Entur: Enabling joined-up data-driven services for Norway’s public transport network
About Entur
Entur operates the national registry for all public transport in Norway. It collects data from 60 public transportation operators on around 21,000 daily departures across 3,000 routes. It uses this to provide data-driven sales, tickets, and journey-planning services to transport operators and commuters alike.
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Contact usMoving from an on-premises to a cloud infrastructure powered by Google Cloud enables Entur to develop a national data platform for Norway’s public transport network.
Google Cloud results
- Cuts the cost of infrastructure maintenance
- Provides a flexible and open foundation on which to build services
- Scales up and down seamlessly to meet customer demand
- Enables Entur to unlock new insights through machine learning, allowing real-time data analysis on a petabyte scale
Connects all public transport information on one system
Public transport is a complex business in Norway. That’s particularly true in urban centers, such as Oslo, which has one of the most advanced transportation systems in Europe. The capital is a model for integration, with metro, bus, tram, and ferry networks functioning as a cohesive system. This approach has also been applied across Norway. And it saw passenger numbers soar in the country prior to COVID-19. Around 718 million passengers journeyed across Norway in 2019, a growth of nearly 40 million compared to the previous year. Both pre- and post-pandemic, there has been one particular challenge presented by Norway’s transport network: how to package these diverse services—including timetabling and ticket sales—to the public.
“We needed to move away from a monolithic, traditional style of development to a microservices-driven, agile way of working. Google Cloud was the obvious choice to achieve that. Microservices are facilitated by the Kubernetes technology that Google originally created. We wanted to use the most up-to-date version without the risk of vendor locking.”
—Tor Magnus Castberg, Team Lead, EnturEntur, a publicly owned company, was set up to simplify travel across this unified system. It connects directly to travelers through its own services, in addition to partnering with all of the public transport providers in the country to provide them with the same options. The infrastructure it inherited, however, made this approach complicated. Something had to change. Google Cloud was already being used to run certain parts of the company’s infrastructure. It seemed natural to use it to help modernize all of Entur’s remaining infrastructure, enabling it to provide data-driven services that meet the needs of today’s travelers.
“We needed to move away from a monolithic, traditional style of development to a microservices-driven, agile way of working,” says Tor Magnus Castberg, Team Lead at Entur. “Google Cloud was the obvious choice to achieve that. Microservices are facilitated by the Kubernetes technology that Google originally created. We wanted to use the most up-to-date version without the risk of vendor locking.”
“Containerization is a core component of everything we do, so it was essential we got it right. Google Kubernetes Engine stays true to open source principles, which was a big positive for us, and it’s proved invaluable.”
—Tor Magnus Castberg, Team Lead, EnturExploring the full benefits of cloud technology
The positive experiences of colleagues who had already used Google Cloud made the benefits of completely replacing remaining on-premises equipment clear. Given the complexities involved, Entur chose not to undertake a lift-and-shift migration, preferring to tailor the new infrastructure to match its needs and cut down on costs. The company believed that real modernization came through patience, flexibility, and freedom.
“To get the full benefits and ROI from a migration like this,” Castberg explains, “I believe the goal should always be to move fully to the cloud if possible. Even if that means adopting a hybrid approach in the interim. And we didn’t want to manage or maintain software that we hadn't built ourselves, because that's a burden that just grows over time. That meant we wanted to use as many microservices as possible.”
One of the key benefits of this approach has been to make infrastructure utilization more flexible, says Castberg. Entur uses a variety of open source technologies to power its services, which it’s found easy to integrate with the Google Cloud stack. Part of the appeal of choosing Google Cloud came down to this neutrality, what Castberg terms a “vanilla” approach.
“Other platforms train developers to think in a specific way that’s not easily transferable,” Castberg explains. “We wanted the flexibility to be able to use what we want on top of our cloud platform, and Google Cloud offered us that freedom.”
