Astun’s Managed Integration Service (MIS) is powered by GeoServer. GeoServer celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and this milestone was marked by the release of only its third major version: GeoServer 3.

All software requires constant maintenance and updates, and most uses components of other software packages. Such components become out-of-date, and GeoServer 2 had reached a critical point in this process.

The GeoServer project put out a call for funding, and many organisations worldwide contributed funds. OSGeo:UK, at the suggestion of Astun’s Tom Chadwin, made a contribution, and the target was met. GeoServer 3 was successfully released, the first major GeoServer release in nearly 17 years.

Astun had already put new processes in place to make GeoServer upgrades much quicker and easier, with significantly less interruption of service for end-users. Happily, the GeoServer developers took similar care to ease this major version upgrade.

We had already upgraded Java in preparation for this major change. An Apache Tomcat upgrade was now also required, so we installed it alongside the existing Tomcat version. After that, the process ran smoothly, and we were able to complete the process, end-to-end, in around 15 minutes per customer.

Astun’s MIS customers can now enjoy all the performance benefits GeoServer brings, and stay confident that they remain compliant, with a proven path ahead for future GeoServer upgrades.