previous edition, we highlighted the creation of MIPS+, a revamped version of MIPS with modern architecture and technology. Currently its ecosystem consists of different parts:  

• MIPS+ Backend – A set of services responsible for the business logic, connection with other systems and the processing and exchange of data with the main database
• MIPS+ Web Application – It utilises the backend services to allow the users to connect and perform Front Office (encode and manage missions) and Back Office (manage reimbursement requests, visa chains and budget allocation) tasks.
• PMO Mobile – PMO Mobile is a separate application but like MIPS+ Front Office it uses the MIPS+ Backend services to allow users to manage their missions from their phones.

The new MIPS+ architecture brings many advantages. Firstly, it has reusable components, allowing the reuse of services across the PMO portfolio and beyond. Secondly, this reusability ensures simplicity when adding new components to the infrastructure or in maintaining the existing ones. Finally, it offers a modern and user-friendly interface with consolidated workflows and functionality across less screens.

With regards the Cloud Delivery Model, MIPS+ was created to be cloud ready and will utilize the new on-premise cloud infrastructure in the near future. Discussions are ongoing between the DIGIT MIPS team and the Datacentre team to plan this.