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A cloud server is emerging as a solution to prevent system failure inpublic services, such as reservation system for vaccinations. It is pointed out that the government needs forward-looking judgment and action necessary for a smooth use of the reservation system for people under 40, which will begin next month.
 
According to the industry on the 25th, the government and information technology (IT) system experts began to analyze the cause of system failure and prepare countermeasures in line with the scheduled vaccination for those under 40s (18-49 years old), which is expected to begin in the second week of next month.
 
Experts pointed out that main cause of the failure of the reservation systems for 50s was due to physical server expansion.
 
According to the Covid-19 vaccination response team (hereinafter referred to as the response team), the number of people who can access the reservation website is 300,000. On the 12th, the number of people accessed for the first day of reservations for aged 55-59 was 1 million to 1.2 million, which was more than triple the number of people who could respond. On the 14th, 3 to 3.2 million people accessed the website. On the 19th, when the 53-54 year old reservations started, there was about 6 million people on the website.
 
The response team urgently expanded the cloud server, but it was only a temporary solution.
 
An industry official said, "The expansion of the cloud server was only available for accessing the reservation system homepage. The cloud server was not applied to core web application server (WAS) and database (DB) system that help with actual reservation. The cloud was partially applied to an early portion. There was a difficulty in applying the cloud to the WAS and DB server, which are internal systems of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
 
The same official said, “The expansion of WAS and DB physical server also took place; however, this process takes at least half a day. Even with responding with follow-up visits, the server can experience system failures when unexpected situations such as 6 million people simultaneously accessing the website.”
 
Experts suggested that converting the system to the cloud can respond to an instant traffic flexibly by adding servers within tens of minutes.
 
Last year, the online learning platform 'e-Learning Center' experienced a similar situation. The system could accommodate only 40,000 people a head of the online school opening day. In cooperation with private cloud industries such as Naver Cloud and Tmax Soft, the government changed the system to the cloud that can accommodate up to 3.3 million people. Online classes would not have been possible if the government stuck to existing physical server system.
 
The government acknowledges the efficiency of the cloud, but is hesitant for ‘security’ reasons.
 
At a recent private meeting, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency was skeptical about moving sensitive data to private cloud servers.
 
An official who attended the meeting said, "Even though there are private cloud servers that received government security certification, the government is still reluctant to try the cloud servers because of security issues. There can be a solution if the government  talk with companies about minimizing security measures.”
 
The government is contemplating on △expanding the server to the current system and distributing the number of people accessing the website by age group, △transferring National Information Resources Service of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to a cloud system, and △transferring to private cloud servers.
 
A finalized plan is expected early this week as the government is conducting a system diagnosis with private experts to determine the exact cause of the system failure. A public-private collaboration is also expected as major domestic cloud companies have been deployed.

By Staff Reporter Jiseon Kim (river@etnews.com)