Modernizing infrastructure with Google Kubernetes Engine
Google Kubernetes Engine is a core component of the Entur infrastructure and, here too, Castberg says he values flexibility. “Containerization is a core component of everything we do, so it was essential we got it right. Google Kubernetes Engine stays true to open source principles, which was a big positive for us, and it’s proved invaluable. It means we can truly take advantage of the community that’s built up around it. One example of this is the implementation of our Terraform modules, which are so simple to use and manage.”
Processing data with Cloud Bigtable, Cloud SQL, and Dataflow
Data is another key component, and Cloud Bigtable, Cloud SQL, and Dataflow are the main Google Cloud products that Entur uses. Entur gathers and disseminates a huge amount of data, pulling in information from every transport provider, every route, every timetable, every bus stop, train station, metro terminal, and ferry port, across Norway. It also drills deep down into this data, to monitor details, such as train carriage capacity, seat availability for bookings, pricing options, and whether transport options are accessible for older passengers or those with a disability.
“We’re running more than 100 unique microservices, so we use a huge number of database instances,” Castberg explains. “We needed an architecture that was serverless, fast, and cost-effective for processing all of that data.
Building successful apps with Firebase
When it comes to turning all that data into useful information for travelers, Entur uses Firebase and its fully managed backend infrastructure. Firebase powers all of the Entur browser and app-based services, as well as ticket vending machines, conductor's handheld terminals, and other sales points at locations across Norway’s transportation network. Entur is also responsible for powering call centers where customers can find out travel information and buy tickets over the phone.
“In the beginning, we had just one team using Firebase, but it’s quickly grown,” Castberg adds. “Any team that has a front end has to have a back end to power it, and Firebase is the solution we chose to enable all those services.”
“There are restrictions in the public sector that lead to the assumption that cloud migration isn’t possible. We’ve shown that it is possible for public sector organizations to make the move. And, once you see the benefits, you won't want to do anything else.”
—Tor Magnus Castberg, Team Lead, EnturCreating a better transport network with Google Cloud
Entur has seen some big changes since its move to Google Cloud that have enabled it to rapidly expand the services it offers while streamlining the platform. Castberg has spent much of his career within the public sector, and it’s the willingness to try new approaches that attracted him to Entur. Reflecting on his time since he joined the company in 2017, Castberg believes Entur has carved a path that others could follow.
“My advice for anyone considering moving to Google Cloud is to start now,” he says, “it's easier than you think. There are restrictions in the public sector that lead to the assumption that cloud migration isn’t possible. We’ve shown that it is possible for public sector organizations to make the move. And, once you see the benefits, you won't want to do anything else.”
One of the potential challenges of this convenience is that it can be tempting to create new instances and try everything at once, Castberg adds, which could become expensive. But he found that Google Cloud also came equipped with the tools to keep this temptation under check.
Entur is a company that values a lot of autonomy and free innovations for the team,” he says. “But Google Cloud was very good at helping us to manage our costs. Because we have the tools, we can follow up with the teams and interrogate questions such as: ‘Why has your spending increased by 50% in the last six months?’ Often there will be a good reason for that, and we can find out why.”
Looking to the future
The Entur team has a number of big plans for the future, including completing its objective of 100% serverless infrastructure. One of the biggest growth areas for Entur, however, is doing more with all of the data it has available. It hopes to use insights gained from the data to provide better, more efficient services. Entur also hopes to cooperate with other organizations to obtain even more data; one example of this approach might be the analysis of road traffic information to compare it with public transportation. Predictive services that can deliver more effective up- and downscaling of services to meet customer demand is another.
“It’s something we’re looking at for the future,” Castberg says. “There's so much we could be doing with this data. The power of Google Cloud and AI when it comes to predictive analytics is definitely an area that we’re keen to explore further.”
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Entur
Entur operates the national registry for all public transport in Norway. It collects data from 60 public transportation operators on around 21,000 daily departures across 3,000 routes. It uses this to provide data-driven sales, tickets, and journey-planning services to transport operators and commuters alike.