Services on Animate GmbH

Web and CMS

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Content management that fits your organisation

We have worked with TYPO3 for more than twenty years, and we know the systems that grew up around it: WordPress, Contao, Joomla. The choice follows your editorial team, not our preference.

What we take on

Concept and build, including a bespoke site package
Back-end layouts that show editors only what they need
Extensions written with Extbase and Fluid, rather than bending stock plugins
Integration with LDAP or Active Directory, with ERP systems, with sensor data
Migration from legacy platforms, with redirects so nothing is lost

Operations included

A CMS is not a project that ends. Updates, security patches and monitoring continue after the site goes live.

Specialist applications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mapping procedures, not rebuilding forms

Administrative procedures have responsibilities, deadlines, returns and participants who decide in sequence. We map those processes rather than forcing them into an off-the-shelf product.

Examples from our work

Workflow for environmentally relevant approval procedures, with a GIS component
Drilling permits in the state of Hesse, with an Oracle back end
Consultation of public interest bodies, organised by team

Technology

Symfony as the foundation, because it is well maintained, has a large community and will still be maintainable in ten years. Data held in PostgreSQL, MySQL or Oracle as required.

Geoinformation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maps that say something

Spatial questions need more than a map with pins on it. We connect subject data to geometries and make the result usable in the browser — for case workers as much as for the public.

Typical work

Overlaying subject data with administrative boundaries and protected areas
Decentralised capture by several bodies, with approval steps
Integration of official services and open map sources
Map output that remains usable without a mouse

Environmental data

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

From the measuring station to publication

Monitoring networks deliver around the clock. The difficulty is not the chart; it is making sure the numbers are correct and arrive, even when a station fails or a line stalls.

What we build

Collection from heterogeneous sources, with buffering during outages
Validation and flagging of questionable readings
Publication as a portal, an interface or a warning message
Monitoring of the whole chain, so a failure is noticed before data is missing

Air, water, radioactivity, earthquakes, floods — we have pushed the subject boundaries a fair way in recent years.

Databases

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Data storage that holds up

An application is only as good as its data model. We design schemas that can be extended, and we clean up where structures that grew over years now slow things down.

Services

Modelling and normalisation, with later extensions in mind
Replication and load distribution for resilient applications
Migration between systems, with reconciliation rather than trust
Analysis of slow queries and targeted indexing
Backup and, which is often missing, tested restore

Hosting and email

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A small host, taking care

We are not a volume hosting provider and have no wish to become one. We run the systems we know — which is why, when something breaks, we know where to look.

Web

Servers in Germany, container operation with separate stacks per client, a web application firewall in front of every application, automated certificates.

Email

From a single mailbox to a resilient cluster with several thousand accounts. Redundant inbound servers, spam and virus filtering, DKIM and DMARC, webmail. We run this infrastructure nationwide for pro familia.

Systems operation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Operations, even when we didn’t build it

We administer Linux systems, set up monitoring with Icinga2 and look after load balancers and network equipment — in our data centre or on your premises.

Monitoring

Icinga2 in a cluster, with bespoke checks for the things stock plugins do not cover. Alerts by email or text message.

HP-UX

A footnote, but an honest one: we still have a colleague with long experience of HP-UX, from version 9 through 11.31. If you are one of the organisations still running these systems in production, get in touch. Not many people can help any more.